NEAR Shoemaker Weekly Report 17 November 2000

MISSION OPERATIONS:
 
NEAR Shoemaker continues to operate in the 200 km circular orbit initiated November 3 at 03:00 UTC when Orbit Correction Maneuver 18 (OCM 18) successfully executed.  According to the mission plan, the spacecraft will remain in this orbit for another four weeks, after which Orbit Correction Maneuvers 19 and 20 (OCM 19 & OCM 20) will be utilized to lower the orbit to 35-km.  The 35-km circular orbit will be dedicated to X-Ray / Gamma-Ray Spectrometer (XGRS) prime science.
 
Since the next planned OCM is not scheduled until December 7, periodic Momentum Correction Maneuvers (MCM) are required to manage spacecraft system momentum.  Two MCM’s will be required during this 200-km orbit phase.  The first maneuver of this pair, MCM 13, was successfully executed this past Wednesday, November 15, at 20:00 UTC.  The achieved momentum was well within operational tolerances, and the imparted delta V was minor.
 
With the successful completion of the Close Flyby of Eros, Mission Operations attention has now shifted to End of Mission activities.  The extraordinary nature of this final sequence should present a most interesting challenge for operations.
 
The spacecraft subsystem configuration has not changed during this reporting period.
 
As a result of recent solar flare activity, the XGRS BGO and GAS detectors were temporarily disabled.  The BGO detector has been re-enabled and the GAS detector is scheduled to be turned back on during the next high gain track, later today.
 
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:
 
Dec 7 Eros Orbit Correction Maneuver 19  (200 km x 35 km transfer orbit) Dec 13 Eros Orbit Correction Maneuver 20  (35 km orbit circularization)