NASA’s New Spacecraft: NEA Scout

WHY IN NEWS?

Recently, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has announced that its new spacecraft, named Near-Earth Asteroid Scout or NEA Scout, has completed all required tests and has been safely tucked inside the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket.

About NEA Scout:

• Near-Earth Asteroid Scout, or NEA Scout, is a miniaturized spacecraft, known as a CubeSat, developed under NASA’s Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) Program.
  • AES pioneers new approaches for rapidly developing prototype systems, demonstrating key capabilities, and validating operational concepts for future human missions beyond low-Earth orbit.
• Its main mission is to fly by and collect data from a near-Earth asteroid.
  • It will take about two years to cruise to the asteroid and will be about 93 million miles away from Earth during the asteroid encounter.
• It will also be America’s first interplanetary mission using special solar sail propulsion.
  • So far, spacecraft have been using solar energy to power them and execute critical functions.
  • This will be the first time that a spacecraft uses it as wind to generate thrust and move forward.