NEO Surveyor
Near-Earth Object Surveyor Space Telescope
Overview
NASA’s Near-Earth Object Surveyor Mission, or NEO Surveyor, is a new infrared space telescope that will expand NASA's ability to find potentially hazardous asteroids and comets. It is being designed to discover 90% of asteroids 460 feet (140 meters) in size or larger within a decade of being launched.
NEO Surveyor will help improve NASA’s planetary defense efforts to discover most of the potentially hazardous asteroids and comets that come within 30 million miles (48 million kilometers) of Earth’s orbit. These objects are collectively known as near-Earth objects, or NEOs.
No known NEO poses a significant risk of impacting Earth in the next 100 years, but unknown NEOs – like the one in the 2013 Chelyabinsk event in Russia – could present a hazard.
Science
“NEO Surveyor would improve NASA’s ability to determine the size and other characteristics of newly discovered NEOs,” said Amy Mainzer, the principal investigator for NASA’s NEO Surveyor.
This information is vital to NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO). The planetary defense team needs to learn about potentially hazardous NEOs as early as possible to either prevent an impact with Earth, or to try to minimize the damage from an impact.
NASA successfuly tested one planetary defense deflection technology with its Double Asteroid Redirection Test, (DART) mission on Sept. 26, 2022.
“NEO Surveyor will have the capability to rapidly accelerate the rate at which NASA is able to discover asteroids and comets that could pose a hazard to the Earth, and it is being designed to discover 90% of asteroids 140 meters in size or larger within a decade of being launched,” said Mike Kelley, NEO Surveyor program scientist at NASA Headquarters.
After launch, NEO Surveyor will conduct a five-year baseline survey to find at least two-thirds of the potentially hazardous near-Earth asteroids larger than 460 feet (140 meters). These are the objects large enough to cause major regional damage if they impacted Earth.
Spacecraft
Nation | United States of America (USA) |
Objective | Search for Near-Earth Asteroids (NEOs) |
Spacecraft | Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor |
Type | Space Telescope |
Spacecraft Mass | TBD |
Mission Design & Management | NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO)/ NASA Planetary Science Division/NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center/University of Arizona/JPL/Caltech/IPAC |
Launch Vehicle | TBD |
Launch Date | June 2028 (Proposed) |
Launch Site | Kennedy Space Center, Florida |
Scientific Instrument | Nearly 20-inch (50-centimeter) diameter telescope that operates in two heat-sensing infrared wavelengths |
NEO Surveyor consists of a single scientific instrument: a nearly 20-inch (50-centimeter) diameter telescope that operates in two heat-sensing infrared wavelengths. It will be capable of detecting both bright and dark asteroids, which are the most difficult type to find.
By using sensors that operate in the infrared, NEO Surveyor will be able to make accurate measurements of NEO sizes and will gain valuable information about their composition, shapes, rotational states, and orbits. The telescope also will help planetary scientists discover NEOs more quickly.
“By searching for NEOs closer to the direction of the Sun, NEO Surveyor will help astronomers discover impact hazards that could approach Earth from the daytime sky,” Mainzer said.
The Team
Principal Investigator (PI): Dr. Amy Mainzer
The NEO Surveyor mission is led by the University of Arizona.
The spacecraft is being developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
It is managed by NASA’s Planetary Missions Program Office at Marshall Space Flight Center, with program oversight by the Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO).
