NEAR Shoemaker Weekly Report 14 July 2000

MISSION OPERATIONS:
 
NEAR Shoemaker has successfully entered a 35 km circular orbit around the asteroid Eros!
 
During this past week, NEAR Shoemaker remained in Operational Mode with Flight Computer #1 and Attitude Interface Unit #2 in control of spacecraft attitude.  Except for the Near-Infrared Spectrometer (NIS), the spacecraft instrument suite remained "ON" and operational this week.
 
Orbit Correction Maneuver 8 (OCM 8) was successfully executed today, July 14, at 03:00 UTC.  This maneuver, performed near periapse of the 35 km x 50 km transfer orbit, placed the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft in a nominal 35 km circular orbit relative to the center of Eros.  During the 35 km orbit, after recovering opnav data associated with OCM 8, four days will be spent sun-pointing to refine the gravitational field model, and the remaining duration will be allocated to XGRS for prime science data collection.  The next maneuver, scheduled for July 24, is Orbit Correction Maneuver 9 (OCM 9), which initiates a 35 km x 50 km transfer orbit.
 
Except for the NIS, science activities conducted this week included Eros observations by the full instrument suite: MSI, MAG, XGRS and NLR.  Please consult science timelines for more details.
 
Upcoming Spacecraft Activities:
 
In addition to regular Eros Science and Optical Navigation, the following are operationally significant activities planned for the NEAR Shoemaker mission operation:
 
July 24 Eros Orbit Correction Maneuver 9  (35 km  x  50 km transfer                 orbit)
July 31 Eros Orbit Correction Maneuver 10  (50 km orbit circularization) Aug 8 Eros Orbit Correction Maneuver 11 (50 km orbit – plane change) Aug 26 Eros Orbit Correction Maneuver 12 (50 km x 100 km transfer orbit)