NEAR Mission Status Report January 7, 2000

NEAR Mission Status Reports – http://near.jhuapl.edu

MISSION OPERATIONS:

The NEAR spacecraft continued to operate nominally in Operational Mode
with Flight Computer #1 and Attitude Interface Unit #2 in control. All
instruments remained “ON” during this week.

NEAR is presently 52,990 Km from Eros (32,926 miles).

Operations conducted after the year-end transition resulted in no Y2K
related problems with either ground or flight systems.

The off-Sun pointing threshold was increased from 3 to 5 deg on 1/3/00 to
improve the S/C momentum control response time while Sun pointing. The
fanbeam downlink rate was decreased to 9 bps.

The NLR’s operating mode was promoted to a fully operational mode on
1/5/00. Sufficient operations were conducted to verify the proper routing
of NLR science data and full command capability. The NLR is now in the
proper configuration to support the re-test of the NLR Timing Test planned
for 1/21/00.

Final preparations and testing of the command load to start on 1/17/00 are
nearing completion. This command load, to be loaded next week, contains a
second test of the Eros rendezvous sequence and a continuation of Eros
science and OpNav operations.

24 x 7 operations will begin on 1/10/00 with the start of routine Eros
operations.

Upcoming Spacecraft Activities:

The following are operationally significant activities planned for the
December time frame:

Jan 11 Begin Eros science operations and daily high gain data playbacks

Jan 11 Shorten S/C command watchdog timers to 3 days

Jan 14 Begin regular Eros OpNavs

Feb 2 Rendezvous maneuver

Feb 8 Rendezvous maneuver cleanup and momentum bias maneuver

Feb 14 Eros Orbit Insertion