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The Next Generation of Exploration: The NEOCam Mission
Near-Earth Asteroids (NEO) of large size can potentially orbit close to Earth, making them Potentially Hazardous Objects (PHO). Credit: ESA
In February of 2014, NASA put out the call for submissions for the thirteenth mission of their Discovery Program. In keeping with the program’s goal of mounting low-cost, highly focused missions to explore the Solar System, the latest program is focused on missions that look beyond Mars to new research goals. On September 30th, 2015, five semifinalists were announced, which included proposals for sending probes back to Venus, to sending orbiters to study asteroids and Near-Earth Objects.
Among the proposed NEO missions is the Near Earth Object Camera, or NEOCam. Consisting of a space-based infrared telescope designed to survey the Solar System for potentially hazardous asteroids, the NEOCam would be responsible for discovering and characterizing ten times more near-Earth objects than all NEOs that have discovered to date.(…)
Read the rest of The Next Generation of Exploration: The NEOCam Mission (874 words)
© mwill for Universe Today, 2015. | Permalink | No comment |
Post tags: asteroid belt, Asteroids, Chelyabinsk meteorite, hazardous near-earth objects, NASA, near-earth object (NEO), NEOCam, NEOWISE, Potentially Hazardous Objects (PHO), Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE)
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Source: http://www.universetoday.com/122785/the-next-generation-of-exploration-the-neocam-mission/
