Advancing the Concept Maturity Level of the Servicing Architecture for Habitable Worlds Observer

This paper advances the concept maturity level (CML) of the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) servicing architecture.

Since servicing has occurred on other missions, this paper argues that the current CML is 2. To advance to CML 3, option spaces must be established for trade studies. We introduce the three space ages and the argument that we are on the cusp of a new revolutionary era.

Servicing is only part of that coming change and the other elements of the future space age are introduced. The challenge of designing a flagship mission such as HWO is discussed.

The value proposition for the adoption of a new technology, such as servicing HWO, is established. In the latter portion of the paper it is shown that these elements have promise of being beneficial to HWO and should be included in any trade space.

Jonathan W. Arenberg

Comments: 7 pages
Subjects: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM)
Cite as: arXiv:2510.03214 [astro-ph.IM] (or arXiv:2510.03214v1 [astro-ph.IM] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2510.03214
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Submission history
From: Jonathan Arenberg
[v1] Fri, 3 Oct 2025 17:51:44 UTC (34 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.03214

Astrobiology, exoplanet, astronomy,