Illustration of NEO Surveyor, which is a mission created to discover and identify most of the possibly hazardous asteroids that are near the Earth. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA officials have validated NASAs Near-Earth Object Surveyor space telescope (NEO Surveyor)– the next flight objective out of the agencys Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO)– after completing a rigorous technical and programmatic evaluation, called Key Decision Point C (KDP-C). This develops NASAs commitment to the missions technical, expense, and schedule standard.
As an outcome of this choice, NASA is devoted to an advancement cost baseline of $1.2 billion and to be all set for a launch no later than June 2028. The cost and schedule dedications laid out at KDP-C align the NEO Surveyor mission with program management best practices that account for potential technical risks and monetary unpredictability beyond the advancement projects control.
NEO Surveyor is an infrared space telescope developed to assist advance NASAs planetary defense efforts. It does this by expediting the agencys capability to find and characterize a minimum of 90% of the potentially dangerous asteroids and comets that come within 30 million miles of Earths orbit. These are collectively referred to as near-earth objects, or NEOs. NEO Surveyors effective completion of this review advances NASAs dedication to planetary defense and the search for NEOs that might one day posture an impact hazard to Earth.
By NASA
December 13, 2022
NEO Surveyor will consist of a single scientific instrument: a 50-centimeter (nearly 20-inch) diameter telescope that runs in two heat-sensing infrared wavelengths. It will be capable of identifying both dark and intense asteroids, which are the most tough type to find.
The flight objective, which falls under the agencys Planetary Science Division within the Science Mission directorate, is being established by NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California, and the survey examination is led by the University of Arizona. NASAs Planetary Missions Program Office at Marshall Space Flight Center provides NEO Surveyor program management, and program oversight is supplied by the PDCO, which was developed in 2016 to manage the companys continuous efforts in Planetary Defense.
NEO Surveyor is an infrared space telescope designed to assist advance NASAs planetary defense efforts. These are collectively known as near-earth objects, or NEOs. NEO Surveyors effective completion of this review enhances NASAs commitment to planetary defense and the search for NEOs that could one day posture an impact risk to Earth.