NASA Daily News Summary 8 June 2000

NASA Daily News Summary

For Release:  June 8, 2000

Media Advisory m00-113

SUMMARY
NEWS RELEASES
  None today.
STATUS REPORT
  NEAR TEAM DEACTIVATES SPACECRAFT’S NEAR-INFRARED SENSOR
VIDEO
  ***ALL TIMES EASTERN***
  VIDEO FILE FOR JUNE 8, 2000
    ITEM 1 – SOHO CAPTURES IMAGES OF INCOMING SOLAR STORM – JSC

    ITEM 2 – NASA DEVELOPS ELECTRONIC NOSE – JPL (REPLAY)

    ITEM 3 – CGRO DEORBIT PACKAGE – GSFC (REPLAY)
  UPCOMING TELEVISION EVENTS
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NEWS RELEASES
None today.
—————————-
If NASA issues any news releases later today, we will e-

mail summaries and Internet URLs to this list.
Index of 2000 NASA News Releases:

http://www.nasa.gov/releases/2000/index.html
Index of 1999 NASA News Releases:

http://www.nasa.gov/releases/1999/index.html
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STATUS REPORT
June 7, 2000
NEAR Team Deactivates Spacecraft’s Near-Infrared Sensor
One of NEAR Shoemaker’s six scientific instruments has been turned

off after the NEAR mission team detected a power surge in the

device.
During routine operations on May 13, the Near-Infrared

Spectrometer (NIS) inexplicably began drawing excessive current

from the spacecraft’s power supply and stopped sending data.

Engineers shut down the instrument and spent several days

examining potential causes, but after a minute-long “turn on” test

June 5 showed the problem remained, the NEAR team opted to keep

the instrument off until it could gather more information.
Robert Gold, NEAR Shoemaker payload manager at the Johns Hopkins

University Applied Physics Laboratory – which manages the mission

for NASA – says the spacecraft itself is fine and that “NEAR

Shoemaker’s other instruments are operating extremely well.” 
Designed to map the mineral composition of the asteroid’s surface

by measuring the reflected spectrum of sunlight, NIS has already

contributed much to this historic mission. Its best data came from

a low-angle flyby of Eros on Feb. 13, when it mapped the minerals

on the asteroid’s northern hemisphere under near-perfect lighting

conditions. So far, the instrument has gathered more than 58,000

“spectra” – or separate infrared readings – covering more than 60

percent of the asteroid.
“We have a fantastic data set because, to this point, the

instrument has operated beautifully,” says Joseph Veverka, of

Cornell University, who leads NEAR’s Multispectral Imager/NIS

team. “We have a vast number of spectra to analyze, and we

gathered everything and more than we expected from the northern

hemisphere.”
That information will help the team examine Eros’ southern

hemisphere, which over the next few months will slowly emerge from

the shadows and into the sunlit view of NEAR Shoemaker’s imaging

tools. “It appears the surface is pretty uniform in terms of

spectral reflectance,” Veverka says. “By correlating the NIS data

from the northern hemisphere with what we gather from the

Multispectral Imager [digital camera] and the X-ray/Gamma-Ray

Spectrometers [which detect surface elements], we should be able

to address the remaining questions of how different the south

polar regions are from what we’ve already seen.” 
Four months after becoming the first spacecraft to orbit an

asteroid, NEAR Shoemaker is working 85 million miles (136 million

kilometers) from Earth, circling 31 miles (50 kilometers) above

Eros at just under 7 miles per hour. On July 7, the spacecraft

begins moving in for its closest look at Eros yet – a 10-day orbit

just 22 miles (35 kilometers) from the rotating space rock. NEAR

Shoemaker also carries a Laser Rangefinder to determine the

asteroid’s precise shape, and a Magnetometer to search for a

magnetic field. The yearlong mission ends in February 2001.
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UPCOMING TELEVISION EVENTS
June 8, Thursday

– 6:00 – 10:30 a.m. – Lightning Research Live News Interviews –

  MSFC

– 4:30 – 9:00 p.m. – Electronic Nose Live News Interview – JPL
June 10, Saturday

– 9:00 – 10:00 a.m. – That NASA Show:  “Space Clothes” and

  “Tortillas in Space” – HQ

– 10:00 – 11:00 a.m. – That NASA Show:  “Space Clothes” and

  “Tortillas in Space” – HQ

– 11:00 a.m. – Noon – That NASA Show:  “Space Clothes” and

  “Tortillas in Space” – HQ
June 11, Sunday

– 9:00 – 10:00 a.m. – That NASA Show:  “Space Clothes” and

  “Tortillas in Space” – HQ

– 10:00 – 11:00 a.m. – That NASA Show:  “Space Clothes” and

  “Tortillas in Space” – HQ

– 11:00 a.m. – Noon – That NASA Show:  “Space Clothes” and

  “Tortillas in Space” – HQ
For a complete list of upcoming live television events, see

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv/breaking.html
—————————–
Unless otherwise noted, ALL TIMES ARE EASTERN.
ANY CHANGES TO THE VIDEO LINE-UP WILL APPEAR ON THE NASA VIDEO

FILE ADVISORY ON THE WEB AT

ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/tv-advisory/nasa-tv.txt

WE UPDATE THE ADVISORY THROUGHOUT THE DAY.
The NASA Video File normally airs at noon, 3 p.m., 6 p.m., 9 p.m.

and midnight Eastern Time.
NASA Television is available on GE-2, transponder 9C at 85 degrees

West longitude, with vertical polarization. Frequency is on 3880.0

megahertz, with audio on 6.8 megahertz.
Refer general questions about the video file to NASA Headquarters,

Washington, DC: Ray Castillo, 202/358-4555, or Fred Brown,

202/358-0713, fred.brown@hq.nasa.gov
During Space Shuttle missions, the full NASA TV schedule will

continue to be posted at:

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/nasatv/schedule.html
For general information about NASA TV see:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv/
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Contract Awards
Contract awards are posted to the NASA Acquisition information

Service Web site: http://procurement.nasa.gov/EPS/award.html
*****************************
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end of daily news summary