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Quoting https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/niac/2020_Phase_I_Phase_II/Direct_Multipixel_Imaging_and_Spectroscopy_of_an_Exoplanet/, the proposed Solar Gravitational Lens Mission would "directly image a habitable Earth-like exoplanet within our stellar neighborhood".

My question is... what exoplanet would it be imaging? wikipedia has a whole list of exoplanets that have been found:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_exoplanets

Is it in that list?

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    $\begingroup$ Note that NIAC studies are often for far-future possible technologies that are not ready to be developed into a mission and need a small amount of money to mature the concepts and advance the Technology Readiness Level so they might be used for missions in the future. The awards are for a much smaller amount of money and time than is needed for a full mission concept study and so this particular one, even as a Phase 3 proposal, could still be decades away (or never) from an actual mission $\endgroup$ Dec 7, 2022 at 16:57
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    $\begingroup$ Also semi-obligatory for any discussion of Technology Readiness Levels: TRLs with unicorns $\endgroup$ Dec 7, 2022 at 23:20
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    $\begingroup$ Should be noted than even if we have a mature technology for sending a spacecraft so far (hundreds of a.u.) - it still should win against concurring missions on "cost vs benefits" basis. Is it better to resolve details of a single planet by the gravitational lens, or to characterise hundreds and thousands of unresolved planets by a set of telescopes, for the same budget? $\endgroup$
    – Heopps
    Dec 8, 2022 at 13:34

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