NASA Resurrects Mission to Visit Asteroids in 2007

[MonstersFromTheId]

From the NY Times Science section:

Weeks After Killing It, NASA Resurrects Mission to Visit Asteroids

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/28/science/space/28asteroid.html

Hoo-frickin-RA! Frankly I never thought this one had the slightest chance of getting back on the mission list.

So by 2011 we actually WILL be seeing up close pics of Vesta, and even Ceres!

OTOH, Starwars fans I think are likely to be AWFULLY disappointed when they finally get to see what a REAL asteroid field looks like ;-). "What! That's it? Where are all the asteroids? Oh for cryin' out loud, Han Solo's grandmother could navigate through that!"

 

[tony873004]

That is awesome news. The amount of science we can get back from Dawn should be tremendous. It will be the first interplanetary craft to actually orbit multiple objects. I hope it has a long extended mission too. It has the possibility of examining 10s of asteroids upclose through flyby missions which would require very low delta v's to accomplish since there are hundreds of thousands of potential targets. There will always be one that's just a couple of meter/s delta v away + a few months travel time.

 

[Vast]

OTOH, Starwars fans I think are likely to be AWFULLY disappointed when they finally get to see what a REAL asteroid field looks like ;-). "What! That's it? Where are all the asteroids? Oh for cryin' out loud, Han Solo's grandmother could navigate through that!"

Not a Star Wars fan myself, but perhaps our asteroid belt isn’t representative of a typical asteroid belt, perhaps other solar systems have a belt which is more densely pack?

But yes, very good news!

 

[Vincent Vega]

Don't for get to send your name off with Dawn

http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/DawnCommunity/Sendname2asteroid/index_asteroid_blt.aspx

______
"Never be first; try to be second" __Enrico Fermi

 

[kmarinas86]

starwars fans I think are likely to be AWFULLY disappointed when they finally get to see what a REAL asteroid field looks like ;-). "What! That's it? Where are all the asteroids? Oh for cryin' out loud, Han Solo's grandmother could navigate through that!"

No, not really. Say, if we look at Saturn's rings, that looks like the good ol' asteriod field fans will want to see. It will be packed full of rocks, just like in movies. How about a spacestation between the rings, that would be cool!

 

[MonstersFromTheId]

Station between Rings? COOL!

kmarinas86;
that's just a really cool thought. A station between rings. I wonder if a station would stay put in an orbit between rings. Maybe if it was in the L4/L5 position of a sheparding moon's orbit?

Regardless, I just love the image that conjures in my head.

 

[Astronuc]

NASA's Dawn Mission Finally Launched

NASA's Dawn Spacecraft Enroute to Shed Light on Asteroid Belt - 09.27.07
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/dawn/news/dawn-20070927a.html

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA's Dawn spacecraft is on its way to study a pair of asteroids after lifting off Thursday from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 7:34 a.m. EDT (4:34 a.m. PDT).

Mission controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., received telemetry on schedule at 9:44 a.m. EDT (6:44 a.m. PDT) indicating Dawn had achieved proper orientation in space and its massive solar array was generating power from the sun.

"Dawn has risen, and the spacecraft is healthy," said the mission's project manager Keyur Patel of JPL. "About this time tomorrow [Friday morning], we will have passed the moon's orbit."

During the next 80 days, spacecraft controllers will test and calibrate the myriad of spacecraft systems and subsystems, ensuring Dawn is ready for the long journey ahead.

"Dawn will travel back in time by probing deep into the asteroid belt," said Dawn Principal Investigator Christopher Russell, University of California, Los Angeles. "This is a moment the space science community has been waiting for since interplanetary spaceflight became possible."

Dawn's 4.8-billion-kilometer (3-billion-mile) odyssey includes exploration of asteroid Vesta in 2011 and the dwarf planet Ceres in 2015. These two icons of the asteroid belt have been witness to much of our solar system's history. By using Dawn's instruments to study both asteroids, scientists more accurately can compare and contrast the two. Dawn's science instrument suite will measure elemental and mineral composition, shape, surface topography, and tectonic history, and will also seek water-bearing minerals. In addition, the Dawn spacecraft and how it orbits Vesta and Ceres will be used to measure the celestial bodies' masses and gravity fields.

Something to which to look forward in years to come.