The infrared space telescope that could save Earth
28.05.2020 21:49
Earth is under no known threat of being struck by an object like that which is thought to have wiped out the dinosaurs, but collision with an asteroid of smaller size could do unthinkable damage of its own.
While Nasa and other space agencies work to develop deflection methods for such an occurrence, millions of the smaller asteroids that pose this danger still remain undiscovered.
Now, a proposed infrared space telescope called NEOCam could help the space agencies locate these objects, but it can only become a reality with the proper funding.
The NEOCam is one of five proposals competing for funding in Nasa's Discovery program as a first step in choosing one or two missions for flight opportunities as early as 2020.
The submitted proposals would study Venus, near-Earth objects and a variety of asteroids.
Each investigation team will receive $3 million to conduct concept design studies and analyses.
After a detailed review and evaluation of the concept studies, NASA will make the final selections by September 2016 for continued development leading up to launch.
Any selected mission will cost approximately $500 million, not including launch vehicle funding or the cost of post-launch operations.
This device would be able to locate 10 times the number of total NEOs ever found, using infrared detectors.
But, a mission of this kind would cost roughly half a billion dollars.
Nasa's planetary science division has frequently been subject to federal budget cuts, and though Congress has upped funding to $40 million a year for the NEO search, the money needed for the project would likely have to come from within.
The NEOCam mission would have important findings even outside of the NEO search, Amy Mainzer, astronomer at the Nasa Jet Propulsion Laboratory and NEOCam's principal investigator, told Scientific American.
The space telescope could make key observations that would allow researchers to better understand the history of the solar system, and find new areas for future missions.
Still, the astronomer says NEOCam would be valuable even if its only function were for planetary defence, whether or not the risk is as high as some current challenges, like climate change.
In recent years, Congress has recognized the threat of smaller, 'midsized' NEOs, which they've categorized as being 140 meters or larger, according to Scientific American.
They've given Nasa until 2020 to take inventory of 90 percent of these NEOs, but Nasa says this deadline won't be met if things continue as they are.
'With the current capabilities we have, the deadline of 2020 is not achievable,' Lindley Johnson, program officer for Nasa's NEO survey told Scientific American.
'There are no penalties for missing the deadline, so long as there's nothing big out there that's going to hit us.'
An earlier congressional mandate required that Nasa log inventory of more than 90 percent of near-Earth objects with a diameter of one kilometre or greater in 2010, Scientific American writes.
Collision with an NEO of this size would be destructive on a global scale, but there are none currently known to be on track for a strike with Earth.
In 2013, a 'puny' 18-metre NEO exploded over a Russian city giving insight to what could happen if something larger were to make contact with Earth.
This small NEO injured more than 1,600 people and caused $30 million in damages.
With current technologies, mainly three ground-based optical telescopes and Nasa's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer spacecraft (WISE), capabilities are limited to small windows of time and light conditions.
While WISE can search for NEOs based on their thermal glow, it is set to cease operations around 2017.
(dailymail.co.uk)
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