 Artist's concept of the NEO Surveyor spacecraft | |
| Names | Near-Earth Object Surveillance Mission Near-Earth Object Camera NEOCam |
|---|---|
| Mission type | Asteroid impact avoidance,astronomy |
| Operator | NASA / JPL |
| Website | https://neos.epss.ucla.edu/ |
| Mission duration | 12 years (planned)[1] |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Manufacturer | Jet Propulsion Laboratory[1] |
| Launch mass | 1,300 kg (2,900 lb)[1] |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | September 2027 (planned)[2] |
| Rocket | Falcon 9 Block 5 |
| Launch site | Kennedy,LC‑39A orCape Canaveral,SLC‑40 |
| Contractor | SpaceX |
| Orbital parameters | |
| Reference system | Heliocentric orbit |
| Regime | Sun–EarthL1 |
| Main telescope | |
| Diameter | 50 cm (20 in) |
| Wavelengths | Infrared (4–5.2 and 6–10μm) |
NEO Surveyor, formerly calledNear-Earth Object Camera (NEOCam), thenNEO Surveillance Mission, is a planned space-basedinfrared telescope designed tosurvey theSolar System forpotentially hazardous asteroids.[3]
TheNEO Surveyor spacecraft will survey from theSun–Earth L1 (inner) Lagrange point, allowing it to see objects inside Earth's orbit, and its mid-infrared detectors sensitive to thermal emission will detect asteroids independently of their reflected sunlight.[4][5][6] TheNEO Surveyor mission will be a successor to theNEOWISE mission, and the two missions have the sameprincipal investigator,Amy Mainzer at theUniversity of Arizona.[7][8]
Since first proposed in 2006, the concept repeatedly competed unsuccessfully for NASA funding against science missions unrelated toplanetary defense, despite an unfunded 2005 US Congressional directive to NASA.[1][7] In 2019, thePlanetary Defense Coordination Office decided to fund this mission outside NASA's science budget due to its national security implications.[9][10] On 11 June 2021, NASA authorized the NEO Surveyor mission to proceed to thepreliminary design phase.[11] TheJet Propulsion Laboratory will lead development of the mission.[1]
As of December 2022, NEO Surveyor is expected to be launched no later than June 2028.[12] As of February 2025, it will be launched on aSpaceXFalcon 9 from Florida in September 2027.[13]
In 2005, theU.S. Congress mandated NASA to achieve by the year 2020 specific levels of search completeness for discovering, cataloging, and characterizing dangerous asteroids larger than 140 m (460 ft) (Act of 2005, H.R. 1022; 109th),[14][3] but it neverappropriated specific funds for this effort.[15] NASA did not prioritize thisunfunded mandate, and directed the NEOCam project to compete against science missions for general funds not earmarked forplanetary defense anddisaster mitigation planning.[16][17]
Proposals for NEOCam were submitted to NASA'sDiscovery Program in 2006, 2010, 2015, 2016 and 2017, but each time were not selected for launch.[17][18] The mission concept nonetheless received technology development funding in 2010 to design and test newinfrared detectors optimized for asteroid and comet detection and sizing.[19][20] The project received additional funding for further technological development in September 2015 (US$3 million),[21][22][23] and in January 2017.[24]
Following calls to fully fund the mission outside NASA'sPlanetary Science Division or directly from Congress itself,[25][26] NASA's associate administrator for science announced on 23 September 2019 that instead of competing for funding, NEOCam will be implemented under the name NEO Surveillance Mission with budget from NASA'sPlanetary Defense Coordination Office, within thePlanetary Science Division.[1] The near-miss of asteroid2019 OK, which slipped past extant detection methods in July 2019, has been suggested to have helped prompt this decision.[18][7][27]
For funding and management purposes, the NEO Surveillance Mission is officially a new project, but it is the same space telescope, the same team, and the mission's goals remain unchanged.[1][28]
On February 11, 2025 the mission passed its critical design review, moving the project towards construction and testing.[29]
The main objective of the mission is to discover most of thepotentially hazardous asteroids larger than 140 m (460 ft) over the course of its mission and characterize their orbits.[1][28] Its field of view and its sensitivity will be wide and deep enough to allow the mission to discover about 200,000 to 300,000 newNEOs with sizes as small as 10 m (33 ft) in diameter.[2][31] Secondary science goals include detection and characterization of approximately one million asteroids in theasteroid belt and thousands ofcomets, as well as identification of potential NEO targets for human and robotic exploration.[32][33]
TheJet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) leads the development of the mission. The total cost of the mission is estimated to be between US$500 million and US$600 million.[1][28] The mission has a development cost baseline of $1.2 billion.[34]
On the NEO Surveyor website the following mission requirements are stated:[35]
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The NEO Surveyor spacecraft will have a total mass of no more than 1,300 kg (2,900 lb), allowing it to launch on a vehicle like aFalcon 9 Block 5 to the Sun–EarthL1 Lagrange point. The mission should reach the 90% congressional goal within 10 years, with an anticipated mission lifetime of 12 years.[36]
Asteroids are dark, withalbedos of at most 30% and as low as 5%. Anoptical telescope looks for the light they reflect and can therefore only see them when looking away from the Sun at the sunlit side of the asteroids, and not when looking towards the Sun at the unlit backside of the object. In addition,opposition surge makes asteroids even brighter when the Earth is close to the axis of sunlight, and the sky on Earth is much brighter in daytime. The combined effect is equivalent to the comparison of aFull moon at night to aNew Moon in daytime, and the light of the Sun-lit asteroids has been called "full asteroid" similar to a "full moon". A telescope operating atthermal infrared wavelengths instead detects their surfaces that have been warmed by the Sun and is almost equally sensitive to their lit and unlit sides, but needs to operate in space to achieve good sensitivity over a wide field of view.[37]
The NEO Surveillance Mission will employ a 50 cm (20 in)infrared telescope operating wide-field cameras at two thermal infrared wavelength channels for a total wavelength range between 4 μm and 10 μm.[3] The camera will have two channels: NC1 has a wavelength range of 4–5.2 μm and NC2 spans 6–10 μm. NC1 is intended to detect backgroundstars forastrometric registration and calibration, as well as the measurement ofeffective temperatures. NC2 is optimized to maximize sensitivity to typical NEOthermal emission at 200-300K.[2] Itsfield of view is 11.56square degrees.[38] It will use a version of the Astronomical Wide Area Infrared Imager (HAWAII)mercury–cadmium–telluride detector modified byTeledyne Imaging Sensors for optimal sensitivity in the NC1 and NC2 bands.[39] The mission prototype detector was successfully tested in April 2013.[40][41] The detector array is 2,048 × 2,048 pixels and will produce 82 gigabits of data per day.[38] For good infrared performance without the use of cryogenic fluid refrigeration,[39] the detector will bepassively cooled to 30 K (−243.2 °C; −405.7 °F) using techniques proven by theSpitzer Space Telescope.[38] Unlike its predecessorNEOWISE, it will therefore not suffer from a performance degradation due to running out of coolant (its mission duration will however still be limited, as theorbital station keeping needed to maintain its position atSun–Earth L1 uses propellant; also, cosmic radiation will slowly degrade the detectors over time).
The NEO Surveyor spacecraft will operate in ahalo orbit around the Sun–Earth L1, and employ asunshade.[38] This orbit will allow fast datadownlink speeds to Earth, allowing full-frame images to be downloaded from the telescope.[42]
One advantage over NEOWISE is the widefield of regard. NEO Surveyor will be able to point anywhere from 45-120° inlongitudinal distance from the sun and stopping at ±40°ecliptic latitude. The survey will be optimized to detect potentially hazardous objects and be performed continuously during the baseline mission (5 years). The survey will be halted each day for 2.25 hours to downlink the data. It will also be halted forcalibration, station-keeping and momentum management maneuvers. NEO Surveyor will also be able to conduct targeted follow-up (TFO) to obtain more information for an object of special interest.[2]
It is planned that moving object tracklets are delivered to theMinor Planet Center 2 to 3 times a day, on average 72 hours after their discovery. Additionally deep co-added images are published every 12 months.[2] These deep co-added images most likely will like those of WISE be used by astronomers to study stars,brown dwarfs, and distant galaxies. It was also proposed that NEO Surveyor will include atransient alerting infrastructure,[43] but none had been planned as of October 2023[update].[2]
In the first 30 days after the launch the in-orbit checkouts will be performed. After arriving at L1 NEO Surveyor team will conduct a 6-month survey verification. In the nominal survey the telescope is expected to detect two-thirds of asteroids with a diameter larger than 140 meters in the first 5 years. The nominal mission will last for at least 12 years. After the survey end, the telescope will be decommissioned and put into aheliocentric orbit.[44]
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