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NEAR Spacecraft launch
| Name of Image |
NEAR Spacecraft launch |
| Date of Image |
1996-01-31 |
| Full Description |
The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft embarks on a journey that will culminate in a close encounter with an asteroid. The launch of NEAR inaugurates NASA's irnovative Discovery program of small-scale planetary missions with rapid, lower-cost development cycles and focused science objectives. NEAR will rendezvous in 1999 with the asteroid 433 Eros to begin the first long-term, close-up look at an asteroid's surface composition and physical properties. NEAR's science payload includes an x-ray/gamma ray spectrometer, an near-infrared spectrograph, a laser rangefinder, a magnetometer, a radio science experiment and a multi-spectral imager. |
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Asteroid Eros Reconstructed
| Title |
Asteroid Eros Reconstructed |
| Explanation |
Orbiting the Sun [ http://www.nineplanets.org/sol.html ] between Mars [ http://pds.jpl.nasa.gov/planets/welcome/mars.htm ] and Earth [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/photo_gallery/photogallery-earth.html ], asteroid 433 Eros was visited by the robot spacecraft NEAR-Shoemaker [ http://near.jhuapl.edu/intro/faq.html ] in 2000 February. High-resolution surface measurements made by NEAR [ http://near.jhuapl.edu/NEAR/ ]'s Laser Rangefinder (NLR [ http://near.jhuapl.edu/instruments/NLR/index.html ]) have been combined into the above visualization [ http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/imagewall/eros.html ] based on the derived 3D model [ http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/imagewall/ eros.html#eros ] of the tumbling space rock [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000210.html ]. NEAR allowed scientists to discover that Eros [ http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/GSFC/SpaceSci/Near/eros.htm ] is a single solid body, that its composition is nearly uniform, and that it formed during the early years of our Solar System [ http://www.nineplanets.org/overview.html ]. Mysteries remain, however, including why some rocks on the surface have disintegrated. On 2001 February 12, the NEAR mission drew to a dramatic close as it was crash landed [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010212.html ] onto the asteroid's surface [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000803.html ], surviving well enough [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010213.html ] to return an analysis of the composition [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010305.html ] of the surface regolith [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000829.html ]. Unless re-awakened by NASA [ http://www.nasa.gov/ ], NEAR will likely remain on the asteroid [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000327.html ] for billions of years as a monument to human ingenuity at the turn of the third millennium [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010101.html ]. |
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