[meteorite-list] NEAR Bounces to Historic Landing on Asteroid Eros

From: Matson, Robert <ROBERT.D.MATSON_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:41:10 2004
Message-ID: <AF564D2B9D91D411B9FE00508BF1C8692C5F1C_at_US-Torrance.mail.saic.com>

Hi Ron & List,

> At the NEAR press conference, they confirmed the thrusters
> were still firing when it touched down. They've also discounted
> the spacecraft bouncing, and of course, it came nowhere near
> from bouncing off. I'm about to post the latest NEAR status
> report which mentions this.

(from this post):

> They also have a better picture of what happened in the moments
> after the landing: What they originally thought was the spacecraft
> bouncing may have been little more than short hop or "jiggle" on
> the surface; the thrusters were still firing when the craft hit the
> surface, but cut off on impact; and NEAR Shoemaker came down
> only about 650 feet (200 meters) from the projected landing site.

Not to beat a dead horse, but isn't this getting
a bit Clinton-esque with the language? The spacecraft
bounced, just as some of us said it would. Calling
it a short hop or "jiggle" is just playing with
semantics. Did NEAR leave the surface of Eros for
any length of time subsequent to initial contact?
Evidence suggests yes. It most certainly did not
just hit, sink in, and "fall over" as some at NASA
suggested it would.

That's not to take away from the incredible achievement
of successfully landing on a highly irregular asteroid
using a spacecraft that was never designed to land.
The fact that communication with the spacecraft was/is
still possible following touch down is even more amazing.
The orbital engineers who designed the deorbit and landing
trajectory have every reason to be proud of their
unprecedented achievement. Congratulations!

Best,
Rob
Received on Wed 14 Feb 2001 05:44:22 PM PST