Speaker
Description
As demonstrated by the Chelyabinsk event on February 15, 2013, collisions of small (decameter-class) Near-Earth objects (NEOs) with the Earth pose a danger to inhabitants of our planet. These bodies are faint and can only be systematically detected in near-Earth space. Moreover, half of these bodies approach the Earth from the day-time sky and can only be detected by special space-borne facilities
A civil space safety program called "Milky Way" is being developed in Russia. One aspect of this program is addressing the asteroid problem. It has two segments regarding the problem under discussion:
- a ground-based network of wide-field optical telescopes with a 1-meter aperture to search for asteroids on night-time hemisphere.
- a space-based facility consisting of a spacecraft located at the SEL1 point between Earth and the Sun to search for day-time asteroids that are not observable by ground or near the Earth space telescopes.
The payload to detect sunward asteroids is developed by INASAN and is based on the results of the conceptual phase of the SODA project (System of Observation of Day-time Asteroids), which was completed in 2023.
The scientific payload consists of a wide field of view telescope with a 30 cm aperture operates in visible light. Asteroid detection will be carried out using a barrier technique and dangerous objects will be tracked until they approach the Earth. For asteroids on collision orbits, the SODA system provides a 10-hour warning (on average) before impact as well as prediction of the entry point of the asteroid into Earth's atmosphere with an accuracy of 10…200 km. Due to the high completeness of detection of day-time asteroids flying from the Sun, in coming decades SODA will provide almost sufficient information on sunward asteroids posing a real threat.
The scientific goals of the mission are to experimentally validate existing models of small bodies in the Solar System and to search for correlation between close flybys of asteroids near the Earth and meteor shower events.
In 2024 the ''Milky Way L1'' system SRR (System Requirements Review) phase began, the completion date for this phase is middle 2025. Construction of the spacecraft was scheduled to begin in 2026. The spacecraft will carry the second payload for observing the Sun in various wavelengths from X-rays to IR, to measure the magnetic field and detect particles. The responsible institute for the second payload is IKI RAS.
The efficiency of asteroid tracking from L1, and therefore the impact region on Earth, could be significantly improved by using triangulation tracking mode if two spacecraft operated simultaneously. Cooperation within China and BRICS countries is welcome to build a second spacecraft to operate in L1.
A combination of space-based (SODA) and ground-based networks is a viable approach to providing a realistic, real-time warning system for decameter-sized impactors.