NASA will build a new space telescope for asteroid hunting

Jason Davis • September 24, 2019

NASA is stepping up its efforts to defend Earth against potentially dangerous asteroids. The agency announced on Monday its intention to build and launch an asteroid-hunting space telescope by 2024 as part of a new, multi-pronged approach to planetary defense. The telescope, which still has to bear its name, will use an infrared detector to capture the thermal signatures of small asteroids close to the Earth on the cold bottom of the space.

According to a NASA presentation, the telescope will detect 90% of asteroids wider than 140 meters likely to hit Earth in the next 10 years. This objective responds to a congressional directive established in 2005. At present, only one third of these asteroids are cataloged and none represents a threat to the Earth in the near future. However, an impact we have not yet seen could lead to nationwide destruction and more casualties than any other natural disaster ever recorded. Even an asteroid 50 meters wide could destroy a large metropolitan city in the unlikely event of a direct hit; According to NASA, the telescope will help calculate the odds that objects of this size will reach Earth in the next 100 years.

"This could be the most important investment ever made by NASA," said Bill Nye, CEO of The Planetary Society in a press release. "The early detection and deflection of an asteroid on a collision course for the Earth could save countless lives.A space-based asteroid-hunting telescope would help the world better prepare for any potential threat. "

Members of the press: Our official press release on this news is available here.

The telescope will cost up to $ 600 million, including its launcher. It joins NASA's DART mission under the agency's new global defense program, which has a separate budget from other global science activities. NASA plans to pursue more global defense missions in the future and fund NEO research and technology proposals to divert asteroids before reaching Earth.

"This represents a totally new way of thinking about planetary defense: not only as a ground-based telescope observation program, but also as a global development program aimed at actively seeking and preparing for NEOs potentially threatening, "said Casey Dreier, The. Global society. "For far too long, this effort has been limited with less funding than NASA's public relations office.After years of modest growth, NASA is engaged in a continuous investment in spacecraft and in research to ensure the long-term safety of the human race. "

Illustrations: Don Davis; Emily Lakdawalla and Loren A. Roberts for The Planetary Society

Danger in numbers

The proposed telescope for the study of asteroids in space will not be the first of NASA. NEOWISE, the space-based asteroid fighter, has made more than 800,000 infrared observations of about 34,000 different solar system objects. Originally designed for astrophysical research, it was launched in 2009 under the name WISE (Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer), whose purpose is to analyze the sky looking bright galaxies and cool stars nearby. After the frozen hydrogen supply from the telescope used to cool its two longest wavelength infrared detectors was exhausted in 2010, it was hibernated before being turned into an asteroid-hunting mission using only its two shorter wavelength detectors in 2013.

Now, NEOWISE's mission is almost over. By next summer, the orbit of the space shuttle around the Earth should drift to the point where it will no longer be able to chase asteroids without the sunlight or without reflecting the brilliance of the Earth penetrating into the telescope.

The new Asteroid Hunting Telescope is based on a NEOWISE successor called NEOCam, which had received initial funding from NASA for a study. The telescope would have an opening of 50 centimeters and would be placed at the point L1 of the Sun-Earth, a gravitationally stable point between the sun and the earth. From there, the telescope will look at the Sun and turn to Earth for asteroids in front of and behind the planet's orbit as it moves around the Sun. It is difficult to look in this region of space with telescopes on the ground because of the glare of the Sun.

NASA

NEOCam

NASA's new Asteroid Hunting Telescope is based on NEOCam, a future successor to NEOWISE.

"The first step to protecting humankind from impact is to find dangerous asteroids," said Bruce Betts, chief scientist of the Planetary Society. "To do this, the planetary defense community has long sought an infrared telescope dedicated to the study of space to search, characterize and track objects close to the Earth." It's great to see NASA's commitment to making this project a reality. "

Planetary defense is one of the top priorities of the Planetary Society's policy and projects. Since 1997, the Company's Shoemaker NEO Grants Program has spent nearly $ 400,000 helping amateur and professional astronomers observe objects close to the Earth to determine which ones are threatening our planet. The Company is also actively participating in the biennial Planetary Defense Conference and has already funded the development of an asteroid deflection technique called Laser Bees.

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