A Constellation of MicroSats to Search for NEOs

TL;DR

Deploying a constellation of MicroSats around the Sun could significantly accelerate the detection of potentially hazardous near-Earth objects, especially those with highly elliptical orbits that are hard to detect from Earth.

Contribution

Proposes a novel constellation of MicroSats in solar orbit to improve the detection speed of NEOs with diameters of 100-140 meters.

Findings

MicroSats can detect NEOs faster than Earth-based methods.

The approach reduces the time to find 90% of certain NEOs from decades to years.

Enhanced detection of highly elliptical orbit NEOs.

Abstract

Large or even medium sized asteroids impacting the Earth can cause damage on a global scale. Existing and planned concepts for finding near-Earth objects (NEOs) with diameter of 140 m or larger would take ~15-20 years of observation to find ~90% of them. This includes both ground and space based projects. For smaller NEOs (~50-70 m in diameter), the time scale is many decades. The reason it takes so long to detect these objects is because most of the NEOs have highly elliptical orbits that bring them into the inner solar system once per orbit. If these objects cross the Earth's orbit when the Earth is on the other side of the Sun, they will not be detected by facilities on or around the Earth. A constellation of MicroSats in orbit around the Sun can dramatically reduce the time needed to find 90% of NEOs ~100-140 m in diameter.