NEAR MISSION DESIGN

he Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft took 4 years from launch until it became the first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid in February 2000. A month later, the spacecraft was re-christened NEAR Shoemaker to honor the late Eugene Shoemaker. To save launch costs, the mission used a special 2-year-period trajectory with an Earth gravity assist. On the way, the spacecraft imaged the asteroid 253 Mathilde. On 20 Decem-ber 1998, NEAR’s large engine misfired, failing to brake it for entry into orbit about 433 Eros. Another attempt 2 weeks later succeeded, but the spacecraft was almost a million kilometers away and took over a year to reach the asteroid. The mission was recovered thanks to a generous fuel supply and robust contingency planning. The implementation of the spacecraft’s daring orbital maneuvers is described, including those used to land on Eros ’ surface in February 2001