[meteorite-list] UA Science Team Readies For NEAR Landing

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:41:07 2004
Message-ID: <200102072141.NAA29862_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

>
> But regarding Eros, I can't help but think back to the Gemini 9 mission,
> when America performed its second ever space walk. Astronaut Gene Cernan was
> supposed to exit the craft, climb to the back of it and put on a backpack
> with control thrusters. It was a disaster! He had no hand holds, so every
> time he touched the spacecraft, it pushed him back, so he spent a couple of
> hours floating around, ultimately achieving nothing! By the time everyone
> remembered Newton's 3rd law, they had hand-holds installed for Gemini 12
> (and Buzz Aldrin did 3 perfect EVAs). The reason I mention this is that in
> the NASA press release someone said "it's just going to fall over". No its
> not, its going to bounce off, just like Gene Cernan did!

I think you forget that Eros is substantially larger than a Gemini spacecraft,
and thus has substantially more gravity. NEAR will be doing a soft crash
landing on Eros, and it is not going to bounce off. The real issue is
in what kind of position will the the spacecraft be in after landing (and yes,
it can fall over), and will it survive the landing. The spacecraft will be
hitting the surface at a velocity ranging from 3 meters/second to 6 meters/second.

Ron Baalke
Received on Wed 07 Feb 2001 04:41:20 PM PST