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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

NASA mission to track near Earth objects takes shape [spacenews.com]

A revamped NASA mission to search for near Earth objects from space has secured funding to start development as the agency works out details about how it will be managed.

The fiscal year 2020 "minibus" spending bill signed into law by President Trump Dec. 20 that provides $22.63 billion for NASA includes $35.6 million to start development of the Near Earth Object (NEO) Surveillance Mission. That mission would fly a small space telescope with an infrared camera to discover and track NEOs, helping identify any that pose an impact risk to the Earth.

[...] NEO Surveillance Mission is the successor to NEOCam, a similar mission concept that was one of the finalists in the most recent round of the Discovery program. While NASA did not select NEOCam in early 2017 for development, it did provide funding to allow work to continue on its infrared detectors.

Zurbuchen said at the meeting that the reason for going from NEOCam to NEO Surveillance Mission was because the goals of the mission were not strictly scientific. The mission is designed to meet a congressionally mandated goal to identify all NEOs at least 140 meters in diameter, which represent those large enough to do damage on a regional or global scale in the event of an impact.

"The only reason we want every 140-meter object is not because we need it to do all the science," he said. "It's because we want to understand whether one of them is on a collision course over time to Earth."

Previously: NASA's Asteroid-Finding NEOCam Cancelled [soylentnews.org]

Related: Americans Polled on Attitudes Toward the Space Program [soylentnews.org]

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