[meteorite-list] NEAR Resurrection: Bringing Back the Dead Spacecraft

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:04:51 2004
Message-ID: <200205231640.JAA28346_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/near_reboot_020523.html

NEAR Resurrection: Bringing Back the Dead Spacecraft
By Leonard David
space.com
23 May 2002
              
A death-defying comeback might be in store for NASA's Near Earth
Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft. The probe is now muted, quietly
resting in a no-shout zone on the surface of asteroid 433 Eros.
 
An attempt to reconnect with NEAR may occur at year's end as the rocky
world and Earth move into close proximity and sunlight washes over the
spacecraft's energizing solar panels.
 
The stab-in-the dark at re-establishing radio contact with NEAR could
be done though NASA's Deep Space Network managed by the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
 
Those who worked on the NEAR project hope it can be revived. But it's a
long shot, they quickly add.
 
Super-cold temperatures may have done in the electronics aboard the
spacecraft. On the other hand, turning on NEAR would be coup de grace
of cosmic proportion. A fit-and-fiddle spacecraft would give engineers
confidence in future hardware designs - equipment that can take a
beating but keep on keeping on.
 
Electronic defibrillation: turn on your heart light
 
A one-time attempt to get a peep from NEAR from afar has been given the
go ahead, said Stamatios Krimigis, Space Department head at The Johns
Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel,
Maryland.
 
APL built NEAR and managed the NEAR mission for NASA.
 
NEAR project scientist, Andrew Cheng of APL told SPACE.com that he was
hopeful the prospect of resurrecting the asteroid probe might prove
fruitful. Turning on NEAR science instruments could be attempted, such
as a laser ranging device on the spacecraft, he said.
 
However, nobody knows for sure whether or not the patient -- NEAR --
can be given a kind of electronic defibrillation and awakened from deep
slumber.
 
Some claim that the probability of an afterlife for NEAR is likely
zilch.

"Pit stop" on Eros

NEAR has already made an impressive dent in space history.
 
Built and managed by APL, NEAR (renamed NEAR-Shoemaker after the loss
of astrogeologist Gene Shoemaker) was the first spacecraft launched in
NASA's Discovery Program of low-cost, small-scale planetary missions.
 
The NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft, launched in 1996, swung into orbit
around Eros in February 2000. It circled the asteroid for a year,
dipping at times to within three miles (5.3 kilometers) of the
potato-shaped asteroid's ends and returning more than 10 times the data
expected over the program's lifetime.
 
At mission's end, NEAR made an unscheduled "pit stop".
 
Designed only as an orbiter, flight controllers on February 12, 2001
gently set the craft down amongst craters and large rocks that dot
Eros. To everyone's delight, the probe continued to return valuable
information from the asteroid's surface for two weeks after touchdown.
 
NEAR Shoemaker skidded to a stop 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.
 
Sound of silence
 
NEAR Shoemaker made a 3-point landing on the tips of two solar panels,
and at the bottom edge of the probe's body.
 
As NEAR Shoemaker touched down it began sending a beacon, assuring the
team that the small spacecraft had landed. The signal was identified by
radar science data, and about an hour later was locked onto by NASA's
Deep Space Network antennas.
 
Success of the landing sequence prodded NASA Headquarters to extend the
mission. Gamma ray and magnetometer readings from the surface of Eros
were collected and retrieved during an extended NEAR mission.
 
On February 28, 2001, the final DSN contact with NEAR Shoemaker was
carried out. Spacecraft telemetry was disabled and the probe's active
transponder was turned off.
 
The craft fell silent. It dutifully obeyed final commands to initiate
hibernation procedures.
 
For NEAR Shoemaker later this year: Will it be rest in peace for the
probe or can it become a celestial comeback kid?
Received on Thu 23 May 2002 12:40:01 PM PDT