PDS_VERSION_ID = PDS3 RECORD_TYPE = UNDEFINED ^ADOBE_PDF_DOCUMENT = "MISSION.PDF" ^ASCII_DOCUMENT = "MISSION.TXT" OBJECT = ADOBE_PDF_DOCUMENT DOCUMENT_NAME = "NEAR OVERVIEW" DOCUMENT_TOPIC_TYPE = "DATA SET DESCRIPTION" INTERCHANGE_FORMAT = BINARY DOCUMENT_FORMAT = ADOBE_PDF PUBLICATION_DATE = 1998 DESCRIPTION = "This provides an overview of the entire NEAR mission" ABSTRACT_TEXT = "The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) mission inaugurates NASA's Discovery Program. It will be the first to orbit an asteroid and will make the first comprehensive scientific measurements of an asteroid's surface composition, geology, physical properties, and internal structure. NEAR was launched successfuly on 17 February 1996 aboard a Delta II-7925. It made the first reconnaissance of a C-type asteroid during its flyby of the main-belt asteroid 253 Mathilde in June 1997 and will orbit the unusually large near-Earth asteroid 433 Eros for a year at a minimum orbit of about 35 km from the center of the asteroid. NEAR will obtain new information on the nature and evolution of asteroids, improve our understanding of planetary formation processes in the early solar system, and clarify the relationship between asteroids and meteorites. The NEAR Mission Operations Center and Science Data Center are both located at APL. The latter will maintain the entire NEAR data set on-line and will make data from all instruments accessible over the Internet to every member of the NEAR science team." END_OBJECT = ADOBE_PDF_DOCUMENT OBJECT = ASCII_DOCUMENT DOCUMENT_NAME = "NEAR OVERVIEW" DOCUMENT_TOPIC_TYPE = "DATA SET DESCRIPTION" INTERCHANGE_FORMAT = ASCII DOCUMENT_FORMAT = TEXT PUBLICATION_DATE = 1998 NOTE = "This file simply refers the user to the NEAR mission catalog file, as it essentially conveys the same information." DESCRIPTION = "This provides an overview of the entire NEAR mission" ABSTRACT_TEXT = "The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) mission inaugurates NASA's Discovery Program. It will be the first to orbit an asteroid and will make the first comprehensive scientific measurements of an asteroid's surface composition, geology, physical properties, and internal structure. NEAR was launched successfuly on 17 February 1996 aboard a Delta II-7925. It made the first reconnaissance of a C-type asteroid during its flyby of the main-belt asteroid 253 Mathilde in June 1997 and will orbit the unusually large near-Earth asteroid 433 Eros for a year at a minimum orbit of about 35 km from the center of the asteroid. NEAR will obtain new information on the nature and evolution of asteroids, improve our understanding of planetary formation processes in the early solar system, and clarify the relationship between asteroids and meteorites. The NEAR Mission Operations Center and Science Data Center are both located at APL. The latter will maintain the entire NEAR data set on-line and will make data from all instruments accessible over the Internet to every member of the NEAR science team." END_OBJECT = ASCII_DOCUMENT END