NEAR will stay in this orbit conducting Science observations until April 2,2000 when an Orbit Correction Maneuver will place NEAR in a 200 Km x 100 Km transfer orbit. The XGRS instrument made its first direct measurement of Eros's elemental composition this past week during a brief period of intense solar activity. In addition, the Gamma Ray Burst experiment continues to provide valuable timing information that supports determining Gamma Ray Burst points of origin. This effort recently confirmed NEAR's onboard timing accuracy to 100 ms. Operations efforts this week focused on preparing for next week's momentum bias maneuver planned for March 15th.
All preparations are now complete.
Km observations with the MSI, NIS, MAG, NLR and XGRS instruments. Activities conducted are too numerous to mention here. Please consult science timelines for more details.