NEOSSat: A Collaborative Microsatellite Project for Space Based Object Detection

Recognizing the importance of space-based Near Earth Object (NEO) detection and Surveillance of Space (SoS), the Canadian Space Agency and Defence Research and Development Canada are proceeding with the development and construction of NEOSSat. NEOSSat\u27s two missions are to make observations to discover asteroids and comets near Earth\u27s orbit (Near Earth Space Surveillance or NESS) and to demonstrate surveillance of satellites and space debris (High Earth Orbit Space Surveillance or HEOSS). This micro-satellite project will deploy a 15 cm telescope into a 630 km low earth orbit in 2010. This will be the first space-based system of its kind.NEOSSat represents a win-win opportunity for CSA and DRDC who recognized there were significant common interests with this microsatellite project. The project will yield data that can be used by the NEOSSat team and leveraged by external stakeholders to address important issues with NEOs, satellite metric data and debris cataloguing. In the contexts of risks and rewards as well as confidence building, NEOSSat is providing CSA and DRDC with valuable insights about collaboration on a microsatellite program and this paper presents our views and lessons learned