Abstract
Last month, the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous space probe, known as NEAR, ignored all messages from its mission controllers for a crucial 27 hours and went speeding past its target. The interruption did not scuttle the mission, but it did deprive space aficionados, at least for the coming year, of witnessing one of the more elegant demonstrations of the art of spacecraft navigation and mission design: easing a car-sized probe into orbit around an oddly shaped asteroid about 1 billionth the mass of Earth.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
