The NEAR Discovery Mission: Lessons Learned

Under a contract from NASA The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory built and launched a spacecraft that will rendezvous and orbit the near earth asteroid 433 Eros. The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft is the first under NASA's Discovery Program, which is a series of low cost solar system missions. While in orbit around Eros the spacecraft will measure the bulk, surface, and internal properties of the asteroid for 10 months. This paper describes the lessons learned from design, test, and fabrication that are appropriate to other programs in quick development, or of an interplanetary nature.