NEAR image of the day for 2000 Oct 23
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Imaging the October 26 Low-Altitude Flyover On October 25, the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft will begin a descent from its 50-kilometer (31-mile) orbit above Eros to a low altitude flyover on October 26 that will bring the spacecraft to within 5.3 kilometers (3 miles) of the asteroid's surface. Pictures taken during the flyover are expected to show features as small as 0.7 meters (2 feet) across, which is unprecedented for a spacecraft that hasn't actually landed. This simulation shows a narrow band along the spacecraft's groundtrack that includes some of the more than 200 pictures expected to be taken. The exact locations will depend on the spacecraft's trajectory and the final commanded attitude of its camera.
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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.