The LAPYUTA mission: Life-environmentology, Astronomy, and PlanetarY Ultraviolet Telescope Assembly

Abstract: Ultraviolet spectroscopy is one of the most powerful tools to cover a wide range of scientific fields, from planetary science to astronomy. We will introduce a future UV space telescope, LAPYUTA which is selected as a candidate for JAXA’s M-class mission.

LAPYUTA will accomplish the following four objectives, which are related to scientific goals: understanding the habitable environment and the origin of structure and matter in the universe. Objective 1 focuses on the subsurface ocean environments of Jupiter’s icy moons and the atmospheric evolution of the terrestrial planets. Objective 2 is to characterize the atmospheres of exoplanets around the habitable zone by detecting their exospheric atmospheres. Objective 3 will test whether the structures of present-day galaxies contain ubiquitous Lyα halos and reveal the physical origins of Lyα halos. Objective 4 elucidates the synthesis process of heavy elements from observations of ultraviolet radiation from hot gas immediately after neutron star mergers.

LAPYUTA will perform spectroscopic and imaging observations in the far ultraviolet spectral range (110-190 nm) with a large effective area (>300 cm^2) and a high spatial resolution (0.1 arcsec). LAPYUTA’s orbit is designed as an elliptical orbit with an apogee of about 2,000 km and a perigee of 1,000 km to avoid the influence of the geocorona when observing oxygen and hydrogen atoms and the Earth’s radiation belt. Launch is planned for the early 2030s.