NEO Surveyor's Telescope Optical Bench Under Construction at JPL

A technician operates articulating equipment to rotate the Near-Earth Object Surveyor (NEO Surveyor) mission's aluminum optical bench – part of the spacecraft's telescope – in a clean room at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California on July 17, 2024. NEO Surveyor's sole instrument is a "three-mirror anastigmat telescope," which will rely on a set of curved mirrors to focus light onto its infrared detectors in such a way that minimizes optical aberrations. When complete, the telescope will be housed inside an instrument enclosure – being built in a different JPL clean room – that is fabricated from dark composite material that allows heat to escape, helping to keep the telescope cool and prevent its own heat from obscuring observations.