Asteroid-tracking satellite not up to the job, review finds
A Canadian satellite designed to hunt hard-to-see asteroids hurtling by Earth was launched almost four years late, was underfunded and has raised concerns it can’t do its job, a review of the project has found.
The Near-Earth Object Surveillance Satellite, or NEOSSat for short, was supposed to be the first space-based telescope to track one particular kind of asteroids — known as Aten-class — that travel between the Earth and the sun, a path that makes them difficult to see from the ground because of scattered light in the atmosphere.
NEOSSat was launched on Feb. 25, 2013, eight years after the project was born — and 41 months late.
Reviewers found the primary contractor on the project — originally a company named Dynacon, which then sold its satellite business to Microsat Systems Canada Inc., which finished the project — failed to attract the experts needed to finish the satellite, which forced the Canadian Space Agency to dedicate more resources to the project than it wanted.
That, in turn, caused it to overspend: The agency doled out just under $13.98 million but budgeted about $12.97 million for its portion of the project. (The project was a joint initiative with Defence Research and Development Canada, an agency of the Department of National Defence. DRDC budgeted about $12 million for the job.)
Among the 11 people interviewed for the review, there was fingerpointing about who was responsible for the long project delays.
One interviewee told reviewers the main contractor didn’t collaborate or subcontract “to the extent that it should have” to “protect its competitive advantage.” Some interviewees from the Canadian space industry believed the CSA didn’t manage the project “efficiently or cost effectively.”
Those involved in the project told reviewers they are concerned the satellite won’t be able to capture 288 images per day, as planned.
“The main issue with NEOSSat is that although images have been acquired, the image quality does not at present meet the imagery requirements of the scientific aspects of the mission. NEOSSat is only taking engineering images and not scientific images,” reads the review, written in February for the CSA, but only recently posted to a government website.
“There is some concern on the part of the science team at the University of Calgary that its partnerships with other researchers internationally may be negatively affected should the quality of NEOSSat data imagery not improve.”
As of January 2014, scientists and engineers were still “fine pointing” the on-board software, something necessary to take precise images of orbiting objects. NEOSSat “was launched somewhat prematurely,” wrote the reviewers from the CSA’s audit directorate.
The space agency did not answer questions Friday. But the evaluation report says the agency said it has implemented checks and oversight on future projects to prevent a repeat of the NEOSSat pitfalls. But it said every project is unique, and unexpected issues could arise.
The review concluded the government was right to take on the project in the first place — even with all its attendant problems — because the private sector would have balked at going it alone given the limited commercial applications of tracking asteroids.
The cost of building and operating the satellite for two years is $25 million. Interviewees told re- viewers that the project was underfunded by as much as 50 per cent.
The CSA hasn’t budgeted to run the satellite beyond two years, the review says, even though NEOSSat could operate for many years. It will be up to agencies and researchers using the data “to provide the necessary funds to continue operating the satellite.”