Standard exoplanet yield evaluation for the LUVOIR and HabEx concept studies

The HabEx and LUVOIR mission concepts aim to directly image and spectrally characterize potentially habitable exoplanets. We use EXOSIMS to simulate design reference missions with observation scheduling to determine yield of exoplanets detected, spectrally characterized, and orbits determined. EXOSIMS performs dynamically responsive scheduling with realistic mission observing constraints on Monte Carlo universes of synthetic planets around known nearby stars. We use identical astrophysical inputs and the individual observing scenarios of each concept to evaluate a common comparison of the detection and spectral characterization yields of HabEx and LUVOIR. HabEx is evaluated for the 4m hybrid starshade and coronagraph architecture, the 4m coronagraph only architecture, and the 3.2 m starshade only architecture. LUVOIR is evaluated for the 15 m architecture presented in their interim report and the 9 m architecture of their final report. Yield analysis shows that both concepts can directly image and spectrally characterize earth-like planets in the habitable zone and that each concept has complementary strengths.