Document Type

Report

Journal/Book Title/Conference

9th IAA Planetary Defense Conference

Location

Cape Town, South Africa

Publication Date

5-2025

Journal Article Version

Version of Record

First Page

1

Last Page

14

Abstract

The Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor mission is a key element in our future planetary defense portfolio, which will survey our solar system in the infrared to discover and characterize asteroids and comets.

The mission is designed to detect, track, and characterize small bodies throughout our solar system. By United States Congress mandate, NASA must discover more than 90% of all asteroids and comets that are larger than 140 meters in diameter and could potentially impact Earth. NEO Surveyor will provide critical decision support for stakeholders who must assess the risks of NEO impacts to Earth and identify potential mitigation strategies.

By using two infrared imaging channels, NEO Surveyor will be able to detect NEOs that ground-based telescopes or space-based visible instrumentation are unable to detect due to the objects' darkness and the limitations of ground-based surveyal. These objects can "sneak through" our existing detection methods and are large enough to cause major regional damage if one were to impact Earth. NEO Surveyor is the first space-based observatory specifically designed for detecting NEOs. The Space Dynamics Laboratory (SDL), under the leadership of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and in partnership with other organizations, is playing a critical role in subsystem development, systems engineering, and observatory-level assembly, integration, and test. This presentation will review challenges, lessons learned, and critical accomplishments in the preparation for launch of NEO Surveyor.

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