All instruments with the exception of the MSI (see below) remained "ON" during this week. S/C attitude pointing continues to alternate between Eros nadir proximity pointing, Earth pointing, and Sun pointing as required to conduct Eros orbital operations. NEAR-Shoemaker completed its first month in Eros orbit on March 14.

NEAR-Shoemaker is presently in a 200 km by 209 km orbit around Eros. NEAR-Shoemaker will stay in this orbit conducting Science observations until April 2, 2000 when an Orbit Correction Maneuver will place the spacecraft in a 200 km x 100 km transfer orbit.

The March 15 Momentum Control Maneuver (MCM 1) successfully executed, biasing S/C momentum with minimal perturbing effects on the orbit.

This was a successful demonstration of the stand-alone propulsive momentum adjustment design required to manage S/C angular momentum during weeks when no Orbit Correction Maneuvers (OCM) are planned.

A repeat of this maneuver is planned for March 23.

The Long View of Eros: This image looking down the length of Eros was taken from the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft on March 10, 2000, from a range of 206 kilometers (127 miles). At once, it shows many of the landforms revealed in the last month to be characteristic of this tiny world. The part of the surface shown here is covered by craters of all sizes, right down to the limit of image resolution. Many of the largest craters, such as the two at upper left, have conspicuous brightness ("albedo") markings on their interior walls. At the upper left is a portion of the ridge that nearly wraps around Eros' waist. Near the center of the image, oriented from the upper right to lower left, are several broad troughs, or grooves, about 200 meters (656 feet) wide. The three boulders on the far horizon are about 80 meters (262 feet) across - each nearly the size of a football field. The area shown in the image is 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) high. To put the asteroid's size into human perspective, a famous New York landmark is shown inset at the lower left.

MSI Execution Error
The Multispectral Imager (MSI) experienced another command execution error on March 13 at 03:52 UTC suspending image taking until March 14 when Mission Operations rebooted the MSI at 19:30 UTC. The investigation into this problem is ongoing.

Science activities conducted this week included Eros "high altitude" ~200 Km observations with the MSI, NIS, MAG, NLR and XGRS instruments. Please consult science timelines for more details.

Mission Operations held a review of a modified Earth Safe Macro that prevents instruments from being turned off during safing conditions when sufficient power is available.

The modified Earth Safe Macro will be uploaded to the spacecraft next week. Also reviewed was a new autonomy rule that will help safeguard the spacecraft in the event automatic wheel speed de-saturations are required.

Upcoming Spacecraft Activities: In addition to regular Eros Science and Optical Navigation, the following are operationally significant activities planned for the NEAR-Shoemaker future:

March 22 Propulsive Momentum Bias
April 2 Eros Orbit Correction Maneuver 3
(200 Km x 100 Km transfer orbit)

NEAR NEWS
Asteroid's Get Flashy As NEAR Gets Close To Eros
Laurel - March 15, 2000 - After scarcely a month in orbit around asteroid Eros, NASA's Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft is astounding scientists with ever more detailed views of geologic features and with technical scientific accomplishments.