Happy landing: craft descends onto Eros.What could be better than landing a spacecraft for the first time on an asteroid? The ability to do research once the craft has landed. On Feb. 12, the unmanned spacecraft NEAR (Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous) Shoemaker touched down on the asteroid 433 Eros, the twirling Twirling is any of several artforms, hobbies, or sport and recreational activities accomplished by spinning or rotating the twirled object either for exercise, or in a rhythmic, or otherwise artful manner. , elongated e·lon·gate tr. & intr.v. e·lon·gat·ed, e·lon·gat·ing, e·lon·gates To make or grow longer. adj. or elongated 1. Made longer; extended. 2. Having more length than width; slender. space rock that the craft had orbited for nearly a year (SN: 11/4/00, p. 293). During its descent, the craft's camera recorded close-ups of an asteroid that were 10 times as sharp as any previously taken. NEAR's camera remained in focus even as the craft came within 120 meters of Eros, showing details just 10 centimeters wide. That image was probably NEAR's last, since the camera is on the craft's landing side. Indeed, the craft was never designed to land on Eros, and researchers expected it to be crippled crip·ple n. 1. A person or animal that is partially disabled or unable to use a limb or limbs: cannot race a horse that is a cripple. 2. A damaged or defective object or device. tr.v. by the impact when it hit just outside a saddle-shaped crater called Himeros. But to the team's amazement, NEAR broadcast a strong signal after landing, indicating that its solar panels and other key equipment were still functioning. The landing proved so gentle that researchers initially considered another history-making maneuver: Using NEAR's remaining fuel to lift the craft briefly a few hundred meters off the asteroid and take the first image showing the impact of a spacecraft on the surface of a space rock. The researchers soon determined, however, that any liftoff attempt would be risky because of uncertainties about the amount of fuel remaining and its capability to achieve sufficient altitude. Moreover, the camera is likely to be covered with dirt. The team then decided that NEAR should stay put, so that the craft's gamma-ray spectrometer spectrometer Device for detecting and analyzing wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation, commonly used for molecular spectroscopy; more broadly, any of various instruments in which an emission (as of electromagnetic radiation or particles) is spread out according to some could gather precise data about the asteroid's composition. "We're on cloud nine, and now we're trying to get to cloud 18," says NEAR scientist Joseph Veverka of Cornell University Cornell University, mainly at Ithaca, N.Y.; with land-grant, state, and private support; coeducational; chartered 1865, opened 1868. It was named for Ezra Cornell, who donated $500,000 and a tract of land. With the help of state senator Andrew D. . The close-up images show a transition between a region with a small number of angular boulders and one with a larger population, more rounded in appearance, he notes. The close-ups explain why scientists had seen lots of large craters on Eros but few small ones, adds Mark Robinson Mark Robinson may refer to:
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