NASA contract extends Mauna Kea telescope’s role in asteroid defense network

TONI SALAMA / CHICAGO TRIBUNE / TNS

NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility, at right, which helps identify asteroids and comets that might pose a threat to Earth, sits next to the twin domes of the W.M. Keck Observatory at the Mauna Kea summit.

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A Mauna Kea telescope that is used to identify asteroids and comets that might pose a threat to Earth likely will continue operating through the end of 2033.

NASA announced in June that it had renewed its contract with the University of Hawaii’s Institute for Astronomy to continue operating NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility on Mauna Kea.

IFA Director Doug Simons said the contract is potentially worth up to $85.5 million over 10 years, but NASA can evaluate the agreement each year and decline to renew it. For the purposes of planning, however, he said the contract is expected to last the duration.

The telescope, commonly called IRTF, is a component of NASA’s planetary defense network, a system of telescopes around the world that identify and track potentially hazardous celestial objects, such as asteroids.

Simons said about 50% of the telescope’s operations are reserved for monitoring objects within our solar system.

IRTF Director John Rayner said the telescope doesn’t discover potentially dangerous objects — called near-Earth objects, or NEOs — on its own. Rather, other observatories in NASA’s network locate the objects, while IRTF is used to determine their composition via spectroscopy.

Determining an object’s composition, Rayner said, is vital to determine the potential damage it could cause by striking Earth.

“In an extreme example, if an asteroid is made of metal, it’s going to have a lot more mass and do a lot more damage,” Simons said.

Rayner said IRTF has categorized between 2,000 and 3,000 NEOs over the past two decades.

“Every year, there’s maybe about a half-dozen that come close, between the earth and the moon,” Rayner said.

While one such object passed within the moon’s orbit in late June, Rayner said that wasn’t particularly close for an object of its size, roughly 570 feet across. He added that the asteroid never posed any danger to the planet.

According to NASA, more than 90% of all NEOs larger than 1 kilometer (about .62 mile) in diameter have already been discovered.

Rayner said the renewed contract is a “vote of confidence” in the telescope, adding that it is the only ground-based telescope NASA funds.

With the new contract scheduled to end no later than 2033, Simons said it could last until the expiration of the UH’s master lease of the Mauna Kea Science Reserve.