The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous Mission

The Near-Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) mission is the first launch in the Discovery Program, a NASA initiative for small planetary missions with a maximum 3-year development cycle and a cost capped at $150 million for construction, launch, and 30 days of operation. The NEAR mission was designed and built by The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. In addition, the JHU-APL is controlling the entire flight from its Mission Operations center on-site in Laurel. This is the first time a NASA mission has been run by a non-NASA facility.

The spacecraft was successfully launched on February 17, 1996, at 3:43 p.m. EST. In January, 1998, the spacecraft swung by Earth for a gravity assist. The ultimate goal of the mission is to rendezvous with and achieve orbit around the near-Earth asteroid 433 Eros in February, 2000, and study the asteroid for approximately one year at altitudes as close as 15 miles (24 kilometers) to the asteroid's surface.

As the first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid, the NEAR mission promises to answer fundamental questions about the nature and origin of near-Earth objects, such as the numerous asteroids, meteoroids, and comets in the vicinity of Earth's orbit. These objects are of interest for several reasons. First, they are the primary source of large bodies that collide with Earth, greatly influencing the evolution of the atmosphere and life on Earth. The composition, bulk properties, and provenance of asteroids are key links in establishing the connection between meteorites and the history of asteroids, and in better quantifying the nature of the impact hazard that the asteroids pose to Earth. An asteroid collision with Earth was likely responsible for the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous period, and another impact in 1908 destroyed thousands of square kilometers of forest near Tunguska, Siberia. In addition, clues to the nature of early solar system processes and conditions are preserved in various forms on small bodies like asteroids, comets, and meteorites. The near-Earth population of asteroids, in particular, is believed to contain clues to the nature of the building blocks from which the inner planets, including Earth, were formed.

The NEAR mission will make the first quantitative and comprehensive measurements of an asteroid's composition and structure. The measurements have been identified by the National Academy of Sciences as the most important scientific objectives in the exploration of primitive bodies. Primary scientific goals of the NEAR mission are to measure:

Bulk properties: Size, shape, volume, mass, gravity field, and spin state
Surface properties: Elemental and mineral composition, geology, morphology, and texture
Internal properties: Mass distribution and magnetic field.

Science data and related products will be archived in near real-time in NASA's Planetary Data System, with access for the general science community, the public, and educators through the Internet.

NEAR orbiting Eros (animation)
low resolution (544K) high resolution (1,325K)

NEAR orbiting Eros (animation by Cornell University)
low resolution (93K) high resolution (186K)

Table of Contents for no frames/no JAVA browsing.

Contact Steve Bowser (slbowser@umd5.umd.edu) or
Joy Maloney (jmaloney@umd5.umd.edu) for further information.