A design concept for the High Resolution Imager on the Habitable Worlds Observatory
Abstract
The Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) will be NASA's next flagship astrophysics mission, designed to search for signs of life on planets around nearby stars and conduct transformational science across astrophysics. Its High Resolution Imager (HRI) is not only the observatory's main imaging camera, but also provides grism spectroscopy and sub-microarcsecond astrometry, as well as the observatory's fine guidance, wavefront sensing and pupil imaging. We present a design concept for HRI, developed during concurrent design sessions by flowing down science requirements within the envelope of NASA's EAC-1 telescope architecture. Light from a 3'x2' field is collimated by two mirrors, then divided by a dichroic for simultaneous observations in an ultraviolet-to-visible arm covering 200-900 nm and a near-infrared arm covering 0.9-2.2 um. By minimising the number of reflective surfaces upstream of the dichroic, our optical design maximises throughput and stability, while reducing wavefront error. Readout modes can be chosen in orbit to image the entire field in exposures of at least 10 seconds, or in smaller windows for observations up to 1 kHz. Throughout, we emphasise the interplay between subsystems that couple design choices.
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BibTeX
@misc{eylen2026design,
title = {{A design concept for the High Resolution Imager on the Habitable Worlds Observatory}},
author = {Vincent Van Eylen and Richard Massey and Alan Smith and Jerome Amiaux and Florence Ardellier and Saeeda Awan and Patrick Curry and Daniel Dicken and Paul Eccleston and Tom Kennedy and David Linder and Chris Miller and Mat Page and Chris Pattison and Richard Robinson and Jurgen Schmoll and Dave Walton and Berend Winter},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.29957},
eprint = {2610.29957},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.29957},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - A design concept for the High Resolution Imager on the Habitable Worlds Observatory
AU - Vincent Van Eylen
AU - Richard Massey
AU - Alan Smith
AU - Jerome Amiaux
AU - Florence Ardellier
AU - Saeeda Awan
AU - Patrick Curry
AU - Daniel Dicken
AU - Paul Eccleston
AU - Tom Kennedy
AU - David Linder
AU - Chris Miller
AU - Mat Page
AU - Chris Pattison
AU - Richard Robinson
AU - Jurgen Schmoll
AU - Dave Walton
AU - Berend Winter
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/21
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.29957
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.29957
AB - The Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) will be NASA's next flagship astrophysics mission, designed to search for signs of life on planets around nearby stars and conduct transformational science across astrophysics. Its High Resolution Imager (HRI) is not only the observatory's main imaging camera, but also provides grism spectroscopy and sub-microarcsecond astrometry, as well as the observatory's fine guidance, wavefront sensing and pupil imaging. We present a design concept for HRI, developed during concurrent design sessions by flowing down science requirements within the envelope of NASA's EAC-1 telescope architecture. Light from a 3'x2' field is collimated by two mirrors, then divided by a dichroic for simultaneous observations in an ultraviolet-to-visible arm covering 200-900 nm and a near-infrared arm covering 0.9-2.2 um. By minimising the number of reflective surfaces upstream of the dichroic, our optical design maximises throughput and stability, while reducing wavefront error. Readout modes can be chosen in orbit to image the entire field in exposures of at least 10 seconds, or in smaller windows for observations up to 1 kHz. Throughout, we emphasise the interplay between subsystems that couple design choices.
ER -