[meteorite-list] Asteroid-Hunting Satellite A World First (NEOSSat)

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat, 5 Jul 2008 21:01:22 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <200807060401.VAA03745_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

Media Relations
University of Calgary
Calgary, Canada

Media contacts:

Grady Semmens
Senior Communications Manager - Research
University of Calgary
Phone: (403) 220-7722

Alex Myers
Media Relations
Canadian Space Agency
Phone: (450) 926-6651

Jean Beaudin
Communications and Information Mangement
Defence Research and Development Canada
Phone: (613) 991-4153

June 26, 2008

Asteroid-hunting satellite a world first

Canada's NEOSSat space telescope to discover near-Earth objects and track
high-altitude satellites

Canada is building the world's first space telescope designed to detect and
track asteroids as well as satellites. Called NEOSSat (Near Earth Object
Surveillance Satellite), this spacecraft will provide a significant
improvement in surveillance of asteroids that pose a collision hazard with
Earth and innovative technologies for tracking satellites in orbit high
above our planet.

Weighing in at a mere 65-kilograms, this dual-use $12-million mission builds
upon Canada's expertise in compact "microsatellite" design. NEOSSat will be
the size of a large suitcase, and is cost-effective because of its small
size and ability to "piggyback" on the launch of other spacecraft. The
mission is funded by Defence Research Development Canada (DRDC) and the
Canadian Space Agency (CSA). Together CSA and DRDC formed a Joint Project
Office to manage the NEOSSat design, construction and launch phases. NEOSSat
is expected to be launched into space in 2010. The two projects that will
use NEOSSat are HEOSS (High Earth Orbit Space Surveillance) and the NESS
(Near Earth Space Surveillance) asteroid search program.

"Canada continues to innovate and demonstrate its technological expertise by
developing small satellites that can peer into near and far space for
natural and man-made debris," said Guy Bujold, President, Canadian Space
Agency. "We are on the cutting edge, building the world's first space-based
telescope designed to search for near-Earth asteroids."
 
NEOSSat is the first follow up mission to the groundbreaking MOST
(Microvariability and Oscillation of STars) spacecraft, a 60-kilogram
satellite designed to measure the age of stars in our galaxy. NEOSSat also
marks the first project using Canada's Multi-Mission Microsatellite Bus.
CSA's Space Technology branch launched the Multi-Mission Bus project to
capitalize on technology developed for the MOST project by making it
adaptable to future satellite missions.

Captain Tony Morris of DRDC Ottawa, and Deputy Program Manager of the
NEOSSat Joint Project Office, says, "NEOSSat is a technological pathfinder
for us to demonstrate the potential of microsatellite technologies to
satisfy operational requirements of the Canadian Forces. NEOSSat will
demonstrate the ability of a microsatellite to enhance the CF's contribution
to the NORAD mission -- providing accurate knowledge of the traffic orbiting
our planet. This would contribute to the safety of critical Canadian
assets, military and civilian, in an increasingly congested space
environment."

Dr. Brad Wallace leads the science team at DRDC for HEOSS, which will use
NEOSSat for traffic control of Earth's high orbit satellites. Dr. Wallace
says, "We have already done satellite tracking tests using MOST, so we know
that a microsatellite can track satellites. The challenge now is to
demonstrate that it can be done efficiently, reliably, and to the standards
required to maximize the safety of the spacecraft that everyone uses daily,
like weather and communication satellites."

The HEOSS project will demonstrate how a microsatellite could contribute to
the Space Surveillance Network (SSN), a network of ground based telescopes
and radars located around the world. Until the 1980s, Canada contributed to
the SSN with two ground-based telescopes in eastern and western Canada. The
fact that HEOSS will be a space-based capability on a microsatellite
represents an exciting enhancement to the contribution and offers
significant advantages to the SSN. Ground-based sensors' tracking
opportunities are constrained by their geographic location and the day-night
cycle. In Sun-synchronous orbit around our planet, NEOSSat will offer
continuous tracking opportunities and the ability to track satellites in a
wide variety of orbit locations.
   
"NEOSSat requires remarkable agility and pointing stability that has never
before been achieved by a microsatellite," says David Cooper, General
Manager of Mississauga-based Dynacon Inc., the prime contractor for the
NEOSSat spacecraft and the manufacturer and operator of the MOST satellite.
"It must rapidly spin to point at new locations hundreds of times per day,
each time screeching to a halt to hold rock steady on a distant target, or
precisely track a satellite along its orbit, and image-on-the-run." Cooper
says. "Dynacon is the world leader in this microsatellite
attitude-control-system technology."

Dr. Alan Hildebrand, holder of a Canada Research Chair in Planetary Science
in the University of Calgary's Department of Geoscience, leads an
international science team for the NESS asteroid search project and is
excited by its prospects.

"NEOSSat being on-orbit will give us terrific skies for observing 24-hours a
day, guaranteed," Hildebrand says. "Keeping up with the amount of data
streaming back to us will be a challenge, but it will provide us with an
unprecedented view of space encompassing Earth's orbit."

Although NEOSSat's 15-centimetre telescope is smaller than most amateur
astronomers', its location approximately 700 kilometres above Earth's
atmosphere will give it a huge advantage in searching the blackness of space
for faint signs of moving asteroids. Twisting and turning hundreds of times
each day, orbiting from pole to pole every 50 minutes, and generating power
from the Sun, NEOSSat will send dozens of images to the ground each time it
passes over Canada. Due to the ultra-low sky background provided by the
vacuum of space, NEOSSat will be able to detect asteroids delivering as few
as 50 photons of light in a 100-second exposure.
 
Hildebrand, who oversees the U of C's ground-based asteroid observation
program using the Rothney Astrophysical Observatory's wide-field Baker Nunn
telescope, said NEOSSat will greatly enhance the study of asteroids and
comets as they approach Earth. "NEOSSat will discover many asteroids much
faster than can be done from the ground alone. Its most exciting result,
however, will probably be discovering new targets for exploration by both
manned and unmanned space missions," he observes. "By looking along Earth's
orbit, NEOSSat will find 'low and slow' asteroids before they pass by our
planet and sprint missions could be launched to explore them when they are
in the vicinity of the Earth."

The public can follow the NEOSSat mission and individuals can express
support and enthusiasm for asteroid-searching by having their name launched
into space aboard the spacecraft by visiting the mission's website
www.neossat.ca .

[NOTE: A Mission Backgrounder is available at
http://www.neossat.ca/neossat-mission-background.html ]
Received on Sun 06 Jul 2008 12:01:22 AM PDT