One structure, two jobs
NEO Surveyor's sunshade stands about six metres tall with a base 2.4 metres wide. Its two panels are set at a 23.5-degree angle, a geometry that keeps the infrared telescope in shadow while pointing the solar cells toward the Sun. The array contains 864 interconnected cells and can generate up to two kilowatts. It is the spacecraft's only power source, operating its systems and charging onboard batteries. Engineers have now completed functional and performance tests following integration.
Why asteroid hunting needs a cold telescope
The 50-centimetre-aperture telescope and its two 16-megapixel infrared mosaics are designed to find near-Earth asteroids and comets, especially in the Sun's direction where bright sky limits ground-based optical surveys. The shade reduces heating and stray infrared emission from the spacecraft, making a target's faint thermal signal easier to separate from the background. Observations in two wavelength bands will also help estimate an object's temperature and size. Completing integration is an important hardware milestone, but it is not a launch: the mission remains in assembly and ground testing.