NEO Surveyor

A 50 cm telescope at Sun–Earth L1Lagrange pointA point where the gravity of two bodies and the orbital motion balance. Sun–Earth L2, 1.5 million km beyond Earth, keeps Sun, Earth and Moon on one side: a stable thermal environment for passive cooling and an unobstructed view of most of the sky. with two HgCdTeHgCdTe detectorMercury-cadmium-telluride infrared arrays (Teledyne H2RG and H4RG) used by JWST, Euclid and Roman. Each pixel is read non-destructively, so an exposure is sampled many times up the ramp. channels at 4–5.2 µm and 6–10 µm, where asteroids' thermal emission is bright whatever their albedo, so sizes follow directly. Its five-year baselinebaselineThe separation between two antennas of an interferometer, projected onto the plane perpendicular to the source. Long baselines give fine resolution; short ones recover extended emission. survey aims to find the majority of near-Earth objects larger than 140 m, toward the 90% goal set by the US Congress. NASA Planetary Defense.

Operator

NASA

Orbit

Sun–Earth L1

Aperture

50 cm

Range 1

4 µm – 5.2 µm

Range 2

6 µm – 10 µm

Launch

September 2027 (target)