A Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket has just been launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Center on Sriharikota island, India. The cargo includes a series of small satellites including some nanosatellites such as the Surrey Training, Research and Nanosatellite Demonstrator (STRaND-1), based on a Google Nexus 1 smartphone running Android. Among the “real” satellites there’s the NEOSSat (the Near-Earth Object Surveillance Satellite). A little more than 20 minutes after the launch, the satellites have been deployed into orbit successfully.
The NEOSSat satellite was funded by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and the Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC). It’s actually a microsatellite because its size is small, being about the size of a suitcase. It’s equipped with a telescope that is small, using only a 15 cm (5.9 inches) aperture, therefore it can’t find asteroids particularly dim but it can scan the sky in an efficient manner.
The ground-based telescopes can be used only during the night and of course many of them are already engaged in astronomical research of various kinds. The NEOSSat satellite doesn’t have those limitations and from an orbit about 800 kilometers (487 miles) high it will search for the asteroids of the NEO (Near-Earth Object) kind.
The NEOSSat satellite will be particularly effective in chasing Aten class asteroids, the ones with an orbit whose semimajor axis is less than the average distance of the Earth from the Sun. Among these, there are the Apohele asteroids, also called Atira, the ones that have an orbit withing the Earth’s.
Another mission of the NEOSSat satellite will be to monitor space junk. The presence now massive of debris has become a danger to the International Space Station, satellites and any spacecraft that fly into orbit. The DRDC will include NEOSSat in its High Earth Orbit Surveillance System (HEOSS) project.
Again, the satellite NEOSSat has the advantage of not being limited by a day-night cycle or by the weather. Consequently, it can find at any time space debris which can then be identified so as to reduce the risks of collision with other space vehicles.
The recent combination of an asteroid passing closer to Earth than several satellites and at the same time a meteorite that exploded in the sky, causing massive damage and many wounded in the Russian city of Chelyabinsk shows the importance of the NEOSSat mission. Actually, this satellite wasn’t designed to discover small asteroids when they arrived near Earth but it’s clear that tracking the course of the ones still far away can help.
Locating and tracking asteroids may be useful for future space missions that have the goal of reaching them or even to start mining operations on them. Let’s hope that the NEOSSat mission is a good starting point to reach a new level in the knowledge of the asteroids.
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