![[Image of NEAR]](banner/near.gif)
Launch Date: 17 February 1996 - 20:43 UT (3:43 PM EST)
Launch Vehicle: Delta II
Planned on-orbit mass: 805 kg (includes 318 kg propellant)
Power System: Solar panels of 1800 W
The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) mission is the first of
NASA's Discovery missions and the first mission ever to go into orbit
around an asteroid. The spacecraft is equipped with an X-ray/gamma ray
spectrometer, a near-infrared imaging spectrograph, a multispectral camera
fitted with a CCD imaging detector, a laser altimeter, and a magnetometer.
A radio science experiment will also be performed using the NEAR tracking
system to estimate the gravity field of the asteroid. The ultimate goal of
the mission was to rendezvous with and achieve orbit around the near Earth
asteroid 433 Eros in January, 1999, and study the asteroid for
approximately one year. A problem caused an abort of the first encounter
burn and the mission had to be rescoped for a 23 December 1998 flyby of Eros
and a later encounter and orbit on 14 February 2000. Eros is an S-class
asteroid about 13 x 13 x 33 km in size. Studies will be made of the
asteroid's size, shape, mass, magnetic field, composition, and surface and
internal structure. Periapsis of the orbit will be as low as 24 km above the
surface of the asteroid. Prior to its encounter with Eros NEAR flew within
1200 km of the C-class asteroid 253 Mathilde on 27 June 1997. It then
flew by the Earth on 23 January 1998. The spacecraft has the shape of
an octagonal prism, approximately 1.7 m on a side, with four solar panels
and a fixed 1.5 m X-band high-gain radio antenna.
Author/Curator: