Posted by Ray Katz in NASA, history
The Accidental Asteroid Tourist
NEAR-Shoemaker: the little spacecraft that could.
Asteroids are all the rage. We worry about being hit by one. We talk about sending people to one. We return sample material (or hope we did) from one.
All this asteroid talk makes me think about a spacecraft’s unplanned landing on an asteroid way back in 2001. The spacecraft—NEAR Shoemaker—was designed to study the asteroid 433 Eros from orbit. (The acronym stands for “Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous.”)
The spacecraft had trouble in its first attempt at orbiting. But after some fidgeting by earth-bound engineers, NEAR went into orbit around its target. Sending back tons of data from a variety of heights, the mission was a resounding success.
But, the really cool part is this: NEAR landed on the asteroid without landing gear! This was one of those crazy improvisations that worked.
Another NASA spacecraft, Dawn, is slated to reach another asteroid—Vesta—in July ofnext year.
