Near Earth asteroid rendezvous spacecraft overview

The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory is under contract from NASA to design and launch a spacecraft that will rendezvous and orbit the near Earth asteroid, 433 Eros. The spacecraft is the first under NASA's Discovery Program, which is a new series of low cost solar system missions. The mission plan is to launch in February 1996, fly by the main belt asteroid 253 Mathilde in June 1997, and arrive at 433 Eros in February 1999. While in orbit around Eros the spacecraft will measure the bulk, surface, and internal properties of the asteroid for a period of 12 months. This paper describes the near Earth asteroid rendezvous mission with a focus on the spacecraft design. The system level spacecraft architecture employs a design approach that takes advantage of mission geometry to enable exciting, first-rate science return with low cost, quick turnaround, and low technical risk.