Construction begins on NASA’s new asteroid hunter

Dec. 23 () –

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 in transition to the final phase of design and manufacturing and establishing its technical, cost and calendar basis.

The mission supports the goals of NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO): discover and characterize at least 90% of near-Earth objects 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 NEOs,” he said. it’s a statement Lindley Johnson, NASA Planetary Defense Officer at PDCO. “Telescopes on the ground are still essential for us to continuously monitor the skies, but a space-based infrared observatory is the latest height that 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 years of 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 mostly blocked by Earth’s atmosphere, large ground-based observatories can miss near-Earth objects that this space telescope you will be able to detect thanks to its modest light-gathering opening of almost 50 centimeters.

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.

When released, NEO Surveyor will build on the successes of its predecessor, the Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE). Reused from the WISE space telescope after the end of its mission in 2011, NEOWISE proved highly effective in detecting and characterizing near-Earth objects, but NEO Surveyor is the first space mission built specifically to find large numbers of these dangerous asteroids and comets.

Once the mission passed this milestone on November 29, key instrument development got underway. For example, the large radiators that will allow the passive cooling of the system are being manufactured. To detect the faint infrared glow of asteroids and comets, the instrument’s infrared detectors must be much cooler than the spacecraft’s electronics. Radiators will perform that important task, eliminating the need for complex active cooling systems.

In addition, construction has begun on the composite struts that will separate the telescope instrumentation from the spacecraft. Designed to be poor conductors of heat, the struts will insulate the cold instrument from the hot spacecraft and from the sun visor, which will block sunlight that would otherwise could obscure the telescope’s view of near-Earth objects and heat up the instrument.

Progress has also been made in the development of the infrared detectors, beam splitters, filters, electronics, and instrument housing. Work has also begun on the space telescope mirror, which will be made from a solid block of aluminum and which will be shaped with a custom-built diamond turning machine.