WORLDTECHNASA’s NEO Surveyor Solar Cells Undergo Inspection in Colorado
NASA’s Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor mission has reached another assembly milestone, with a technician at BAE Systems Space & Mission Systems in Boulder, Colorado, inspecting its large sunshade and solar array in late July, according to NASA’s own photo release.
Assembly steps so far
The sunshade structure was built by Applied Aerospace in Stockton, California. In January, SolAero Technologies in Albuquerque, New Mexico, fitted it with its solar cells.
Environmental testing of the sunshade and solar array was carried out at a commercial thermal vacuum facility in El Segundo, California, and concluded in March. The hardware reached BAE Systems Space & Mission Systems ahead of schedule in May.
Target: objects that are hard to see
Once in space, NEO Surveyor is set to hunt for some of the most elusive asteroids and comets. Some may sit in the direction of the Sun, a patch of sky that ground-based optical telescopes find harder to search.
Open questions
- When is NEO Surveyor scheduled to launch?