[meteorite-list] NEAR Shoemaker Image Of The Day - February 9, 2001

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:41:08 2004
Message-ID: <200102091655.IAA08910_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

                   NEAR image of the day for 2001 Feb 09

                   http://near.jhuapl.edu/iod/20010209/

                          NEAR Shoemaker's Descent

                  QuickTime: Small (2.3 MB) Large (6.6 MB)

          This 6-scene animated sequence shows the NEAR Shoemaker
          spacecraft as might look when it descends from orbit
          above Eros to the surface of the asteroid on Feb. 12.
          Hydrazine engine bursts slow the spacecraft so it can
          descend gently.

          NEAR Shoemaker will de-orbit with an engine burn at
          10:31 a.m. EST, about 4 ½ hours before it's scheduled to
          reach the surface. The final leg of the controlled
          descent begins with the spacecraft about 5 kilometers (3
          miles) above the surface; it will then execute an
          unprecedented series of four engine burns designed to
          slow its descent from about 20 mph to about 5 mph. NEAR
          Shoemaker is expected to touch down in an area just
          outside Himeros, the asteroid's distinctive
          saddle-shaped depression, after providing the
          highest-resolution images ever taken of Eros'
          boulder-strewn, cratered terrain.
          --------------------------------------------------------
          Built and managed by The Johns Hopkins University
          Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Maryland,
          NEAR-Shoemaker was the first spacecraft launched in
          NASA's Discovery Program of low-cost, small-scale
          planetary missions. See the NEAR web site for more
          details (http://near.jhuapl.edu) .
Received on Fri 09 Feb 2001 11:55:52 AM PST