Dawn Asteroid Mission ordered to stand down.

[bad_drawing]

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/051107_dawn_qown.html<br /><br />I had no idea this mission was even in the works! I hope that this isn't cancelled due to budget constraints and is just being temporarilly put off as is suspected by Dawn’s principal investigator, Christopher Russell. I would hate to see this get cut especially since it is pretty much ready to go.<br /><br />Those images of Ceres from Hubble serve as nice teasers, and I'm very curious to find out what that bright spot is. <br /><br />Any thoughts on this? I apologize if this is similar to an existing thread. I looked around and couldn't find one and thought this was intersting enough to warrant discussion.

 

[yurkin]

I’m very disappointed. I am certain that this has to do with money<br />Dawn was very ambitious for a low budget mission , and it’s also getting very close to 2006. There’s no way they could launch by then and be under budget and not have the mission fail.<br />

 

[bad_drawing]

"Russell said that Dawn is an extremely robust mission. The particular launch opportunity that the spacecraft mission is heading for is extremely long—over a year long, he noted"<br /><br />I hope that gives them enough time to find the funding and get it aloft, but as ambitious as other future nasa plans are I wouldn't be surprised to see it completely cut. It makes me think of that line from Wolfes "The Right Stuff": "No bucks, no Buck Rogers."<br /><br />The minor planets in the asteroid belt have always fascinated me, and it seems worth it to see what the geology is like on the ones with enough mass to pull themselves into spherical shapes. <br /><br /><br />

 

[jatslo]

I wonder what that white spot is on that mini moon. Maybe it is a E.T. Scope watching Earth.

 

[gpurcell]

Dawn had a lot of problems in development that led to significant descoping of the mission. It could be that the "budget" problems are really about new mission difficulties. This graph makes me believe this migt be the case:<br /><br /><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>Russell said that there are a number of technical issues that on a chemical launch would be examined in parallel to development, “but in this case we were asked to stand down while an independent assessment team reports back to headquarters. This has interrupted the final preparations for launch and we wish that they had not done this, but it is something we can tolerate.”<p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />The reserve for the mission as I understand it is very low (and the experience with Dawn was a major reason for increasing it in future Discovery missions). It may be that the "budget" problems are more along the lines of "you want XXX million more bucks?" Certainly the notion that the delay is due to JPL cutbacks makes NO sense since there should be sufficient FTEs built into the Dawn contract to proceed even with cutbacks elsewhere in the lab.<br /><br />No, the more I think about this the more I think something fairly serious might have been uncovered by the NASA team.

 

[CalliArcale]

That's certainly plausible. Descoping is generally not a good sign either, and I hadn't heard about that.<br /><br />It's still sad news, though. <img src="/images/icons/frown.gif" /> I was really looking forward to Dawn. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[radarredux]

> <i><font color="yellow">Russell said that there are a number of technical issues that on a <font color="white">chemical launch</font>would be examined in parallel to development, “but in this case we were asked to stand down while an independent assessment team reports back to headquarters.</font>/i><br /><br />So is there an issue with the ion drive?</i>

 

[henryhallam]

I think he's saying that with a purely chemical mission, the launch window would be so tight that these other issues would have to be (expensively) worked through in parallel, "Manhattan Project"-style, alongside continued (perhaps wasted) development and construction work, in order to meet the strict deadline of the launch window.<br /><br />Because the mission uses an ion drive and consequently has a much wider launch window, over a year in this case, there is less time pressure and so the issues can be worked through with existing resources and personnel, though this requires actual construction/development to be paused until the issues are resolved.

 

[gunsandrockets]

How very disappointing. It wasn't that long ago I first read about the Dawn mission.<br /><br />The recent observations about Ceres are very exciting, it's more like a small planet than an asteroid.

 

[centsworth_II]

Worrying news, but still not a cancellation.<br /><br />From Wikipedia:<br /><i>"Budget cuts and workforce shortages have delayed the craft's launch date. In October 2005, at the International Astronautical Federation in Fukuoka, Japan, it was announced that Dawn's launch would be postponed by six to nine months, for probable launch in early 2007. Then, in November 2005, work on Dawn was placed into "stand down" mode. It is hoped that the craft will still be launched in 2007: mission planners have stated that the craft has a year-long launch window and a 2007 launch date would have no impact on the science results."</i> <br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[JonClarke]

Dawn is being stood down (hopefully temporarily) because of its own management problems. It has nothing to do with the ISS or VSE or any other program. So please stop dragging your ISS obsession into every topic. You had one thread locked through doing this. Don't to it again.<br /><br />Jon <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Whether we become a multi-planet species with unlimited horizons, or are forever confined to Earth will be decided in the twenty-first century amid the vast plains, rugged canyons and lofty mountains of Mars</em>  Arthur Clarke</p> </div>