Design and Predicted Performance of 4-m Baseline Habitable-Zone Exoplanet Observatory Telescope
The Habitable Exoplanet Observatory Mission (HabEx) is one of four missions which NASA is studying. Its goal is to directly image and spectroscopically characterize planets in the habitable zone around nearby sun-like stars. Additionally, HabEx would perform a broad range of general astrophysics science enabled by 115 to 1700 nm spectral range and 3x3 arc-minute FOV instruments. Critical to achieving its science goals is a large, ultra-stable UV/Optical/Near-IR (UVOIR) telescope. The baseline HabEx telescope is a 4-meter off-axis unobscured three-mirror-anastigmatic, diffraction limited at 400 nm with wavefront stability on the order of a few 10s of picometers. This paper summarizes how science driven systems engineering (using science requirements to derive engineering specifications) resulting in the opto-mechanical design of the HabEx baseline optical telescope assembly. And, how Structural Thermal Optical Performance (STOP) modeling predicts tolerance compliance.