Is it possible that NEAR Shoemaker could survive its long, deep sleep? There is some speculation at APL that awakening the probe after its long hibernation might be feasible.
Given full sunlight will fall upon the spacecraft once again in August 2002, reactivating solar-powered NEAR Shoemaker might be worth thinking about, said Helen Worth, APL spokeswoman.
"As we've learned with NEAR Shoemaker, the impossible always seems to become possible. There are no plans at this time to do such a thing. But it wouldn't be unreasonable to look into the idea," Worth told SPACE.com.
"It would give us another opportunity to learn more about what happens to a spacecraft. If we can't contact it later, if we tried to, we would learn something from that too. Whether they're going to even attempt that...it hasn't been decided at this point," Worth said.
In 2002, Eros is much closer to Earth. Reestablishing a radio link with the asteroid-sitting spacecraft might be reasonable and feasible.
"This idea has not been thoroughly examined. It's something that needs to be looked at to determine if it's even possible. We're not there yet. I'm sure there are people who are thinking about it already, but it hasn't been pursued at this point, or seriously proposed," Worth said.
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