astra: extract claims from 2026-04-21-neo-surveyor-2027-planetary-defense-gap

- Source: inbox/queue/2026-04-21-neo-surveyor-2027-planetary-defense-gap.md
- Domain: space-development
- Claims: 0, Entities: 1
- Enrichments: 1
- Extracted by: pipeline ingest (OpenRouter anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5)

Pentagon-Agent: Astra <PIPELINE>

entities/space-development/neo-surveyor.md

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+# NEO Surveyor
+
+**Type:** Space telescope mission  
+**Domain:** Planetary defense  
+**Status:** Development (launch NET September 2027)  
+**Operator:** NASA JPL  
+**Launch Vehicle:** SpaceX Falcon 9  
+**Destination:** Sun-Earth L1 point (~930,000 miles from Earth)  
+**Mission Duration:** 5-year baseline survey  
+
+## Overview
+
+NEO Surveyor is NASA's dedicated space telescope for detecting near-Earth objects (NEOs) that pose potential impact threats to Earth. The mission addresses a 20-year failure to meet Congressional detection mandates.
+
+## Mission Objectives
+
+- Find at least two-thirds of NEOs larger than 140 meters (460 feet) in diameter within 5 years of launch
+- Complete catalog coverage by ~2032
+- Address the "city-killer" asteroid detection gap (140m-1km range)
+
+## Technical Specifications
+
+- **Instrument:** 50cm infrared telescope
+- **Bands:** Two heat-sensing infrared bands
+- **Capability:** Detects both bright and dark asteroids
+- **Location:** Sun-Earth L1 Lagrange point for optimal viewing geometry
+
+## Context
+
+**Congressional Mandate:** In 2005, Congress mandated NASA to identify 90% of NEOs over 140 meters within 15 years (by 2020). As of April 2025, only 44% have been catalogued — a dramatic failure of the mandate nearly 20 years later.
+
+**Detection Gap:** For extinction-level objects (>1km), ~95% are already tracked with none posing near-term threats. The critical gap is in the 140m-1km "city-killer" range where NEO Surveyor will operate.
+
+**Catalog Progress:** Total NEOs identified from September 2014 to April 2025: 26,000+ out of 38,000+ total known.
+
+## Planetary Defense Pipeline
+
+NEO Surveyor provides the detection prerequisite for the complete planetary defense response pipeline. Combined with DART's validated deflection capability (β=3.61), the system will have:
+1. High catalog coverage of 140m+ threats by ~2032 (detection)
+2. Proven deflection technique for detected rubble-pile asteroids (response)
+
+## Limitations
+
+NEO Surveyor does not address long-period comets (LPCs) arriving from the outer solar system with only weeks to months of warning — far too short for kinetic deflection. LPCs remain an unaddressed category of planetary impact threat.
+
+## Timeline
+
+- **2005** — Congressional mandate to identify 90% of NEOs >140m by 2020
+- **2020** — Mandate deadline missed; only ~44% catalogued
+- **September 2027** — Planned launch (NET)
+- **~2032** — Expected completion of 2/3 detection goal
+
+## Related Missions
+
+- **DART:** Validated kinetic impactor deflection technique
+- **China kinetic impactor test:** 2026 launch target for hybrid deflection/observation test
+
+## Funding Context
+
+NASA's planetary defense budget grew from ~$4M/year in early 2000s to ~$200M/year currently, split between:
+- Ground-based observations: ~$40M/year
+- Flight missions: remainder
+
+Despite budget growth, the 20-year detection gap reveals a governance failure where mandate and funding were misaligned.