Request for Information - Canadian Contribution to the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) Space Astronomy Mission

Summary

The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) is requesting information and feedback from Stakeholders regarding possible Canadian contributions to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) space astronomy mission, the Habitable Worlds Observatory. Areas of potential interest can include, but are not limited to, instrumentation (flight hardware), ground segment, operations, data management, and/or scientific utilization. The CSA will use respondents’ submissions to gauge the range and level of HWO contributions which the Canadian space sector could deliver. These submissions, with descriptions of the level of interest, heritage, expertise, technological readiness, capabilities, and resources, will assist the CSA in expressing interest to NASA for a potential contribution and to formulate and focus a roadmap to achieve it. The CSA is looking for responses applying to one, all, or any combination of the following options: 1. Scientific capabilities useful for defining observatory or instrument requirements; 2. Technology elements relevant to the spacecraft, observatory, instruments, and/or ground segment in need of further maturation; 3. Potential Canadian instrument contributions, expressing the technical capabilities while including the scientific expertise to define their requirements; 4. Scientific expertise and infrastructure relevant to the reduction, processing, analysis, interpretation, and/or archiving of HWO data. Responses that do not fall into any of these categories are also welcome.