NEAR Shoemaker

NEAR Shoemaker

Artist's rendering of the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft
Mission type	Orbiter (433 Eros)
Operator	NASA · APL
COSPAR ID	1996-008A
SATCAT no.	23784
Website	Official website
Mission duration	5 years, 21 days
Spacecraft properties
Launch mass	805 kg[1]
Dry mass	487 kilograms (1,074 lb)
Power	1,800 W
Start of mission
Launch date	February 17, 1996 (1996-02-17) 20:43:27 UTC
Rocket	Delta II 7925-8
Launch site	Cape Canaveral LC-17B
End of mission
Last contact	February 28, 2001 (2001-02-28) ~00:00 UTC
Landing date	February 12, 2001 (2001-02-12) 20:01 UTC
Landing site	South of Himeros crater, 433 Eros
Flyby of 253 Mathilde
Closest approach	June 27, 1997 (1997-06-27) 12:56 UTC
Distance	1,212 kilometers (753 mi)
433 Eros orbiter
Orbital insertion	February 14, 2000 (2000-02-14) 15:33 UTC
Orbits	230 orbits[2]
Official insignia of the NEAR Shoemaker mission Discovery program Mars Pathfinder →

Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous – Shoemaker (NEAR Shoemaker), renamed after its 1996 launch in honor of planetary scientist Eugene Shoemaker, was a robotic space probe designed by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory for NASA to study the near-Earth asteroid Eros from close orbit over a period of a year. It was the first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid and land on it successfully.^[3] In February 2000, the mission closed in on the asteroid and orbited it. On February 12, 2001, Shoemaker touched down on the asteroid and was terminated just over two weeks later.^[3]

The primary scientific objective of NEAR was to return data on the bulk properties, composition, mineralogy, morphology, internal mass distribution, and magnetic field of Eros. Secondary objectives include studies of regolith properties, interactions with the solar wind, possible current activity as indicated by dust or gas, and the asteroid spin state. This data was used to help understand the characteristics of asteroids in general, their relationship to meteoroids and comets, and the conditions in the early Solar System. To accomplish these goals, the spacecraft was equipped with an X-ray/gamma-ray spectrometer, a near-infrared imaging spectrograph, a multi-spectral camera fitted with a CCD imaging detector, a laser rangefinder, and a magnetometer. A radio science experiment was also performed using the NEAR tracking system to estimate the gravity field of the asteroid. The total mass of the instruments was 56 kg (123 lb), requiring 80 watts of power.