![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/pia26583orig.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>The instrument enclosure of NASA\u2019s Near-Earth Object Surveyor is prepared for critical environmental tests inside the historic Chamber A<\/a> at the Space Environment Simulation Laboratory at NASA\u2019s Johnson Space Center in Houston in December 2024. Wrapped in silver thermal blanketing, the 12-foot-long (3.7-meter-long) angular structure was subjected to the frigid, airless conditions that the spacecraft will experience when in deep space. The cavernous thermal-vacuum test facility is famous for testing the Apollo spacecraft that traveled to the Moon in the 1960s and \u201970s.<\/p>\n The instrument enclosure is designed to protect the spacecraft\u2019s infrared telescope while also removing heat from it during operations. After environmental testing was completed, the enclosure returned to NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California for further work, after which it will ship to the Space Dynamics Laboratory (SDL) in Logan, Utah, and be joined to the telescope. Both the instrument enclosure and telescope were assembled at JPL.<\/p>\n As NASA\u2019s first space-based detection mission specifically designed for planetary defense<\/a>, NEO Surveyor<\/a> will seek out, measure, and characterize the hardest-to-find asteroids and comets that might pose a hazard to Earth. While many near-Earth objects don\u2019t reflect much visible light, they glow brightly in infrared light due to heating by the Sun. The spacecraft\u2019s telescope, which has an aperture of nearly 20 inches (50 centimeters), features detectors sensitive to two infrared wavelengths in which near-Earth objects re-radiate solar heat.<\/p>\n More information about NEO Surveyor is available at: https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/mission\/neo-surveyor\/<\/a><\/p>\n Image credit: NASA<\/em><\/p>\n Powered by WPeMatico<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n Get The Details…<\/a> The instrument enclosure of NASA\u2019s Near-Earth Object Surveyor is prepared for critical environmental tests inside the historic Chamber A at the Space Environment Simulation Laboratory at NASA\u2019s Johnson Space Center in Houston in December 2024. Wrapped in silver thermal blanketing, the 12-foot-long (3.7-meter-long) angular structure was subjected to the frigid, airless conditions that the spacecraft [\u2026] Continue reading
\nMonika Luabeya <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"