Asteroid Rendezvous: NEAR Shoemaker's Adventures at Eros

by Edited by Jim Bell , Jacqueline Mitton

• ISBN13: 9780521813600
• ISBN10: 0521813603
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-09-02
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) was the first mission to orbit and eventually land on an asteroid. The mission was a phenomenal success, returning hundreds of thousands of images, spectra, and other measurements about the large near-Earth asteroid 433 Eros. This book is a collection of essays by some of the scientists and engineers who made NEAR such a success. The entire mission is described here in their own words, from the initial concept studies, through the development phase, launch, cruise operations, the flyby of asteroid Mathilde, the near-catastrophic main engine failure in 1998, the heroic rescue and recovery of the spacecraft, the amazing year-long up-close look at one of our most primitive celestial neighbors, and finally the daring attempt to land the spacecraft on Eros at the end of the mission. The book is liberally illustrated throughout with images from the mission and explanatory diagrams.

Table of Contents

Preface and acknowledgements	vii
Foreword	xi
Carolyn Shoemaker
Eros: Special among the Asteroids	1	(9)
Joseph Veverka
Date with Eros	10	(13)
Robert Farquhar
From Launch to Rendezvous	23	(14)
Scott Murchie
Landscape of an Asteroid	37	(14)
Louise Prockter
Mark Robinson
Eros: From and Substance	51	(10)
Peter Thomas
Ingredients of an Asteroid	61	(13)
Jim Bell
The Battered History of Eros	74	(12)
Clark R. Chapman
On Course and Picture Perfect	86	(15)
Maureen Bell
Bill Owen
Mission Accomplished	101	(8)
Andrew Cheng
Bibliography	109	(1)
Glossary of technical terms and abbreviations	110	(4)
Index	114