on exoplanet detection. In a landmark paper, @2005ApJ...624.1010B then built on this concept to include photometric completeness in combination with exposure time estimation to prioritize a target list and estimate exoEarth candidate yield for a coronagraphic mission. Other studies have followed, with models varying in complexity and realism [e.g., @2010ApJ...715..122B; @2010PASP..122..401S; @2012PASP..124..418T]. Most of these models seek to maximize the chance of observing an exoEarth around a given target and prioritize the target list based upon a cost to benefit ratio, but few have sought to optimize observations to maximize overall mission yield [@2007SPIE.6693E..22H].

Here we introduce the Altruistic Yield Optimization (AYO) method for target prioritization and exposure time allotment that has the single goal of maximizing the total yield of exoEarth candidates. In Section \[caveats\] we discuss the major assumptions and limitations of this work, then provide a detailed look at the astrophysical assumptions in Section \[astrophysical\_assumptions\_section\]. Section \[exoEarth\_yield\_section\] presents a review of yield calculation methods as well as our AYO method. In Section \[results\_section\], we compare the yield using AYO to previous methods and use AYO to estimate the yield as a function of several mission parameters. We discuss and summarize our findings in Sections \[discussion\] and \[conclusions\].

