The catalina sky survey (CSS) is a leading contributor to NASA's effort to detect and track near earth objects (neos) that may pose an impact risk to the earth. CSS recently deployed upgraded…

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) awarded a $6,972,009.86 grant to the University of Arizona, doing business as the Arizona Board of Regents, to continue operating the Catalina Sky Survey (CSS) telescopes for near-Earth object (NEO) detection and tracking. The CSS is a major contributor to NASA's efforts to identify and monitor NEOs that could pose an impact risk to Earth. Under this grant, the University of Arizona will upgrade the CSS 1.0-meter telescope, increase observation time on its survey telescopes, and develop an automated NEO follow-up broker system called NEOFIXER to more efficiently coordinate observations across various telescopes. The grant also supports the university's efforts to reprocess and release archived CSS data. This award does not have a set-aside designation.

The catalina sky survey (CSS) is a leading contributor to NASA's effort to detect and track near earth objects (neos) that may pose an impact risk to the earth. CSS recently deployed upgraded cameras on its two survey telescopes, which contributed to a substantial increase in both the CSS and overall NEO discovery rate during 2016. We propose to continue to operate both CSS survey telescopes 24 nights per lunation throughout the year, and to substantially increase our access to telescopes for astrometric follow-up of neos made necessary by the increased survey discoveries. This will be achieved by increasing the number of nights scheduled on the CSS 1.0-m telescope from 12 to 24 nights per lunation. The CSS 1.0-m telescope will also be upgraded from its current cassegrain configuration to a prime focus design which will increase its field of view and throughput, and simplify its collimation and maintenance. In order to efficiently schedule these diverse follow-up telescopes, we will create an automated NEO follow-up broker called neofixer. Neofixer will directly task telescopes operated by CSS (initially) and advise external follow-up programs (subsequently) to steer resources where they are needed most. Neofixer will aggregate information from MPC, JPL, participating follow-up telescopes, and other sources, and will evaluate the need for observations based on object type, sky-plane uncertainty, current VS. Future observability, and other criteria. This will then be mapped to the capabilities and preferences of participating telescopes, essentially answering the question, what is the most valuable observation a given telescope can make at a given time? CSS will operate neofixer as an open, transparent service to the NEO community to help manage more efficient follow-up as demand continues to increase from all surveys. Increased follow-up will also increase CSS survey observations precisely by offloading a significant follow-up burden from our survey telescopes (redoubling the need for follow-up). At the same time we will be aggressively pursuing the recently undertaken batch reprocessing of archival CSS data sets. Daily submissions to the planetary data system are anticipated to begin in fall/winter 2017 from CSS facilities commissioned in 2016 at the university of arizona data center. Significant recent improvements to the nightly CSS pipeline will apply to archive data as well. We propose infrastructure improvements proportionate to the increased real time and batch processing needs, such as a higher speed radio link between the mountaintop telescopes and campus data center, as well as servers, storage, and staff needed by the increased CSS telescope operations and resulting amplified catalina data output.