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Say Goodnight to NEAR
FortKnox writes "Space.com reports that NEAR is running out of light, and isn't expected on receiving any until November, and not having 'full light' until August 2002. They don't believe the innards will live that long. It's tough to see something that wonderful just die a slow death. It would have been grand to see them launch it and return it to put it in a museum. But, then again, some satellites live longer than expected..."
The San Diego company, Orbital Development, OrbDev, has owned Eros since 03 Mar 2000 when the company filed a claim at the Archimedes Institute
OrbDev's founder, Gregory Nemitz, states that Orbital Development has sent an invoice to Dan Goldin, Head Administrator of NASA, in the amount of $20 for the next century's parking/storage fees for the NEAR spacecraft, now resting on OrbDev's property Eros.
Nemitz says, "It is not about the money. The invoice was sent to stimulate serious discussion about Property Rights in Space. Twenty cents a year, for a century, is a bargain. Nobody can rightfully say that OrbDev is ripping-off the US Government."
He also maintains that any agreement on Space Property Rights by the world's Nations could take more than a decade to enact.
Nemitz goes on to postulate that if OrbDev's claim was recognized by the United Nations as a one-time only experiment in "equity-based space resource development", OrbDev could use that recognized equity in Eros' 80 trillion tons of material to raise the funds to develop all of the Space infrastructure pieces that can also enable Lunar and Martian development.
Eros development will require new heavy-lift launch vehicles, micro-gee mining equipment, long-term habitation systems, deep space power systems, fuel extraction and storage equipment.
"The Space Resources Development Industry could be born, while the UN debates the fate of the rest of the Solar System." Nemitz states.
The importance of the NEAR mission was not its longevity, but its intial accomplishment. NASA was able to plan, launch, and navigate a satellite to a distant and fast-moving body. While this may not seem any different than landing on a planet, one must consider that an asteroid's course is less certain and less predicatble. More impressive than the intial navigation to the asteriod was the feat of landing on a rotating body of rock with unknown surface features. So while this may be the end of NEAR's mission, don't be glum about about the end. Rater, try to admire its accomplishments.
Even if NEAR never transmits another signal to Earth, it is doing more good on Eros than it would in a terrestrial museum. We can always put replicas in museums if we want something to look at, but I'd get more satisfaction knowing that an Earth probe is still there at this very moment. It's scientific missions completed, NEAR now remains as a symbol of human achievement. When we send another visitor to Eros, NEAR will be there to greet it.
- It wasn't decided to land in the first place
- NASA didn't want to. They decided it would be better to keep it there and gather as much data as they could rather than try flying again which would do nothing for science (although a lot for publicity).
I am proud NASA made the right decision for once. Gathering data is much more valuable than putting junk into space.Well, if you had the resources to launch a spacecraft, fly up to Eros, pick the right landing spot, grab the sattelite, take off again and bring it safely back to orbit around earth where it can be inspected by astronauts (or taken back down to earth), I really don't think you would learn much from studying NEAR.