Paper 14145-59
Paper 14145-59
The Habitable Worlds Observatory technology development plan
8 July 2026 • 13:30 - 13:50 CEST | Room B4-M3
Abstract
The Habitable Worlds Observatory is NASA’s next large space telescope, selected by the 2020 Decadal Survey in Astronomy and Astrophysics to search for and characterize habitable exoplanets while enabling a broad range of transformative astrophysics. The HWO Technology Maturation Project Office (TMPO) is exploring the HWO science, technology, and mission architectures toward a Mission Concept Review (MCR) at the end of the decade. A primary deliverable of this effort is a technology development plan that identifies critical technologies that enable the mission, defines a process for assessing the readiness of those technologies, and outlines a strategy for developing those technologies to a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of 5 before the MCR. In this paper we summarize the HWO technology development plan which comprises three “tracks”: Coronagraph System technologies, Ultra-stable Telescope System technologies, and High-sensitivity Ultraviolet and Visible Instrumentation technologies.
Presenter
NASA Goddard Space Flight Ctr. (United States)
Dr. Bolcar is an optical systems engineer at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, where he is a member of the Wavefront Sensing and Control group in the Optics Branch. He currently serves as the optical systems lead for the Roman Space Telescope and the chief technologist for the Habitable Worlds Observatory Technology Maturation Project Office. Additional projects that he has worked on include the Large Ultraviolet/Optical/Infrared Surveyor (LUVOIR) concept study, the Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) instrument on board LandSat 8, the Advanced Topographical Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS) instrument to be flown on ICESat 2, the Visible Nulling Coronagraph, and the Wide-field Imaging Interferometer Testbed. Prior to coming to Goddard, Dr. Bolcar received a B.S. in Engineering Physics from Cornell University in 2002 and earned his Ph.D. under Prof. James R. Fienup at the University of Rochester in 2009.