Architecting Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) to be resilient to uncertainties

Decisions made early in a mission design, when information is sparse, define most of the downstream development cost. This becomes particularly problematic when uncertainties will not be revealed until later in the design life cycle. A resilient architecture is one that is adaptable to uncertainty, permitting cost-effective architectural changes as uncertainties reveal themselves. A framework is proposed for designing a resilient architecture for NASA’s Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO). Uncertainties include knowledge of exo-Earth targets prior to launch, needed spectral bands to mitigate ambiguity in habitability, and performance limits of starlight suppression technologies. Precursor science and technology advancements drive architecture definition more than the converse. In essence, it is better to plan for, then react to, uncertainty.