ESCAPE Mission Implementation Overview: Exploring the Stellar Drivers of Exoplanet Habitability

Extreme-ultraviolet Stellar Characterization for Atmospheric Physics and Evolution (ESCAPE) mission provides the first comprehensive study of the stellar EUV environments that control atmospheric mass-loss and determine the habitability of rocky exoplanets. ESCAPE is a NASA astrophysics Small Explorer mission that completed Phase A in 2021. This ESCAPE mission concept overview highlights designs and implementation plans optimized for an Explorer-class mission architected to launch in late-2025. ESCAPE employs extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) and far-ultraviolet (FUV) spectroscopy (80 – 1650 Angstroms) to characterize the high-energy radiation environment in the habitable zones around nearby stars. ESCAPE will survey over 200 stars, including known planet hosts, to measure EUV irradiance, EUV flare rates, and the properties of stellar coronal mass ejections (CMEs). ESCAPE mission uses a low-risk, high-heritage design to ensure science objectives and mission requirements are met with ample flight system margin. The ESCAPE observatory includes a single instrument with no active mechanisms during science observations which enables a flexible operational concept with a high degree of automation for both science observations and ground station passes. The ESCAPE instrument comprises a grazing incidence telescope feeding four diffraction gratings and photon-counting microchannel plate (MCP) detector. The science instrument will be assembled and tested in the space hardware facilities at the University of Colorado Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (CU-LASP), and employs the versatile and high-heritage Ball Aerospace BCP-Small spacecraft. Data archives will reside at the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST). CU-LASP is the mission prime and PI institution and supplies project system engineering to guide the mission design and development.