Dawn l.July 2007 Vesta eta 2011, Ceres 2015

[kane007]

Now I know its doing a flyby of Mars in March/April 2009, what I'd like to know is will any data be collected on Mars during this and how much time will be available for collection?

 

[kane007]

This link gives a good graphical representation of the Dawn Mission profile.

 

[Boris_Badenov]

Hip Hip Hurrah. I've been cheering this mission on for a couple of years now. I nearly cried when they canceled it. <img src="/images/icons/mad.gif" />I even signed an online petition to reinstate it. I’m glad to see it is this far along.<img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#993300"><span class="body"><font size="2" color="#3366ff"><div align="center">. </div><div align="center">Never roll in the mud with a pig. You'll both get dirty & the pig likes it.</div></font></span></font> </div>

 

[3488]

I too threw a fit, when it was cancelled & I too signed the petition to save it.<br /><br />The Mars encounter will be short & sweet. Do not know any other details than that. I would have thought test images of Phobos & Deimos would be useful.<br /><br />Asteroid 4 Vesta will be orbited first, then 1 Ceres. There is a good chance that DAWN will encounter a great many asteroids before 4 Vesta arrival & between 4 Vesta & 1 Ceres. After 1 Ceres, DAWN will then take up a heliocentic orbit within the asteroid belt & encounter many of these worldlets, until the power & fuel give out. <br /><br />I wonder if NASA will ever compile a complete list?<br /><br />It would be good to see 29 Amphitrite, the large asteroid the Galileo spacecraft was due to by pass, had she stuck to her May 1986 launch window. I hope also that the very red 6 Hebe will be encountered, to find out why it is so red.<br /><br />Hopefully a few larger ones will be imaged. It is a shame that 2 Pallas will not be well placed (high orbital inclination), although one never knows, NASA are geniuses at pulling rabbits out of hats.<br /><br />What does anyone here think that 4 Vesta & 1 Ceres will be like?? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>

 

[JonClarke]

This is going to be an awesome mission! Ceres and Vesta are little planets, Vesta is certainly differentiated, originally spherical with some big chunks knocked off from collison, exposing both a basaltic crust and a perioditic mantle. Ceres has hydrous phases on its surface, either hydrated minerals or perhap even ices. They will certainly not look anything like the asteroids we have seen so far - Gaspera, Ida, Mathilde, Eros or amazing little Itokawa. I wonder if they will turn out to have tiny moons?<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>

 

[3488]

I had heard that htere is reason to suspect that 1 Ceres has cryovolcanoes. 1 Ceres appears to have a very thin atmosphere & this must be replenished somehow.<br /><br />The Hubble Space Telescope has imaged a bright spot on the surface. A cryovolano? Impact crater? mountain?<br /><br /><br />Observations of 1 Ceres, the largest known asteroid, have revealed that the object may be a "mini planet," and may contain large amounts of pure water ice beneath its surface.<br /><br />The observations by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope also show that Ceres shares characteristics of the rocky, terrestrial planets like Earth. Ceres' shape is almost round like Earth's, suggesting that the asteroid may have a "differentiated interior," with a rocky inner core and a thin, dusty outer crust.<br /><br />"Ceres is an embryonic planet," said Lucy A. McFadden of the Department of Astronomy at the University of Maryland, College Park and a member of the team that made the observations. "Gravitational perturbations from Jupiter billions of years ago prevented Ceres from accreting more material to become a full-fledged planet."<br /><br />The finding will appear Sept. 8 in a letter to the journal Nature. The paper is led by Peter C. Thomas of the Center for Radiophysics and Space Research at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., and also includes project leader Joel William Parker of the Department of Space Studies at Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo.<br /><br />Ceres is approximately 580 miles (930 kilometers) across, about the size of Texas. It resides with tens of thousands of other asteroids in the main asteroid belt. Located between Mars and Jupiter, the asteroid belt probably represents primitive pieces of the solar system that never managed to accumulate into a genuine planet. Ceres comprises 25 percent of the asteroid belt's total mass. However, Pluto, our solar system's smallest planet, is 14 times more massive than Ceres.<br /><br />The astronomers used Hubble's Advanced Camera f <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>

 

[3488]

Cleaned up Hubble Space Telescope mug shot of asteroid 1 Ceres. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>

 

[nacnud]

If there is a lot of water ice on Ceres then it looks like a very good candidate for a post Mars Mission. In fact might a Ceres mission be easier than a mars mission due to the Ceres smaller gravity?

 

[Boris_Badenov]

According to this there is quite a bit of water on 1 Ceres.<br /><br />http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1_Ceres<br /><br />A more recent study led by Peter Thomas of Cornell University, suggests that Ceres has a differentiated interior: observations coupled with computer models suggest the presence of a rocky core overlain with an icy mantle. This mantle of thickness from 120 to 60 km could contain 200 million cubic kilometers of water, which is more than the amount of fresh water on the Earth[6] [10].<br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#993300"><span class="body"><font size="2" color="#3366ff"><div align="center">. </div><div align="center">Never roll in the mud with a pig. You'll both get dirty & the pig likes it.</div></font></span></font> </div>

 

[3488]

I am not surprised by the previous two posts. 1 Ceres appears to be a differentiated body, slightly flattened at the poles. <br /><br />I think either 1 Ceres still has or have had Cryovolcanic activity.<br /><br />Has anyone recently looked for any moons orbiting 1 Ceres? If they exist & are found, they will tell us much about the internal structure of 1 Ceres. <br /><br />In a way, 1 Ceres is like a scaled down & warmer (though still bitterly cold by terrestrial standards, maximum Minus 34 Celsius / 239 Kelvin, global average, Minus 106 Celsius / 167 Kelvin) KBOs Pluto & 2003 UB313 (Xena).<br /><br />I agree, a post Mars mission to 1 Ceres would be of some value. Perhaps shortly after DAWN leaves, why not land a rover, to scout about, take surface images & provide chemical data?<br /><br />Could radar not be bounced off 1 Ceres to produce higher resolution images, or is it too far?? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>

 

[spacester]

Sadly, it appears that Scott Hudson's asteroid shape site is history. Perhaps further reseacrh will turn it up? Scott Hudson is THE MAN on the use of radar to find the shape; at least he used to be - he developed the technique. Of course, D. Steven J Orsto ain't too shabby either.<br /><br />Quick-n-dirty google results for y'all:<br /><br />http://echo.jpl.nasa.gov/<br /><br />http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,3605,329559,00.html<br /><br />http://aa.usno.navy.mil/ephemerides/asteroid/astr_alm/asteroid_ephemerides.html<br /><br />http://www.tricity.wsu.edu/~hudson/vita.pdf<br /><br />http://www.psi.edu/pds/resource/cereshst.html<br /><br />http://www.psi.edu/pds/asteroid/EAR_A_HSTACS_5_CERESHST_V1_0/aareadme.txt<br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[Boris_Badenov]

Are there any recent updates to the Dawn Mission? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#993300"><span class="body"><font size="2" color="#3366ff"><div align="center">. </div><div align="center">Never roll in the mud with a pig. You'll both get dirty & the pig likes it.</div></font></span></font> </div>

 

[kane007]

Latest news available from the DAWN JPL mission homepage is that the "Dawn Spacecraft in Cleanroom at<br />Orbital Sciences".<br /><br /><b>224</b> days to launch on 2007/07/20.

 

[remcot]

Is the Sun shining bright on Ceres or just very dim?

 

[kane007]

Are you referring to the use of solar collectors? Yep enough for a spacecraft. Not as good as at Mars, but far better than Jupiter.

 

[Boris_Badenov]

I just read that Ceres is at 3AU. Does anyone know what the average distance is in miles? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#993300"><span class="body"><font size="2" color="#3366ff"><div align="center">. </div><div align="center">Never roll in the mud with a pig. You'll both get dirty & the pig likes it.</div></font></span></font> </div>

 

[MeteorWayne]

semimajor axis is 2.77 AU X 93,000,000 = ~258 million miles <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>

 

[3488]

Hi remcot.<br /><br />The Sun on average from 1 Ceres would be about one ninth or about 11% of that from Earth. Solar power would be possible, but the panels would have to be very large & / or efficient.<br /><br />1 Ceres is certainly turning out to be quite interesting.<br /><br />Hopefully we will get some new observations with the HST after the servicing mission & more AO images & spectra in the meantime.<br /><br />http://uplink.space.com/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Board=sciastro&Number=572286&page=10&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=0&vc=1<br /><br /> Andrew Brown. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>

 

[Boris_Badenov]

Dawn Journal <br /><br /><font color="orange">September 17 , 2006<br /><br />Dear Dawntellectuals,<br /><br />There is only about three quarters of a revolution remaining around the Sun before Dawn leaves Earth to travel on its own to distant worlds. Meanwhile, the project team continues to prepare the spacecraft for its mission. This work has proceeded smoothly despite the chaos of planets apparently coming and going from our solar system.</font><br /> <br /> There are only about 5 months left. The excitement is building.<br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#993300"><span class="body"><font size="2" color="#3366ff"><div align="center">. </div><div align="center">Never roll in the mud with a pig. You'll both get dirty & the pig likes it.</div></font></span></font> </div>

 

[Boris_Badenov]

The most recent Dawn Mission update.<br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#993300"><span class="body"><font size="2" color="#3366ff"><div align="center">. </div><div align="center">Never roll in the mud with a pig. You'll both get dirty & the pig likes it.</div></font></span></font> </div>

 

[saurc]

I'm happy that the DAWN mission hasn't been cancelled. I think missions to asteroids, particularly NEO's are very important and have been neglected , considering the possibilities of commercially extracting materials from asteroids which hasn't really been explored so far, or has it?

 

[mithridates]

I really wish a trend would start whereby smaller countries would send probes to small NEOs because this is something that they could do that wouldn't take too much expertise, and would be a niche area for them that larger space programs aren't taking care of. A country like Korea or Taiwan for example would be capable of something like this. Nothing fancy like an ion drive probe, just a standard Lunar Prospector-type probe that goes to a NEO a few hundred m in diameter as it passes by. This one for example:<br />http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4769_Castalia<br />Just a random example, but it'll come within 0.1 AU of the Earth in 2012. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>----- </p><p>http://mithridates.blogspot.com</p> </div>

 

[Boris_Badenov]

<font color="yellow"> I really wish a trend would start whereby smaller countries would send probes to small NEOs because this is something that they could do that wouldn't take too much expertise, and would be a niche area for them that larger space programs aren't taking care of.</font><br /><br /> Launch costs are too expensive for a small country to try this as yet. They are coming down, & if someone can make a profit from space (that profit could be very large) the rush will be on. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#993300"><span class="body"><font size="2" color="#3366ff"><div align="center">. </div><div align="center">Never roll in the mud with a pig. You'll both get dirty & the pig likes it.</div></font></span></font> </div>

 

[mithridates]

For Korea I doubt it would be too expensive. The Korean rocket launch pad is just about finished and they'll be able to launch their own rockets soon (small ones for the time being, but gradually larger and larger by 2015). Let's not forget they do have the 11th-largest economy in the world, about the same as Brazil and Russia. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>----- </p><p>http://mithridates.blogspot.com</p> </div>