The identification, classification, and monitoring of Near-Earth Objects (NEO) is of detrimental importance for the implementation of the Space Safety Program (S2P) supported by the European Space Agency. The Near-Earth Object Survey TELescope (NEOSTEL, also known as “Flyeye”), represents a key-element of S2P: its role consists in providing a real-time monitoring system from ground of potential impactors, generating an early-warning signal with a maximum delay of three days from detection to the alert generation. As a by-product, the system is capable of detecting, classifying and monitoring space debris, contributing to the implementation of strategies for collision avoidance. Due to the peculiarities of the “Flyeye” telescope, and in virtue of the service availability that must be guaranteed to perform the required observational schedule, the hosting astronomical observatory shall comply to specific and tight requirements. On the observatory side, the telescope combines the observational capability of sixteen cameras, capable of generating the map of the entire accessible sky four times per observing night. Data must then be stored, pre-processed and made available for the generation of the alerts. The rotating dome is also subject to strict requirements, since the combination of fast telescope slewing and equatorial mount configuration makes the requests to the enclosure rotational velocity extremely demanding. Furthermore, the system shall be deployed into much different sites, to guarantee 24/7 global service availability, making compliance to the varying environmental conditions extremely impacting on the design. In this paper we present the results of the optimized layout of the observatory, with a description of the main technical tradeoff.
The Near-Earth Object Survey TELescope (NEOSTEL, also known as “FlyEye”), is a survey telescope developed in the framework of the Space Safety Program (S2P) of the European Space Agency. S2P includes either space based assets abd ground based assets: the role of NEOSTEL consists in providing a real-time atmospheric impact monitoring system from ground, generating an early-warning signal with a maximum delay of three days from detection to the alert generation. A first unit of this innovative telescope will be installed in Italy, on top of the Monte Mufara, within the “Madonie” Natural Park, Sicily region. The detection capabilities and the quality of service required by NEOSTEL pose new challenges to the design and construction of the dome and the observatory. In particular, the combination of fast telescope slewing and equatorial mount configuration makes the requests to the enclosure rotation extremely demanding. The site orography imposes an optimization of the entire observatory, to minimize the environmental impact of the observatory, while providing at the same time all the infrastructural elements which are necessary to operate and maintain the telescope. In this paper we present the first results of the optimized layout of the observatory, a description of the facility and in particular we outline the main technical characteristics of the dome and of the maintenance equipment.
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