Ball Aerospace Spacecraft and Systems for the Near-Earth Object Surveyor Mission

Near-Earth Object Surveyor (NEO Surveyor) is a proposed space observatory to be built by Ball Aerospace (Ball) for the Near-Earth Object Surveyor Mission (NEOSM) managed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) with scientific direction from the University of Arizona (UA) for NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO). The observatory's purpose is to use both a mid-wave infrared (MWIR) (4.0 - 5.2 μm) camera and a long-wave infrared (LWIR) (6 -10 μm) camera to detect the vast majority of Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) >140 meters in diameter that are potentially hazardous to life on Earth as mandated by the United States (U.S.) Congress [1]-[3]. To date only ~40% of this population has been discovered. A more complete survey of potentially hazardous NEOs provides Congress with information to enact informed policy. In addition, characterizing and correlating physical properties, i.e., effective diameter, albedo, thermal inertia, and orbital properties provides evidence to suggest how the primitive bodies were disturbed from their original reservoirs during the planet formation phase of the early solar system. The NEOSM collaborative team leverages scientific, engineering, and institutional heritage from the Near-Earth Object Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) mission, which used the Ball-built WISE observatory to detect NEOs. For the NEO Surveyor observatory, Ball contributes the Ball Configurable Platform (BCP)-Large spacecraft, used on Kepler; cryogenic control systems, to maintain the focal planes at prescribed temperatures; an aperture cover mechanism, to maintain cleanliness; and proven assembly, integration, and test (AI&T) procedures to mate JPL's instrument system with the BCP-Large to form and test the observatory. Once completed, Ball supports delivery, integration to the launch vehicle, commissioning, and operations as a mission partner. This paper presents a brief overview of NEOSM and the NEO Surveyor observatory; outlines the context, need, goals, and objectives of the mission; provides the requirements hierarchy to show the relationship between Ball and partners; and briefly describes Ball-provided systems and their heritage.