With long range observations already underway, mission controllers at John Hopkins have begun 24 hour operations as they bring a distant spacecraft for the first time into orbit about an asteroid.
Following a failed attempt to rendezvous about Eros in Decmebr 1998, the NEAR team is leaving nothing to chance. "The spacecraft is doing a lot of work, and we need to make sure things are happening the way we expect," says Mark Holdridge, NEAR mission operations manager. "This is the stretch drive as we prepare for the orbit insertion."
The 24-hour operations mark a milestone in the mission to Eros, which intensifies with rendezvous maneuvers on Feb. 2 and the actual orbit insertion on Feb. 14. NEAR is 29,800 miles (48,000 kilometers) from Eros, but its instruments are already collecting valuable navigation data and detailed scientific information on the large space rock.
From Jan. 11, the NEAR began downloading this information daily through NASA's Deep Space Network. The raw data will be available on the NEAR Science Data Center Web site a week after it's collected.
The observations will fix NEAR's imaging instruments on their rotating, 21-mile-long target. The low-resolution images won't offer much detail – NEAR will be about 29,800 miles (47,973 kilometers) from Eros – but they will help the mission team navigate the spacecraft and prepare for the Feb. 14 encounter and yearlong study of the asteroid.
Upcoming Spacecraft Activities:
The following are operationally significant activities planned through
Eros orbit insertion. Please consult the NEAR Flight Timeline for more
details regarding upcoming activities.
