New Delhi: The Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor mission is the first infrared space telescope designed and developed by NASA specifically to detect potentially
hazardous asteroids and comets in the vicinity of Earth. The spacecraft is undergoing ground testing and integration, with NASA planning to launch no sooner than September 2027. Teams across the United States are building the components of the spacecraft, planning its science operations, and developing the software to process the enormous quantity of data the mission is expected to generate. NASA was tasked with discovering Near Earth Objects by the US Congress in 2005, but it is challenging to do this with ground-based instruments.
This is because of the size, composition and position of the NEOs. Some are dark as charcoal, others are really small, and many of the NEOs discovered approach the Earth from the direction of the Sun. The glare of the Sunlight hides them from optical instruments. The NEO Surveyor mission is built to mitigate these problems, and will scan the solar system for objects that glow in infrared, as they are heated by the Sun, as opposed to the light in optical or visible wavelengths that they reflect. The latter is the approach used by ground-based observatories.
An early warning system
The ultimate goal of the NEO Surveyor mission is to act as an early warning system, that will track and identify potential impactors well before they strike the Earth. Humans can either evacuate the affected regions, or given enough lead time, attempt to deflect the asteroid with kinetic impactors. The NEO Surveyor mission will be deployed at the first Lagrange Point (L1) in the Sun-Earth system, where it can continuously monitor the skies without eclipses, for a planned mission duration of at least five years. This is a gravitationally stable region in space where a spacecraft can remain without expending much fuel.
