Back ملتقي الكويكبات القريبة من الأرض Arabic NEAR – Shoemaker Byelorussian НИЪР Шумейкър Bulgarian NEAR Shoemaker Catalan NEAR Shoemaker Czech NEAR Shoemaker Danish NEAR Shoemaker German NEAR Shoemaker Spanish NEAR Shoemaker Estonian NEAR Shoemaker Finnish

NEAR Shoemaker

"NEAR" redirects here. For other uses, see Near.

NEAR Shoemaker
Model of a cylindrical spacecraft with four square-shaped solar panels at one of the craft's edges
Artist's rendering of the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft
Mission typeOrbiter (433 Eros)
OperatorNASA · APL
COSPAR ID1996-008A Edit this at Wikidata
SATCAT no.23784Edit this on Wikidata
WebsiteOfficial website
Mission duration5 years, 21 days
Spacecraft properties
Launch mass805 kg[1]
Dry mass487 kilograms (1,074 lb)
Power1,800 W
Start of mission
Launch dateFebruary 17, 1996 (1996-02-17) 20:43:27 UTC
RocketDelta II 7925-8
Launch siteCape Canaveral LC-17B
End of mission
Last contactFebruary 28, 2001 (2001-02-28) ~00:00 UTC
Landing dateFebruary 12, 2001 (2001-02-12) 20:01 UTC
Landing siteSouth of Himeros crater, 433 Eros
Flyby of 253 Mathilde
Closest approachJune 27, 1997 (1997-06-27) 12:56 UTC
Distance1,212 kilometers (753 mi)
433 Eros orbiter
Orbital insertionFebruary 14, 2000 (2000-02-14) 15:33 UTC
Orbits230 orbits[2]
An artwork of a spacecraft hovering above an asteroid, enclosed in an equilateral triangle with a thick, red border. The words "JHU/APL", "NASA", and "NEAR" are printed in bold white font, on the left, right, and bottom sides of the triangle's borders.
Official insignia of the NEAR Shoemaker mission

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.

  1. ^ "NEAR Shoemaker". NASA's Solar System Exploration website. Retrieved December 1, 2022.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference FAQ was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b "NEAR Shoemaker". NASA. Retrieved April 26, 2021.

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