NEOCam
File:NEOCam illustration.jpg
Websiteneocam.ipac.caltech.edu

NEOCam (the Near-Earth Object Camera) is a proposed space-based infrared telescope designed to survey the Solar system for potentially hazardous asteroids. [1] Proposals for NEOCam were submitted in 2006 and 2010 to the NASA Discovery Program. In 2010, NEOCam was selected to received technology development funding to design and test new detectors optimized for asteroid and comet detection and discovery.[2][3] NEOCam will survey from the Earth-Sun L1 Lagrange point, allowing it to look close to the sun and see objects inside Earth's orbit.[4]

The primary scientific goal of NEOCam is to discover and characterize over two-thirds of the potentially hazardous asteroids larger than 140 meters over the course of its 4-year mission. Secondary science goals include detection and characterization of approximately one million Main Belt asteroids and thousands of comets.[5] The principal investigator is Amy Mainzer of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)[6].


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Category:Space telescopes