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NEOWISE, a NASA mission designed to track near-Earth objects, has been decommissioned after more than a decade of operation. The Infrared Space Telescope transmitted its final data to
NEOWISE, a NASA mission designed to track near-Earth objects, has been decommissioned after more than a decade of operation. The Infrared Space Telescope transmitted its final data to Earth before the project team at JPL sent a command to shut down the transmitter.
The mission, which took over from WISE after a successful all-sky infrared survey, has made significant contributions to our understanding of space hazards. NEOWISE has helped lay the foundation for the future NEO Surveyor, scheduled for launch in 2027, by improving global planetary defense capabilities.
Engineers aboard NASA’s NEOWISE (Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer) mission ordered the spacecraft to turn off its transmitter for the final time on Thursday, ending a more than 10-year mission to protect the planet by searching for asteroids and comets, including those that could pose a threat to Earth.
The final crew was sent from the Earth-Orbiting Mission Operations Center at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California, where past and present mission participants, as well as officials from the agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., were present. NASA’s Tracking and Data Communication Satellite System then sent a signal to NEOWISE, decommissioning the spacecraft. The spacecraft’s scientific investigation concluded on July 31, and all remaining scientific data was transmitted from the spacecraft, NASA previously reported.
“The NEOWISE mission has been an extraordinary success story, helping us better understand our place in the universe by tracking asteroids and comets that could be dangerous to us here on Earth,” said Nicola Fox, Deputy Director for Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters. “While we are sad to see this bold mission end, we are excited about the future scientific discoveries that will form the foundation of the next-generation Planetary Defense Telescope.”
NASA terminated the mission because NEOWISE will soon be too low in orbit around Earth to provide usable scientific data. Increased solar activity is heating the upper atmosphere, causing it to expand and creating friction for the spacecraft, which has no propulsion to keep it in orbit. The decommissioned NEOWISE is expected to burn up safely in our planet’s atmosphere in late 2024.
The infrared survey telescope has exceeded its scientific goals on not one but two missions during its lifetime, starting with the WISE (Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer) mission. Operated by JPL, WISE was launched in December 2009 on a seven-month mission to scan the entire infrared sky. By July 2010, WISE had done so with much greater sensitivity than previous efforts. A few months later, the telescope ran out of coolant, preventing the spacecraft from generating heat that would have interfered with infrared observations. (Heat is associated with infrared waves that the human eye cannot see.)
NASA extended the NEOWISE mission to complete its search of main-belt asteroids until February 2011, after which the spacecraft went into hibernation. Analysis of this data showed that, despite the lack of cooling, the space telescope could no longer observe even the faintest infrared objects in the universe, but was still able to make accurate observations of asteroids and comets as the Sun passed by our planet.
NASA brought the telescope out of hibernation in 2013 as part of the Near-Earth Object Observation Program, a predecessor to the agency’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office, to continue its NEOWISE study of asteroids and comets in the quest for planetary protection.
“The NEOWISE mission has played a key role in our quest to map the sky and understand the environment around Earth. Its numerous discoveries have advanced our knowledge of asteroids and comets and strengthened our nation’s planetary defenses,” said Laurie Leshin, director of NASA JPL. “As we bid farewell to NEOWISE, we also celebrate the impressive accomplishments of the team behind it.”
Observing the sky repeatedly from low Earth orbit, NEOWISE has created maps of the entire sky that include 1.45 million infrared measurements of more than 44,000 objects in the Solar System. Of the more than 3,000 near-Earth objects it has discovered, 215 were seen by NEOWISE for the first time. The mission also discovered 25 new comets, including the famous comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE, which shone brightly in the night sky in the summer of 2020.
In addition to leaving behind a wealth of scientific data, the spacecraft also helped develop NASA’s first infrared space telescope designed specifically to detect near-Earth objects: NEO Surveyor.
“The NEOWISE mission has provided an unparalleled long-term infrared sky dataset that will be used by scientists for decades to come,” said Amy Meinzer, principal investigator of NEOWISE and NEO Surveyor at UCLA. “But its additional legacy is that it helped lay the foundation for NASA’s next infrared space telescope that will protect the planet.”
Additionally, NEO Surveyor, operated by JPL, will search for some of the most difficult-to-detect objects near Earth, such as dark asteroids and comets that do not reflect much visible light, as well as objects approaching Earth from the sun’s side. The next-generation infrared space telescope will significantly expand the capabilities of the international planetary defense community, including ground-based research funded by NASA. Development of NEO Surveyor is already in full swing, with a launch date set for no earlier than 2027.
Source: Port Altele
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