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NASA Makes History Again; Spacecraft To Land on Asteroid

© Pattie Stechschulte

On Monday, February 12th, the NEAR Shoemaker will make history by being the first spacecraft to ever land on an asteroid. Using a controlled descent, the ship will end its five-year, two-billion-mile journey when it lands on the asteroid 433 Eros. Along the way, the spacecraft has far exceeded its mission goals by sending vast amount of scientific data and images home about "near-Earth" objects.

A little history
The basic mission of the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) program is to seek basic information about the nature and origin of any comet or asteroid close to Earth's orbit. Any object that comes within 121 million miles of the sun is considered as a "near-Earth" object.

The NEAR Shoemaker was launched from Cape Canaveral on February 17, 1996, using a Delta-2 rocket. This was the smallest rocket ever used for a planetary mission by NASA. Weighing less than one ton, the spacecraft is roughly the size of a car with four solar panels and a five-foot diameter high-gain antenna on top.

There are six scientific instruments aboard the spacecraft that have been analyzing Eros' mass, structure, geology, composition, gravity and magnetic field. The craft also has a 16-bit computer with 256 KB of storage, similar to a mid-1980s personal computer. The last piece of equipment is the digital camera that has sent about 160,000 high-resolution images back to Earth on a 15-minute delay.

The Mission
NASA has a commitment from Congress over the next 10 years to map 90 percent of all near-Earth objects that could cross Earth's path. With the NEAR Shoemaker mission, it is the first time that NASA has completed an in-depth reconnaissance mission of a potential Earth-crossing asteroid.

Eros was chosen because it is the second largest asteroid near Earth and the most accessible. It is about 21 miles long, 8 miles thick and 8 miles wide.

Based on the data received, NASA scientists have confirmed that Eros is a fractured chip off a larger body made of some of the most primitive material in the solar system. They have also created the first detailed maps and three-dimensional model of the asteroid.

At a cost of $23 million, the year-long orbital mission achieved a few firsts for the NASA Discovery Program, including:
-the first launch of a low-cost, scientifically focused planetary mission;
-first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid or any small body;
-first solar-powered spacecraft to operate beyond the orbit of Mars;

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