NASA has chosen SpaceX to launch an advanced asteroid hunter telescope that will detect and observe asteroids and comets that could potentially pose an impact threat to Earth.
Under the Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor mission, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch from Florida around September 2027, carrying an almost 20-inch diameter telescope that will operate in two heat-sensing infrared wavelengths.
According to NASA, the single scientific instrument “will be capable of detecting both bright and dark asteroids, the latter being the most difficult type to find with existing assets”.
“The space telescope is designed to help advance NASA’s planetary defense efforts to discover and characterize most of the potentially hazardous asteroids and comets that come within 30 million miles of Earth’s orbit. These are collectively known as near-Earth objects, or NEOs,” NASA said.
By using two heat-sensitive infrared imaging channels, the telescope can also make more accurate measurements of the sizes of NEOs and gain information about their composition, shapes, rotational states, and orbits.
The contract with Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which includes the launch service and other mission related costs, is valued at approximately $100 million
The mission will carry out a five-year baseline survey to find at least two-thirds of the unknown NEOs larger than 140 meters (460 feet).
“These are the objects large enough to cause major regional damage in the event of an Earth impact,” NASA said.
The mission falls under NASA’s Planetary Science Division with oversight given to the Planetary Defense Coordination Office, which was established in 2016 to manage the agency’s ongoing efforts in planetary defense.
BAE Systems SMS (Space & Mission Systems), Space Dynamics Laboratory, and Teledyne have been contracted to build the spacecraft and its instrumentation for the mission.
Over the last few weeks an asteroid known as 2024 YR4 has caused some concern among the space community after estimates put the chance of the object hitting Earth at 3.1%.
However, in recent days the threat has subsided with the European Space Agency (ESA) saying it did not now expect “impact probability to rise back above 1 per cent for the close approach with Earth in 2032”.
