Thursday Plenary 3: Contributed talk
When
Where
Theme: Ground and space mission operations software
NEOfixer's primary goal is to provide NEO targeting recommendations that aid in coordinating follow-up efforts. To do that effectively it creates a unique database of all the known NEOs and NEO candidates. It monitors the obvious data sources at the MPC and JPL, but incorporates other information as well, such as lists of potential radar and mission targets. It calculates orbits, ephemerides, and a variety of custom scores for each NEO based on that information. Finally, a ranked list of target recommendations is generated, customized for each subscribing telescope. Much of this information is available on the website, and more still is available via the API. You do not need to have an account to use NEOfixer and its API.
The NEOfixer API allows users to participate in its primary mission using scripts and automation, but it can be used for more than that. I will demonstrate how to use the API for everyday NEO follow-up, how to obtain details about specific NEOs, and how to generate filtered lists of NEOs for other purposes. I will give examples of how Catalina Sky Survey incorporates NEOfixer API calls into its workflow.
Catalina Sky Survey would like to thank NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office for its continued support, including for NEOfixer, currently via grant 80NSSC21K0893-NEOO.