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Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Letter of Request." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2019. Finding Hazardous Asteroids Using Infrared and Visible Wavelength Telescopes. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25476.
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A

Letter of Request

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Headquarters

Washington, DC 20546-0001

images

July 31, 2018

Reply to Attn of: Office of the Chief Scientist

Dr. Fiona Harrison
Chair, Space Studies Board

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
500 5th Street NW

Washington DC, 20001

Dear Dr. Fiona Harrison,

NASA’s 2005 authorization legislation directed the Agency to find 90% of all near-Earth objects (NEO) 140 meters or larger by the end of 2020—a total population most recently estimated to be about 25,000. It is now well known that a significant fraction of NEO’s have small albedos in the visible spectrum (primarily reflected light) and are bright in the infrared (IR) portion of the spectrum since the IR signature also contains the heat radiated by the asteroid. In the 2010 NAS report Defending Planet Earth: Near-Earth Object Surveys and Hazard Mitigation Strategies that committee found that “detections of potentially hazardous NEOs by an infrared telescope (one sensitive to infrared light) will result in a more accurate size-frequency distribution for these objects.” NASA chartered a team of experts in late 2015 to update estimates of what’s out there, what’s yet to be found, and assess the technology available to us today for detection. The science definition team stated that sufficient developments in infrared technology have occurred with the potential to significantly advance our ability to find and determine the size of near-Earth objects.

Statement of Task: The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine will establish an ad-hoc committee to investigate the following and make recommendations:

  • Explore the relative advantages and disadvantages of IR and visible observations of NEOs.
  • Review and describe the techniques that could be used to obtain NEO sizes from an infrared spectrum and delineate the associated errors.
  • Evaluate the strength and weaknesses of these techniques and recommend the most valid techniques that give reproducible results with quantifiable errors.

In order for NASA to be able to use the results of this study, NASA would like to receive the Academy’s findings within the second quarter of 2019. The technical point of contact

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Letter of Request." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2019. Finding Hazardous Asteroids Using Infrared and Visible Wavelength Telescopes. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25476.
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for this effort will be Dr. Louis Barbier and can be reached at   or  .

Sincerely

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James L. Green
NASA Chief Scientist

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Letter of Request." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2019. Finding Hazardous Asteroids Using Infrared and Visible Wavelength Telescopes. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25476.
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Page 49
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Letter of Request." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2019. Finding Hazardous Asteroids Using Infrared and Visible Wavelength Telescopes. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25476.
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Page 50
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Near Earth objects (NEOs) have the potential to cause significant damage on Earth. In December 2018, an asteroid exploded in the upper atmosphere over the Bering Sea (western Pacific Ocean) with the explosive force of nearly 10 times that of the Hiroshima bomb. While the frequency of NEO impacts rises in inverse proportion to their sizes, it is still critical to monitor NEO activity in order to prepare defenses for these rare but dangerous threats.

Currently, NASA funds a network of ground-based telescopes and a single, soon-to-expire space-based asset to detect and track large asteroids that could cause major damage if they struck Earth. This asset is crucial to NEO tracking as thermal-infrared detection and tracking of asteroids can only be accomplished on a space-based platform.

Finding Hazardous Asteroids Using Infrared and Visible Wavelength Telescopes explores the advantages and disadvantages of infrared (IR) technology and visible wavelength observations of NEOs. This report reviews the techniques that could be used to obtain NEO sizes from an infrared spectrum and delineate the associated errors in determining the size. It also evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of these techniques and recommends the most valid techniques that give reproducible results with quantifiable errors.

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