Tiny satellite will keep tabs on asteroids Canadian project would provide early-warning system for potentially deadly planetary bodies
June 27, 2008 Peter Calamai Toronto Star Science Reporter http://www.thestar.com/sciencetech/Science/article/450168 Canadian space know-how will soon be tracking hundreds of asteroids that regularly scoot across the Earth's orbital path as well as keeping tabs on wayward space debris. A collision with a large asteroid could threaten life on Earth and the space debris could knock out telecommunications and weather satellites. This unique dual surveillance will begin in 2010 and use a modest space telescope aboard a made-in-Canada microsatellite, no larger than a suitcase and costing a bargain-basement $10 million. The Near Earth Orbit Surveillance Satellite (NEOSSat) will be the only operational spacecraft in the world capable of doing either job, said the Canadian Space Agency and Defence Research and Development Canada in formally announcing the project in Calgary yesterday. A U.S. satellite, which had been tracking space debris and defunct spacecraft, was turned off at the beginning of June because of declining accuracy. The federal government had first publicly unveiled the pioneering mission at a UN space meeting in Vienna in February, but the spacecraft design recently passed a crucial milestone, prompting yesterday's news conference. The concept behind the asteroid-tracking half of the mission has been championed since 1999 by professor Alan Hildebrand who holds the Canada Research Chair in planetary science at the University of Calgary. "The most exciting thing is that this spacecraft will allow us to find the most potentially dangerous asteroids while they're still a long way from the Earth," Hildebrand said. These asteroids, a kilometre across and larger, are of greatest concern because their orbits take them across Earth's annual progress around the sun. While in the Earth's orbit they are almost impossible to detect using the extensive network of telescopes on the ground that search for asteroids. In addition to cataloguing the paths of these near-Earth asteroids for safety reasons, Hildebrand is thinking of using the detailed orbital information for possible unmanned missions landing on passing asteroids. "We've got hundreds of asteroids that are easier to reach than the lunar service in terms of the energy requirements. They're all 4 1/2 billion years old, they're where we need to go to learn about the history and origins of our solar system." The space agency hopes the 65-kilogram NEOSSat will be the first of a series of small, agile Canadian spacecraft to be put into orbit as often as every other year over the next decade. "Agile in terms of budget and in terms of time to build," says William Harvey, a senior project manager with the space agency. The new spacecraft builds on the success of Canada's first space telescope, called MOST, launched in 2003 with a planned life of two to three years. The telescope acts like a supersensitive light meter, recording minute fluctuations in the light output of distant stars as an indicator of their internal activity. The precision-pointing of the telescope that has made MOST a world-recognized scientific success has been further improved in the NEOSSat design, handled by prime contractor Dynacon Inc. of Mississauga, which also built MOST. In a first-time arrangement, the two federal agencies are splitting the mission costs, which include an additional $2 million for a ground station and data handling. Each agency gets equal use of the 15-centimetre telescope. ================================ George Antunes, Political Science Dept University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204 Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927 antunes at uh dot edu ******************************* * POST TO [EMAIL PROTECTED] * ******************************* Medianews mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.etskywarn.net/mailman/listinfo/medianews
