Instrument fails on asteroid orbiter

June 8, 2000
Web posted at: 5:24 PM EDT (2124 GMT)

From staff reports

(CNN) -- Mission scientists this week turned off an instrument on the NEAR asteroid orbiter after it experienced unexplained power surges.

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The infrared spectrometer aboard the NEAR-Shoemaker, used to measure the mineral composition of asteroid Eros, drew excessive electrical current from the spacecraft's power supply in May and stopped sending data, mission scientists said.

Engineers shut it down but turned it back on briefly on June 5 to test it. The glitch remained and engineers decided to keep it turned off until they could examine the problem further.

The other five instruments on the NEAR-Shoemaker are operating well, said a researcher with the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Research lab, which manages the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous mission for NASA.

Before the shutdown, the spectrometer had gathered infrared readings from more than 60 percent of the asteroid Eros, NEAR mission scientists said.

The robot ship began a yearlong orbit around the unusually shaped space rock on February 14. NEAR is now about 85 million miles (136 million km) from Earth, orbiting Eros at a distance of 31 miles (50 km).

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Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous Mission
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Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory

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