Near Earth Object Surveillance Satellite (NEOSSAT)
- Paper number
IAC-06-B5.2.03
- Author
Capt. Donald Bedard, Defence R&D Canada (DRDC), Canada
- Coauthor
Mr. William Harvey, Canadian Space Agency, Canada
- Coauthor
Mr. Brad Wallace, Defence R&D Canada (DRDC), Canada
- Coauthor
Mr. Robert Scott, Defence R&D Canada (DRDC), Canada
- Coauthor
Mr. Serge Garon, Canadian Space Agency, Canada
- Coauthor
Dr. Mak Tafazoli, Canadian Space Agency, Canada
- Coauthor
Mr. Gilles Brassard, Canadian Space Agency, Canada
- Coauthor
Mr. Stephane Martens, Canadian Space Agency, Canada
- Coauthor
Mr. Marden Souza, Canadian Space Agency, Canada
- Year
2006
- Abstract
Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) have been independently exploring the utility of micro-satellites as a means of providing low cost and responsive space capabilities. The effectiveness of this class of platform was recently demonstrated with the CSA’s highly successful Microvariability and Oscillation of STars (MOST) astronomy microsatellite, which was launched June 30th, 2003. The Near-Earth Object Surveillance Satellite (NEOSSat) is a joint project between the CSA and DRDC and is expected to satisfy three mission objectives. NEOSSat’s first mission objective will be to discover and determine the orbits of near-earth objects (NEO) in a manner complementary to current and future planned ground-based NEO search and follow-up telescopes. NEOSSat’s second mission objective will be to demonstrate that a micro-satellite can be employed to produce surveillance of space (SofS) metric data of artificial earth-orbiting objects having orbital altitudes between 15,000 and 40,000 km having sufficient quality to be accepted by the U.S. Space Surveillance Network. Finally the third mission objective will be the flight demonstration of the CSA’s first multi-mission micro-satellite bus (MMMB). The MMMB should provide other Canadian government departments, academia and industry with a responsive low-cost access to space for short duration science, technology demonstration and operational missions. System Requirements reviews for both the MMMB and NEOSSat payload were completed in June and July 2005 respectively and the NEOSSat Joint Project Office intends to start of Phase B during 2006. As a risk-reduction exercise for NEOSSat the MOST spacecraft was used to obtain test SofS data. While MOST was not designed for SofS, or even for imaging, MOST was able to obtain two images of a satellite streaking against a stellar background, resulting in the first microsatellite-based SofS data ever obtained. The data was analysed and the results demonstrate the soundness of the NEOSSat concept. This paper will describe the overall NEOSSat mission and the requirements and decisions that led to a collaboration between the CSA and DRDC and the set up of a Joint Project Office. Following details of the three mission objectives for the NEOSSat project, the paper presents a summary of the MOST observations, followed by an overview of the complete NEOSSat system that will be designed using a micro-satellite approach leading to the establishment of a Canadian micro-satellite capability. Finally, the paper will conclude with an update with respect to the project schedule
- Abstract document