NASA ‘s NEO Surveyor spacecraft will survey the universe from the L1 Lagrange point, allowing it to look close to the Sun and see objects within Earth’s orbit.
NASA ‘s Near-Earth Object Surveyor ( NEO Surveyor ) , a space telescope designed to search for the most elusive asteroids and comets, has passed a rigorous technical and programmatic review.
Now the mission is transitioning into the final phase of design and manufacturing and establishing its technical, cost and schedule base.
A clear mission: map nearby asteroids
The mission supports the goals of NASA ‘s Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO): discover and characterize at least 90% of NEOs larger than 140 meters in diameter that are approaching fewer than 48 million kilometers from the orbit of our planet. Objects of this size are capable of causing significant regional damage, or worse, if they hit Earth.
” NEO Surveyor represents the next generation for NASA ‘s ability to rapidly detect, track, and characterize potentially hazardous near-Earth objects,” Lindley Johnson, NASA Planetary Defense Officer at PDCO, said in a statement. “Ground-based telescopes remain essential for us to continuously monitor the skies, but a space-based infrared observatory is the latest height NASA ‘s planetary defense strategy will enable .”
Managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NEO Surveyor will travel 1.5 million kilometers to a region of gravitational stability – called the L1 Lagrange point – between Earth and the Sun, where the spacecraft will orbit during its five-year primary mission.
From this location, the NEO Surveyor will observe the solar system in infrared wavelengths, that is, light invisible to the human eye. Because these wavelengths are largely blocked by Earth’s atmosphere, large ground-based observatories can miss near-Earth objects that this space telescope will be able to detect thanks to its modest light-gathering aperture of nearly 20 inches.
NEO Surveyor ‘s detectors are designed to observe two heat-sensitive infrared bands, chosen specifically so the spacecraft can track the hardest-to-find near-Earth objects, such as dark asteroids and comets that don’t reflect much visible light. At the infrared wavelengths to which NEO Surveyor is sensitive, these objects glow because they are heated by sunlight.
In addition, NEO Surveyor will be able to find asteroids approaching Earth from the direction of the Sun, as well as those leading and following our planet’s orbit, where they are often obscured by glare from sunlight: objects known as Trojans. terrestrial.
“For the first time in the history of our planet, Earth’s inhabitants are developing methods to protect Earth by deflecting dangerous asteroids,” said Amy Mainzer, director of the study mission at the University of Arizona in Tucson. “But before we divert them, we have to find them. NEO Surveyor will be a game changer.”
The mission will also help characterize the composition, shape, rotation, and orbit of near-Earth objects. Although the primary objective of the mission is planetary defense, this information can be used to better understand the origins and evolution of asteroids and comets, which formed the ancient building blocks of our solar system.
A clear mission: map nearby asteroids
The mission supports the goals of NASA ‘s Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO): discover and characterize at least 90% of NEOs larger than 140 meters in diameter that are approaching fewer than 48 million kilometers from the orbit of our planet. Objects of this size are capable of causing significant regional damage, or worse, if they hit Earth.
” NEO Surveyor represents the next generation for NASA ‘s ability to rapidly detect, track, and characterize potentially hazardous near-Earth objects,” Lindley Johnson, NASA Planetary Defense Officer at PDCO, said in a statement. “Ground-based telescopes remain essential for us to continuously monitor the skies, but a space-based infrared observatory is the latest height NASA ‘s planetary defense strategy will enable .”
Managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NEO Surveyor will travel 1.5 million kilometers to a region of gravitational stability – called the L1 Lagrange point – between Earth and the Sun, where the spacecraft will orbit during its five-year primary mission.
From this location, the NEO Surveyor will observe the solar system in infrared wavelengths, that is, light invisible to the human eye. Because these wavelengths are largely blocked by Earth’s atmosphere, large ground-based observatories can miss near-Earth objects that this space telescope will be able to detect thanks to its modest light-gathering aperture of nearly 20 inches.
NEO Surveyor ‘s detectors are designed to observe two heat-sensitive infrared bands, chosen specifically so the spacecraft can track the hardest-to-find near-Earth objects, such as dark asteroids and comets that don’t reflect much visible light. At the infrared wavelengths to which NEO Surveyor is sensitive, these objects glow because they are heated by sunlight.
In addition, NEO Surveyor will be able to find asteroids approaching Earth from the direction of the Sun, as well as those leading and following our planet’s orbit, where they are often obscured by glare from sunlight: objects known as Trojans. terrestrial.
“For the first time in the history of our planet, Earth’s inhabitants are developing methods to protect Earth by deflecting dangerous asteroids,” said Amy Mainzer, director of the study mission at the University of Arizona in Tucson. “But before we divert them, we have to find them. NEO Surveyor will be a game changer.”
The mission will also help characterize the composition, shape, rotation, and orbit of near-Earth objects. Although the primary objective of the mission is planetary defense, this information can be used to better understand the origins and evolution of asteroids and comets, which formed the ancient building blocks of our solar system.
(With information from Europa Press)