3.5-meter Segmented-Mirror Robotic Space Telescope Mission White Paper IV. Key Scientific Mission: Solar-System Small Bodies and Planetary Defense

This white paper covers the key scientific mission of the proposed 3.5-meter segmented-mirror robotic space telescope for solar-system small bodies and planetary defense. The baseline 0.2–1.5 μm observatory would provide rapid-response astrometry, visible and near-infrared taxonomy, rotation and phase curves, recovery, and long-arc orbit improvement for near-Earth objects and other small bodies.

The instrument study evaluates calibrated throughput to 2.70 μm with a 3.0 μm operational band-edge goal, while a reduction to 2.5 μm remains the formal engineering off-ramp if thermal, detector, cooling, mass, power, or cost constraints require it. The space telescope does not carry a mid-infrared channel; instead, coordinated ground-based mid-infrared telescopes provide the thermal fluxes needed to infer diameter and albedo, while the space mission supplies contemporaneous reflected-light measurements and observing geometry.

The program combines recovery, physical characterization, orbit refinement, and covariance-based hazard assessment. Its CODES dynamics system and OGFinder-to-OpenOrb processing path connect measured astrometry to reproducible orbit solutions and close-approach predictions.