NESS will use a microsatellite platform to place a small optical telescope in low Earth orbit. The motivation for the mission and its objectives will be explained. The concept of operations that NESS will use in asteroid and satellite tracking work will be explained, and an analysis of its performance and productivity will be provided. Because of the importance of the latter application, the U.S. Department of Defense's Space Command is tasked with maintaining an accurate catalog of all trackable objects in Earth orbit.
Asteroid tracking is done for several reasons.
Astronomers search to discover new asteroids, and use knowledge of their orbits to help develop models of solar system evolution and planetary formation. Looking head to future asteroid rendezvous and sample-return exploration missions, each new asteroid catalogued represents an additional potential mission target, and accurate orbit estimates are needed to allow exploration spacecraft to be navigated to their targets. The design of the MOST space astronomy microsatellite, being developed by Dynacon for the Canadian Space Agency, provides NESS with a platform with an agile and very accurate attitude control system, and a photometrically very sensitive imaging telescope, two key requirements for this mission.