As you may recall when the NASA FY2011 Budget was released there seemed to be an increase in the funding for NEO specific work, from the approximately US$4M to about US$16M. Here is more detail.
From the NASA FY2011 Science Mission Directorate budget overview document...
The Near Earth Object Observations (NEOO) project has been augmented by $16M/year, to accelerate progress on the detection and characterization of NEOs less than 1km in diameter. In FY 2011, this will support the analysis of archived data from the Wide-Field Infrared Spectroscopic Explorer (WISE) mission.
A presentation from Dr. Wes Huntress has more detail on some of the allocation of this funding. Highlights from the presentation, specifically dealing with NEOs...
- NASA Current Funded Systems (existing funding):
- NEO Program Office @ JPL (Program coordination, Automated SENTRY)
- Minor Planet Center (MPC) (IAU sanctioned, Discovery Clearinghouse, Initial Orbit Determination)
- Observation: NEO-WISE, LINEAR, Catalina Sky Survey, Pan-STARRS
- Near Earth Object Observation (NEOO) Initiative (new funding):
With the additional funding of $16M, the NEOO Program will:
- Extend the collection, archive, and analysis of WISE NEO data
- Enable collection of NEO data by the USAF’s Pan-STARRS project
- Support the continued operation of planetary radar capabilities at the NSF’s Arecibo and NASA’s own Goldstone facilities
- Investigate use of both ground and space-based assets for Potentially Hazardous Objects (PHOs) 140 meters and below
- Determinate what characteristics of PHOs are needed to assess possible mitigation actions
Link: Dr. Wes Huntress Science Committee Report
Link: NASA FY2011 Science Mission Directorate Budget Overview Document
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