Abstract

ARARA is a notional space telescope concept whose primary differentiator is onboard early-warning: the payload is paired with flight software that continuously monitors present-time relational stability in its photometric streams to anticipate imminent astrophysical transients (e.g., the earliest moments of a core-collapse supernova) and autonomously retask observations to capture the near-t0 onset with minimal latency. Unlike conventional astrophysical pipelines that are optimized for post-facto detection in downlinked data, ARARA emphasizes in-situ stability monitoring, cross-confirmation between telescopes/lines-of-sight, and closed-loop false-positive control under harsh instrument conditions (gaps, saturation, pointing jitter, and heavy-tailed spurious events). ARARA is explicitly designed to operate either as a single spacecraft (standalone/SOLO mode) or as a low-cost flock/constellation of identical units that exchange compact, audit-friendly event capsules and health beacons over intermittent crosslinks to enable multi-angle confirmation and coordinated follow-up while preserving full autonomy when isolated.