You want to detect smaller NEOs and more NEOs, you need aperture. In space. Nothing else really works.
Quote from: Blackstar on 03/01/2016 02:53 amYou want to detect smaller NEOs and more NEOs, you need aperture. In space. Nothing else really works.It's way more complicated than that... It turns out to be a serious data processing/storage problem. You'd have serious trouble getting the images down (the data rate is quite high), and you can't afford the power to process the images on orbit. Lots of things are much easier down here, and much cheaper. Don't let your love of space blind you to economics and technology.I recommend you dig deeper into the ATLAS project if you are interested.http://fallingstar.com/
...either that or build better solar systems...
The plan by the B612 Foundation to send a telescope out towards Venus & then look back towards the Earth still sounds a good one for NEO spotting. Though they don't seem to be progressing much at the moment themselves with it.
Quote from: Star One on 03/01/2016 06:27 amThe plan by the B612 Foundation to send a telescope out towards Venus & then look back towards the Earth still sounds a good one for NEO spotting. Though they don't seem to be progressing much at the moment themselves with it.According to Amy Mainzer, the PI for the NEOWISE mission and the PI proposing the NEOCam mission, the B612 proposal to go inside Earth's orbit and look outward doesn't really buy much capability, and it requires cooling systems that complicate the whole thing (and--this is me speaking--probably limit the useful lifetime of the spacecraft). It's just not necessary.
I don't think space based systems are economic for NEO detection.See http://fallingstar.com/home.phpATLAS, coming on line as I type this, is far, far cheaper than any satellite system would be, and can be replicated many times around the globe once it is proven.Not everything can/should be done from orbit.P.S. the PI on ATLAS is a good friend of mine. It's very clever and very cool...
Quote from: FinalFrontier on 03/01/2016 03:40 am...either that or build better solar systems...If we could do that, I don't think we'd be worried about finding undocumented rocks flying on collision courses towards our planet...
Yes yes what we need is kerbal space program in real life. Rebuild our own solar system.
Quote from: Star One on 03/01/2016 06:27 amThe plan by the B612 Foundation to send a telescope out towards Venus & then look back towards the Earth still sounds a good one for NEO spotting. Though they don't seem to be progressing much at the moment themselves with it.They never got the money. Great idea, though, and I'm hoping NEOCAM wins its competition so we can get down to doing some of that science.