On February 14, 2000, the Near-Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) Shoemaker spacecraft became the first spacecraft to orbit a small body, 433 Eros. The intensive year-long orbital mission that ensued included numerous orbit changes and instrument operations designed to maximize the science return. The NEAR team performed this operations feat with processes and tools developed during the four year long cruise period preceding Eros orbit insertion. During this cruise period a relatively small mission operations team also carried out several important mission events including the flyby of asteroid 253 Mathilde, a Deep Space Maneuver, and an Earth flyby. Lessons learned from these early events helped shape the mission operations team and its tools into a well-integrated team that carried out the first ever orbital science mission around a small body. This paper discusses the operations processes and systems developed at JHU/APL that permitted a small team to conduct the Eros orbital mission in a highly effective manner.
展开▼
