NASA has announced plans to develop and launch a new mission to identify large asteroids orbiting close to Earth and shore up our planetary defense efforts.
What is it? The Near-Earth Object Surveillance Mission, announced on Monday, would put a 50-centimeter telescope armed with an infrared camera into orbit. The entire spacecraft would probably weigh no more than 2.5 tons, allowing it to fly on midsize rockets like the SpaceX Falcon 9 or the Atlas V. The mission, the first to specifically look for near-Earth objects, is largely based on NEOCam, a proposed infrared space telescope that NASA debated for years but never approved.
Why do we need it? In 1998, Congress tasked NASA with finding at least 90% of all near-Earth asteroids larger than 469 feet in diameter, a size that could devastate towns and cities upon impact. That goal was supposed to be met in 2020, but most experts estimate we’ve only identified about 30% of the near-Earth asteroids from this population. Close shaves by some asteroids in recent years have highlighted our blind spots.
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