NEAR image of the day for 2000 Oct 13
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Navigating NEAR Shoemaker The NEAR Navigation Team tracks the position of the spacecraft relative to Eros in several ways, including through optical navigation. Landmarks, mostly small, easily recognizable craters, have been identified by the "Nav" team and are used as markers. Several times daily, the camera is pointed at a target area and pictures are taken that are combined to create mosaics. The directions from the spacecraft to the landmarks, indicated by the locations of the landmarks in the pictures, provide a precise determination of NEAR Shoemaker's position above Eros. The "OpNav" mosaic shown here was taken on October 10, 2000, from an orbital altitude of 100 kilometers (62 miles).
(Mosaic of images 0146571177, 0146571239, 0146571301, 0146571363)
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Built and managed by The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Maryland, NEAR-Shoemaker was the first spacecraft launched in NASA's Discovery Program of low-cost, small-scale planetary missions. See the NEAR web site for more details. Feedback to Scott Murchie. Scott.Murchie@jhuapl.edu.