2001 Feb 16
NEAR Mission Team Awaits Gamma-Ray Report
NEAR Mission Operations Center team members are now waiting to see if commands sent to NEAR Shoemaker's gamma-ray spectrometer on Thursday, Feb. 15, will yield the detailed compositional analysis they are hoping for.Signals coming from the spacecraft tell them voltages and temperatures are as expected, and that their commands have been received by NEAR Shoemaker. But to find out whether or not the spectrometer is carrying out the commands, they have to wait until the first science data begins flowing back to Earth late Sunday, Feb. 18. The data must then be analyzed by science team members over the next few weeks.
If all goes well, the NEAR mission will obtain the first in situ gamma-ray measurements taken on a small body-measurements that are expected to be ten times more sensitive than what was possible when the spacecraft was in orbit around Eros.
