NEAR Touches Down on Eros

Every once in a while NASA does something amazing. Today they took a probe that was just supposed to orbit a rock the size of Manhattan, guided it down to the surface, reoriented the dish, and sent back a hello from ground zero. The NEAR Shoemaker mission site and its mirror are a little busy at the moment, but CNN's coverage is good, with simulated video, and actual photos from two hundred million miles up. Some engineers, and the operators at Johns Hopkins, must be awfully proud right about now.

Comments

If you're going to correct something ...

[Bearpaw]

The satelite is NOT being run by NASA, it is being run by Johns Hopkins.

It's a joint operation. Lots of other folks involved, too. See their mission page.

In fact, it is the first deep space craft to be run by someone other than NASA.

How are you defining "deep space craft"? The Soviets sent missions to Mars and Venus (and the Comet Halley).

Re:Quick Question...

[DHartung]

smitty asks:
NEAR successfully landed, which is really cool, but since NASA's budget is spent on this thing, what will it be doing now that it's sitting on Eros? I'm assumming it is able to charge its batteries using its solar panels, which should allow it to keep transmitting, correct? Is there anyway that amatures could set up some device so that we can listen to what it has to say?

Well, you've hit on the problem.

First, NASA's budget was well-spent. The NEAR mission completed all of its objectives (despite a "near-miss" on the first approach to the asteroid -- so even this mission wasn't perfect!). The funding runs out on Feb. 14, so this is the last opportunity to do anything. The impact objective seemed the best way to make use of that time.

Second, the real constraint on the various probes we have traversing the solar system is money -- both for control teams, and for the Deep Space Network. The control team for NEAR will disband and go on to other projects, some together, some separately. (I can't wait to see what Johns Hopkins does next.) For quick check-ins with "defunct" probes like Pioneer, the teams are long dispersed and are assembled ad-hoc from veterans and current controllers. Somebody has to pay these people, though some of them would clearly work for free, and support the control center and connectivity.

Third, the Deep Space Network is pretty much always maxed out. It's a limited resource, and projects get time on it in a sort of auction. Time spent collecting data from a dormant, completed project like NEAR is time taken away from active, valuable projects like Cassini and Mars Global Surveyor.

Could amateurs build their own alt-DSN? Technically I imagine it would be possible -- buy up a couple of sold-off Cold War dish stations on the cheap -- but the problem is that the NEAR spacecraft is designed to broadcast at certain frequencies, and those would still interfere with existing DSN communications. Thus the spacecraft, if it continues to survive, will be commanded to suspend communications. I don't know if NEAR has any capability to change its communications parameters enough for an alternate station network to talk to it.
----

Ex-cellent!

[hugg]

Awesome job! I wonder -- even though the satellite is officially "not designed to land", the engineers involved kept it in the back of their minds while designing and made tiny adjustments to make it at least possible. The guys at JPL did this for the Voyager missions, making the "grand tour" possible even though Congress initially only gave the go-ahead for a Jupiter/Saturn tour.

Re:Budget Problems

[sdamberger]

NEAR is one of the "faster, lighter, cheaper" programs.

Don't laugh too hard, they're not done.

[TheDullBlade]

Every once in a while, NASA does something amazing.

Amazing step 1: land non-lander on Eros

Amazing step 2: use same non-lander to carve Eros into giant erotic sculpture.

Amazing result 1: Public interest in space increases by 3000%, as do NASA's budget and high-power telescope sales.

Amazing result 2: New "child safe" digital telescopes that won't point at Eros (or Venus, after the finish that project).
---

Two sides to every coin...

[GoNINzo]

There were several possible outcomes to this landing (which BottomQuark reported on earlier today.) You had the possibility that the possibility that the space craft could land at the 1mph-8mph landing speed that would allow it to survive. You had the chance that it would roll over onto it's antenae and not transmit anything. You had the chance it would hit so hard that scientists would be able to tell the asteroid's composition from the impact. However, today's landing at 5 mph was excellent and shows that NASA does know what's it's doing. sometimes. even when it makes two years of mistakes up until that point. This is where the 'bunch of smart guys' quotent pays off. `8r)

There are some signs of bad science on the CNN site though. I don't believe Eros is in danger of hitting the earth because it has a stable orbit. I hate it when the news over-exagerates dangers, such as when the researcher from the RHIC said there is a small possibility of a black hole being created. Because of that, everyone was sure a giant movie-like black hole would be created at Brookhaven. Next, we'll be hearing that the NEAR landing might have pushed the rock off course, allowing it to hit the earth and destroy everything.

Just hope we can find a bunch of movie stars to quickly blow it up!

--
Gonzo Granzeau

Get this guy on my team in Quake 3!

[mbourgon]

Anyone who can land that satellite that well with that kind of lag, I want on my team.