Customer Reviews

Asteroid Rendezvous: NEAR Shoemaker's Adventures at Eros

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) mission completed in 2001 was the first to orbit and eventually land on an asteroid. That fact makes it significant. The fact that the mission was an unqualified success-when a success for NASA was truly critical in the aftermath of two successive failures with Mars probes in 1999-makes it rare. The fact that it was conducted by the Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory over the protests of the mighty Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA's traditional solar system exploration center, makes it politically sensitive. The fact that the NEAR team performed the mission on the cheap, spending less than $150 million, makes it unprecedented for deep space probes. The fact that it returned thousands of images, spectra, and other measurements about the large near-Earth asteroid 433 Eros makes it scientifically relevant.

After a long gestation period, NEAR began its voyage to Eros on 17 February 1996, the first mission flown under NASA's new Discovery program, a series of low-cost planetary science projects. NEAR finally moved into orbit around Eros on 14 February 2000, roughly a year later than intended.

Throughout 2000, NEAR explored Eros offering spectacular pictures and a rich harvest of spectroscopy data. At the conclusion of the mission, on 12 February 2001, the mission team landed it on the surface of Eros. Although the NEAR spacecraft was not designed to survive landing, its instruments remained operational until 1 March 2001.

In "Asteroid Rendezvous" several of the scientists and engineers who conducted the NEAR mission describe it in their own words from initial concept studies through development, launch, and cruise operations. The book is liberally illustrated throughout with both stunning images from the mission and explanatory diagrams.

"Asteroid Rendezvous" is long on description and celebration and short on analysis and critical examination. Even so, it is a very interesting book, and a fine start in documenting the history of this important mission. It will be of interest to amateur astronomers and general readers who want to know about the American space program. It will serve as grist for future serious historical studies of planetary exploration.

The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) mission was the first of NASA's "Faster, Better Cheaper" spacecraft. Its primary mission was to orbit the asteroid 433 Eros, thereby becoming the first robotic explorer to orbit and eventually land on an asteroid. On the journey to Eros, NEAR flew by the main-belt asteroid Mathilde as well as our home planet, the Earth and returned dozens of pictures; however, the journey to Eros was almost lost when a software error caused the main engine to shut down prematurely. Due to the efforts the engineers and scientists supporting this project, the space probe was saved and the NEAR mission became one of the most successful NASA missions. In the end, the mission returned with hundreds of thousands of images, spectra, and other measurements about the large near-Earth asteroid Eros.

In this book, the author, Jim Bell, a planetary scientist and professor at Cornell, has assembled nine different articles about various aspects of this mission into one concise book about all aspects of this specular mission. The book opens with a chapter providing an overview of Eros and then moves into two chapters dedicated to the spacecraft and its mission, and its trip to Eros, from launch to rendezvous. The remaining chapters cover the different discovers made by the NEAR spacecraft, such as its overall landscape, its history, and several on its geology. There is also one chapter, which explains the photography planning, and eventual execution of this plan.

In general, I did not find the book to be very technical and there is a glossary of terms to help the layman as well as numerous photographs, figures and graphs are found throughout the book to further explain a given topic.

If you are interested in planetary exploration or the space program in general, this book would an excellent addition to your library.

The book is a collection of nine research papers written by the NEAR Shoemaker's scientists themselves. The book is somewhat technical but not overly so, and is written for an adventurous reader that likes some of the science thrown in. I found it to be a fascinating story and I appreciate the authors attempt to make me feel like I was along for the ride. Good job, I look forward to your next mission!

NEAR was renamed NEAR Shoemaker in honor of Gene Shoemaker the famous astronomer/scientist who did much asteroid and comet research but passed away before NEAR examined the EROS asteroid. Extremely well written and fantastic pictures and illustrations.

The NEAR spacecraft runs into a serious problem by a too short "burn". Near shuts down in the safe mode. Later the scientists are able to save the mission by swinging the spacecraft and using earth as a sling shot to change the trajectory of NEAR to reach EROS but the mission takes longer. Near survives a couple of near catastrophes but due to back up procedures the scientists are able to save the mission.

The mission was OVER 100% successful. First as an extra the NEAR spacecraft takes images of another asteroid Mathilde. It is a very dark object and through NEAR images and data from NEAR on how Mathilde is affecting the spacecrafts passing the scientists determine this class C asteroid has lots of carbon and is not solid but a bunch of debris compacted with void space. Not dense and a spacecraft first taking images of a class C asteroid.. They intentionally blow a cover off the camera to get more light to get images. Unfortunately this causes contamination problems for later taking images of EROS but they are able to compensate.

Many fantastic images of EROS taken and you can actually see small boulders. Many impact craters and a huge uplift crack found from an ancient impact. There is much debris/regolith on EROS. Data from NEAR Shoemaker allows scientist to determine EROS is in a completely different class than Mathilde. Eros is a class S asteroid. Its mostly silicon and has an elongated bent potato shape with a much more homogeneous composition and denser; similar to Mar's Phobos moon. The scientists are able to determine EROS probably originally was an old asteroid in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter but because of collisions became a Near Earth Orbit asteroid and is a big one about the size of Cape Cod near Boston.

Near Shoemaker had a magnetometer, A near infrared Spectrometer, a Multi spectral imager, x ray solar monitor sensors, a laser range finder and an x ray/gamma ray spectrometer so much more was done than just taking pictures.

Some historical firsts. First encounter with a class C asteroid. First encounter with a near earth asteroid. First spacecraft to orbit a small body in space. First spacecraft to land on a small space body.

Myself personally I have much more interest in a manned Mars mission and eventual colonization but this NEAR Shoemaker mission was spectacular. #1 it was a low cost mission that was completed on time and under budget. #2 It is extremely important to determine the composition of Near Earth Orbit objects that could threaten Earth. Remember the dinosaurs had a very bad day when an asteroid slammed into the Earth 65 million years ago. Also there has been many impacts on the earth since then. #3 the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft was never designed to land on EROS. The great group of scientists and technicians were able to safely land NEAR on EROS and NEAR was still mostly functional. The solar panels for power were still working as well as the x ray/gamma ray spectrometer getting data about EROS exterior composition. They also got great images as the spacecraft descended.

So many more questions raised about asteroids from the NEAR Shoemaker data from asteroids Mathilde and Eros.

The scientists ,technicians and builders of NEAR are to be commended on achieving an OVER 100% mission. Great job! A truely remarkable mission and a great book describing it. No difficult math. You don't need a degree in astrophysics to enjoy this book. Great for anyone interested in planetary exploration and asteroids. A nice addition to our families library.