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International Conference
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Abstract INF (INASAN Near Earth Objects Finder) project is a dedicated network of robotic telescopes to detect 10 m asteroids coming in the Near Earth Space. The main features of the project are short cadence time (1 h) of all-sky survey and moderate limiting magnitude (19m) without filters, possibility of carrying out the additional scientific program. The INF multiaperture telescope consists of 8 VT-78d telescopes on fast mount. The VT-78d telescope provides unique combination of parameters: aperture of 250 mm, fast focal ratio F/1.58, large field of view (10 deg diameter, 78.5 sq. deg) and D80 image quality of 5 arcsec. The INF total field of view is 574 sq. deg (298 Mpixels) with 5.2 arcsec/pixel scale. The key features of INF for NEO observation program is the ability to find nearby small objects of size >10 m not included into existing catalogues at a distance less than 0.01 a.u., follow them to determine their orbit and report about potential impact to the Earth quickly (in few hours). INF can detect 10 m asteroid at a distance of 0.5-2.2 million kilometers what corresponds to approaching time of 9-40 hours for typical NEO speed of 15 km/s. The warning time, e.g. the time after preliminary orbit determination until possible impact will be in a range from few hours up to one day. In case of multiple sites operation (worldwide) INF can detect most of the dangerous asteroids with a size of >10 m coming from the night sky. According to our estimates INF will discover about 7330 NEOs of 10 m size in 5 years in case of every day operation (8 hours per night).
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