The POET mission: a Canadian space telescope for exoplanet astrophysics

POET is a proposed Canadian Microsatellite mission designed to characterize and discover transiting exoplanets. A 20-cm all-reflective telescope will feed a trio of detectors to obtain simultaneous, high duty-cycle, photometry in the u (300-400 nm), Visible Near-Infrared (VNIR) (400-900 nm) and Short Wave Infrared (SWIR (900-1700 nm) bands to make precision measurements of exoplanet transits for atmospheric characterization and to detect transiting Earth-sized planets. POET was selected as a high priority for a Microsatellite mission by the Canadian community as part of the CASCA Long Range Plan 2020. Advancement of the payload concept and technology development for the optical telescope assembly (OTA) are currently being carried out through the Space Technology Development Program of the Canadian Space Agency. POET is a collaboration between Bishop's University, Western University, ABB and SFL-UTIAS.