Topic: Near Earth Asteroid finding satellite being designed

[Nemesis]

Link to full article

The $12-million Near Earth Object Surveillance Satellite, dubbed NEOSSat, is considered a world's first - designed specifically as an early warning system to pinpoint asteroids on a collision course with Earth. It will also detect space junk in the path of other orbiting satellites to prevent crashes that could shut down telecommunications - television, telephone, GPS and banking systems - around the globe.

Mississauga, Ont.-based Dynacon Inc., which has built another "microsatellite" now in orbit studying the structure of stars, is already working on the blueprints. When complete, NEOSSat will piggyback on a rocket to orbit about 600 to 800 kilometres above the Earth for at least five years running on less power than a 60-watt light bulb.

U.S. Congress has mandated NASA to find 90 per cent of them by 2020, and researchers said yesterday NEOSSat will be key in accomplishing that mission by spotting asteroids as far away as 150 million kilometres.

At the same time, Lauchie Scott, one of the researchers on the project with Defence Research and Development Canada, said about 12,000 pieces of space junk are circling the planet, but only 4 per cent of them are active satellites, and more and more objects are sent into space every year.

NEOSSat should be able to detect objects of space junk that are 15,000 to 50,000 kilometres away, predict collision paths and warn operators to move their satellites, or foresee if any will fall to Earth, he said.

NEOSSat

Telescope: Able to look for objects near the sun - a task virtually impossible to do from Earth.

Extends 30 centimetres.

Weight: 65 kilograms

Power: 45 watts with favourable orientation of solar panels

Propulsion: Solar-powered magnetic "fingers" push against the Earth's magnetic field. It will never run out of propellant.

Orbit: Sun synchronous, 800 km above the Earth, orbiting pole to pole

SOURCES: UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY; CANADIAN SPACE AGENCY, NASA, GOOGLE EARTH.

[Rod ONeal]

Hmmm? Now what can this really be? We already have plenty of people looking into space and plotting trajectories of anything and everything they find. I think it's some "black box" project that they don't want to tell the public, or possibly even congress, about. This is just a plausible story to get the funding, IMHO.

[Spartan-039]

I agree Rod, it's more than likely a project with a more sinister desgin than an early-warning system. Perhaps a nuclear missle silo.

[Nemesis]

I agree Rod, it's more than likely a project with a more sinister desgin than an early-warning system. Perhaps a nuclear missle silo.

The Canadian Space Agency is sooo into those.

[Spartan-039]

Next thing you know, Canandian nuclear missles are raining down from space.