[Satellite Today – 6-27-08] Canada plans to build a space telescope designed to detect and track asteroids as well as satellites, Defence Research Development Canada (DRDC) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) announced June 26.
    The 65-kilogram Near Earth Object Surveillance Satellite (NEOSSat) will provide surveillance of asteroids that pose a collision hazard with Earth as well as demonstrate technologies for tracking satellites in orbit. The two projects that will use NEOSSat are the High Earth Orbit Space Surveillance program and the Near Earth Space Surveillance asteroid search program.
    “NEOSSat is a technological pathfinder for us to demonstrate the potential of micro-satellite technologies to satisfy operational requirements of the Canadian Forces,” Capt. Tony Morris of DRDC Ottawa and deputy program manager of the NEOSSat Joint Project Office, said in a statement. “NEOSSat will demonstrate the ability of a microsatellite to enhance the [Canadian Forces’] contribution to the NORAD mission — providing accurate knowledge of the traffic orbiting our planet. This would contribute to the safety of critical Canadian assets, military and civilian, in an increasingly congested space environment.”
    The Joint Project Office, created by the CSA and the DRDC, will oversee design, construction and launch of the spacecraft. The two agencies are providing funding of 12 million Canadian dollars ($11.9 million). Launch is expected to take place in 2010.
    NEOSSat is a follow-on mission to the Microvariability and Oscillation of Stars spacecraft, a 60-kilogram satellite designed to measure the age of stars. NEOSSat also marks the first project using Canada’s Multi-Mission Microsatellite Bus.  “Canada continues to innovate and demonstrate its technological expertise by developing small satellites that can peer into near and far space for natural and man-made debris," Guy Bujold, president of the CSA, said in a statement. "We are on the cutting edge, building the world’s first space-based telescope designed to search for near-Earth asteroids."