I Dawn dead in Ceres orbit, ran out of fuel Oct 2018

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The Dawn spacecraft successfully observed Ceres from a distance of 238,000 miles on January 13, 2015, capturing over half of its surface at a resolution of 27 pixels. The mission aimed to enter a polar orbit around Ceres, with a planned descent to an altitude of 375 km, but faced challenges due to limited hydrazine propellant for attitude control. A cosmic ray event in September 2014 had previously disrupted the propulsion system, complicating the approach trajectory. Despite these issues, the spacecraft was expected to achieve a stable orbit around Ceres, ultimately becoming a "perpetual satellite" as it ran out of fuel. The mission's success would provide valuable data on Ceres' physical characteristics and surface mapping.
  • #851
That would indicate that they have something big...
 
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  • #852
mfb said:
That would indicate that they have something big...
Just looking at the image that Marcus posted in post # 847, I have many questions about what is going on.

Why are the cliffs in the upper left hand corner so smooth?
Is there some type of Martian type hydraulic sand flow going on?​
Why do some linear features look like cracks, and others look like rows of bouncing asteroid impact craters?
Are those "non-fracture looking ones" caused by incoming asteroids, or ejecta?
Do they differentiate like that due to the lighting, and are they all geographically pretty much the same?​

I'm hoping for some big sciencey answers. Or, in the least, non-layman speculation.
 
  • #853
OmCheeto said:
Why are the cliffs in the upper left hand corner so smooth?
Is there some type of Martian type hydraulic sand flow going on?Why do some linear features look like cracks, and others look like bouncing asteroid impact craters?
Are those "non-fracture looking ones" caused by incoming asteroids, or ejecta?
Do they differentiate like that due to the lighting, and are they all geographically pretty much the same?
What i find interesting in your questions is that even as a layman I noticed the same things you note here before coming to this post. I'll be tuning in regularly to see what explanations are given by the science community.
(I have added "sciencey" to my vocabulary) love the sound of that.
 
  • #854
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  • #855
After my last visit to this post I open my email and get an interesting NASA update, this "mons" has always caught my attention since the first images of it.
http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/jpl/pia20348/ahuna-mons-seen-from-lamo
Ceres.PNG
 
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  • #856
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  • #857
My condolences, to anyone who threw away their red-blue 3d glasses., as, you're missing this...

lamo.ahuna.mons.3d.jpg
 
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  • #858
OmCheeto said:
I wish I could give you 10 "thumbs up" for this.
After the general consensus of the white spots being salt deposits, Ahuna Mons has been my favorite "What the hell?..." landmark. :smile:
I know what you mean. That landmark keeps reminding me of 2001 A space Odyssey and I can't help but wonder what A. Clarke would have thought about it.
 
  • #859
1oldman2 said:
I know what you mean. That landmark keeps reminding me of 2001 A space Odyssey and I can't help but wonder what A. Clarke would have thought about it.
I remember when he passed away.
I was very upset with him.
I hadn't even started on my warp drive engine.
 
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  • #860
OmCheeto said:
My condolences, to anyone who threw away their red-blue 3d glasses., as, you're missing this...
I have 3D glasses, but they work with polarization :(.
The shadows still give a reasonable idea of the terrain structure.
 
  • #861
OmCheeto said:
Per their entry on Facebook:

https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hprofile-xaf1/v/t1.0-1/p32x32/10407865_10152971606581560_1925656806933192592_n.jpg?oh=a33ed140abda8fe301b58253a9171c3d&oe=57612258
Cavaliere Quilargo "Happy Birthday- but more important: Where are the Pictures from 385Km distance from the occator crater? And what's the reason for this unbelievable delay"
22 hours ago · Edited
https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hprofile-xtf1/v/t1.0-1/c9.0.24.24/p24x24/11999018_750911745055286_1093856950355387861_n.jpg?oh=1e29e49a6fdd45b17e7d4e2a3ccf3aec&oe=575C5D3F
NASA Dawn Mission "When the science team submits results and hypotheses on findings to professional periodicals like Nature and Science and Icarus, there is an embargo on the content until publication. There are several due out this spring, so stay tuned. The process of science is painstaking, especially when visiting a new world for the first time. We appreciate your patience"!
57 minutes ago​
mfb said:
That would indicate that they have something big...

Fair interpretation, helps to make sense of the delay in reporting GRaND spectroscopy data. Thanks OM and Mfb.
 
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  • #862
===Rayman===

March 7 -Dawn to Adjust Its Orbit

Dawn's exploration of Ceres is continuing to go extremely well. As explained in the February Dawn Journal, the flight team occasionally needs to adjust the spacecraft 's orbit to keep it synchronized with the intricate plans for observing the dwarf planet. They have now determined that Dawn should perform a set "orbit maintenance maneuvers" for this purpose. Mission controllers are now working on the details to send to the spacecraft , and it will use its famously efficient ion engine to thrust for almost 1.5 hours on March 9, then wait for 6.5 hours and then thrust again for shortly over an hour on March 10. It will perform two additional maneuvers on March 17 of just over an hour and just under an hour, with two hours between them.

==endquote==
 
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  • #863
It looks like the planned orbit adjustments will not be needed!==Rayman==

March 9 -Orbit Maintenance Maneuvers Deemed Unnecessary

Dawn is aiming its main antenna at Earth, transmitting its latest photos and other measurements of Ceres. It will resume collecting data this afternoon.

As the flight team was working on the details of the orbit maintenance maneuvers described in the March 7 status report, they determined that the current orbital parameters are satisfactory. Therefore, rather than take the spacecraft 's time away from observing Ceres to perform the maneuvers to achieve a small improvement in the orbit, they have decided to let it continue to point its sensors at the dwarf planet without these interruptions.

==endquote==

As of 1:20 pm this afternoon (10 March) DSN https://eyes.nasa.gov/dsn/dsn.html shows data transmission must be complete for now because Goldstone antenna#26 is tracking---getting a 10 bits per second signal from Dawn. It's as expected, Rayman said data would be finished by yesterday afternoon, 9 March.
 
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  • #864
as of 2pm pacific, Sunday 13 March, deep space network (DSN) shows Goldstone #25 transmitting data to Dawn. No down signal at the moment. Presumably that would mean Dawn has temporarily stopped taking observations and turned so as to point its main antenna at Earth. It may be going to transmit. Maybe we'll hear about this in a status update
http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status.html
The last one was 9 March, which was when the previous data transmission session completed.

As of 3:30pm pacific the data transmission was going two way. Dawn was sending to Goldstone#25 at 105 kilobits per second (consistent with it being data, tracking signals are more like 10 bits per second)

Normally these data transmission sessions last some 26 hours and then observations resume. If it follows that pattern I guess we might see observations being taken again by around 6pm Monday 14 . In any case we might hear from Rayman about it.
 
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  • #865
hmmmm... Never heard of the "Collier Trophy" before.

About the Award
The Robert J. Collier Trophy is awarded annually "for the greatest achievement in aeronautics or astronautics in America, with respect to improving the performance, efficiency, and safety of air or space vehicles, the value of which has been thoroughly demonstrated by actual use during the preceding year." The list of Collier winners represents a timeline of aviation, as many of the awardees mark major events in the history of flight.
...

The JPL/Dawn team was awarded the trophy on Wednesday, March 9th, 2016. :partytime:

[Edit]
And one more thing. JPL posted something interesting yesterday, so I thought it was something new. But it turns out it was released about a year ago. But then I checked, and no one has mentioned it(that I can find). So I thought I'd share it:

March 31, 2015—NASA has announced the release of Vesta Trek, a free, web-based application that provides detailed visualizations of Vesta, one of the largest asteroids in our solar system.​
 
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  • #866
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  • #867
marcus said:
Even though the announcement comes in 2016, what was just awarded was the
2015 Robert J. Collier Trophy
It is for achievements in 2015, so it makes sense to call it 2015 trophy. Hard to tell who will make the greatest achievement in 2016 in March 2016.
 
  • #868
Makes sense all right! Depends how you look at it. Sometimes annual prizes are named by the year they are awarded, rather than by when the achievement/work occurred, so I just wanted to make it clear that's not the case here.
 
  • #869
marcus said:
as of 2pm pacific, Sunday 13 March, deep space network (DSN) shows Goldstone #25 transmitting data to Dawn. ...
As of 3:30pm pacific the data transmission was going two way. ...

Normally these data transmission sessions last some 26 hours and then observations resume. If it follows that pattern I guess we might see observations being taken again by around 6pm Monday 14 March . ..

Just checked DSN and the site was down , blank screen :-(
Yes! just checked again, 9:20 pm pacific 14 March and Dawn's down signal was just 10 bits per second, for tracking. It had resumed observations.
 
  • #870
==Rayman==

March 15 -Dawn Maintaining Its Productive Exploration Routine

With its suite of sensors pointed at the alien landforms 240 miles (385 kilometers) beneath it, Dawn is collecting more data as it orbits Ceres. It sent its latest findings to Earth on March 13 and 14.
==endquote==
 
  • #872
==Rayman==
March 18 - Dawn Concluding Another Week of Observations

After spending most of the week observing Ceres, Dawn paused this morning to point its main antenna at Earth. It is now radioing its precious data to the Deep Space Network. It will resume its measurements tomorrow around noon.
==endquote==
 
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  • #874
The 47th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference is apparently underway. The Woodlands, Texas, March 21–25, 2016.

Tons of stuff being tweeted about Ceres. Even a picture of Occator's main bright spot!
Apparently JPL will be releasing images tomorrow.
But in the meanwhile. And don't tell anyone I did this:

Occator.center.bright.spot.LPSC2016.03.21.jpg

source: https://twitter.com/Laurent_Montesi

There's an interesting whiteboard drawing on this guys page: https://twitter.com/jtuttlekeane
Look for the name: Anton Ermakov
Anton Ermakov- Occator is associated with a negative Bouguer anomaly; low density intrusion? ​

And what the heck?
Kimberly EnnicoSmith ‏@kennicosmith 14 hours ago
Castillo: #Ceres showing evidence for a lack of ice shell (not expected). The surface is rocky with a thick rock layer. #LPSC2016​

No ice shell?

[edit]
I forgot to mention:

Keri Bean ‏@PlanetaryKeri 1 hour ago
Keri Bean Retweeted NASA's Dawn Mission
Seriously though tune in for the press briefing tomorrow. I guarantee you won't regret it. #SCIENCE​

Keri Bean added,

CeF7ZtkUEAAvKpS.jpg

NASA's Dawn Mission @NASA_Dawn
Exciting news tomorrow! For now: a pretty standard #Ceres scene http://go.nasa.gov/1pXzQzd
 
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  • #875
Capture.PNG


I'm particularly pleased with the profile view of the "mons"
 
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  • #876
A great picture of the bright spot.
It looks almost fractal - no matter how good the images get, there are always finer details where you would want to zoom in.
 
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  • #877
mfb said:
A great picture of the bright spot.
It looks almost fractal - no matter how good the images get, there are always finer details where you would want to zoom in.
If you look closely at the bottom of the image, you'll see the top of a couple of people's heads.
So that was a cell phone capture from a presentation.
I would imagine the "official" photo will be a bit clearer.

And this just in:

NASA's Dawn Mission ‏@NASA_Dawn 18 minutes ago
Press briefing about #Ceres will be at 12p CT/1p ET at #LPSC2016. Tune in for new images/materials then. ​

hmmmm... Where do we tune in?
(google, google, google)
Here maybe? http://livestream.com/viewnow/LPSC2016
 
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  • #878
Patiently awaiting more imagery. :thumbup:
 
  • #879
1oldman2 said:
Patiently awaiting more imagery.

Sorry for my delayed response. :oldwink:

Dawn/JPL just released 6 new images!
Here's a screen capture of Occator's central bright spot.

zoom.of.PIA20355.Occator.bright.central.spot.from.LAMO.released.2016.03.22.jpg


Woo Hoo!

ps. Lot's of interesting chatter going on at #LPSC2016.
 
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  • #880
OmCheeto said:
Woo Hoo!
:smile: This just keeps getting better! Thanks for sharing this.
 
  • #881
  • #883
Stephen Clark ‏@StephenClark1 41 minutes ago
Carol Raymond, Dawn: If the spacecraft ’s reaction wheels continue working, mission at Ceres could last till this time next year. #LPSC2016​

:partytime:

Emily Lakdawalla ‏@elakdawalla 1 hour ago
Dawn at Ceres press briefing beginning now. It's not being webcast but is being recorded for later streaming. #LPSC2016​

Thank god. I thought I was losing my touch, and/or mind.

James Tuttle Keane ‏@jtuttlekeane 1 hour ago
Mickey Villarreal- Spurious electrons betray a bow shock at Ceres; either from atmo or conductive layer #LPSC2016
CeKsOPiUEAAEkzI.jpg

James has some really cool doodles.
 
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  • #884
OmCheeto said:
Good grief! Why did they have to release everything at once. This is going to take me weeks to sift through! :oldsurprised:
I'm officially overwhelmed, but my "links folder" is filled with enough sites and info to keep me busy for a very long time. Good show! :thumbup:
As a young kid I remember looking at "artists impressions" of Ceres and thinking of how cool a place it was, This is in another league altogether.
 
  • #885
1oldman2 said:
I'm officially overwhelmed, but my "links folder" is filled with enough sites and info to keep me busy for a very long time. Good show! :thumbup:
As a young kid I remember looking at "artists impressions" of Ceres and thinking of how cool a place it was, This is in another league altogether.

I'm still trying to figure out what a "Bouger Anomaly" is.
I was going to make a lame joke, and misspell it as "Booger Anomaly", pointing out that "If it's boogered, of course it's an anomaly...", but I'm sure people are tired of my jokes by now. :redface:

ps. I see from your profile, that you're my age. I don't even remember hearing about Ceres when I was a kid. And 40 years ago, Ceres would have just been a point image. hmmmm... (google, google, google)
Holy Cow!
Those are really impressive.

Seeing Ceres: Then and Now
Posted by Paul Gilster
2015/03/06 15:33 UTC
1980.vs.2016.images.of.Ceres.and.Vesta.tumblr_nktdkjPbzM1rdy7odo1_1280.jpg
 
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  • #886
I'm still trying to figure out what a "Bouger Anomaly" is.
I was going to make a lame joke, and misspell it as "Booger Anomaly", pointing out that "If it's boogered, of course it's an anomaly...", but I'm sure people are tired of my jokes by now. :redface:

Naw, the booger joke is a natural. You would have been forgiven. As a young kid I was hooked on Space flight from the days of Mercury etc. Always wondered how those rocket ships could do a controlled vertical landing in the "Twilight Zone" episodes. Then I realized that they can't, So now we have Falcon 9's doing what was impossible, Talk about perspective, eh?
 
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  • #887
I have to bring forward the image in Om's post #880, on preceding page
==quote==

Dawn/JPL just released 6 new images!
Here's a screen capture of Occator's central bright spot.

zoom.of.PIA20355.Occator.bright.central.spot.from.LAMO.released.2016.03.22.jpg


Woo Hoo!

==endquote==
 
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  • #888
That is an amazing image of Occator and the "bright material", have any conclusions been reached as to what the material is?
 
  • #889
Note that they changed colors and contrast in that image:
Center of Occator Crater (Enhanced Color)
The bright central spots near the center of Occator Crater are shown in enhanced color in this view from NASA's Dawn spacecraft . Such views can be used to highlight subtle color differences on Ceres
I think "something salt-like" won.
 
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  • #890
One commonly mentioned guess is hydrated magnesium sulfate. Somewhat akin to Epsom salts.

BTW one of the new images shows the variation of hydrogen abundance in the N hemisphere regolith (loose surface material in the top 1 meter.)
http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/image-detail.html?id=PIA20353

bluer signifies fewer neutrons and thus more hydrogen---hydrogen presumably in the form of water, in the soil, slows neutrons when they collide with it---fewer escape to be detected by the fast neutron counter in the GRaND instrument (gamma ray and neutron detector)

So what the image shows is not too surprising: more hydrogen (hydrated minerals, water ice,...etc) in the surface layer around the N pole. less hydrogen in lower latitudes closer to the equator.
 
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  • #891
mfb said:
Note that they changed colors and contrast in that image:
I think "something salt-like" won.
I hadn't noticed the color/contrast change until you mentioned it, at the present I'm too busy looking at the forest to see the trees. lots of great images, this is going to keep me occupied for a while.
Salt of one type or another is the explanation I have heard, but I'm thinking that Ceres has a lot of surprises in store so I thought I'd ask. Thanks for the feedback. :smile:
 
  • #892
marcus said:
BTW one of the new images shows the variation of hydrogen abundance in the N hemisphere regolith (loose surface material in the top 1 meter.)
http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/image-detail.html?id=PIA20353
An incredible variety of elements, I would think "asteroid mining" could become big business at some future point.
Not sure how I ended up with my reply in the quote but I guess it works anyway.:doh:
 
  • #893
1oldman2 said:
An incredible variety of elements, I would think "asteroid mining" could become big business at some future point.
I agree with your comment. Ceres is apt to be central to any attempt to use asteroid material for human purposes. For one thing, because in one form or another it has water (so we think) it has the makings for fuel.

It might become the center of a chemicals industry, and or a construction materials industry, probably located below the surface. Manufacturing in low gravity has advantages.
 
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  • #894
They did eventually get the video online from the meeting this morning:

Press Briefing: Ceres: Dispatches from a Dwarf Planet

For some reason, the sound doesn't work if I play it at the lowest resolution: 272p.
But it does work at the other resolutions: 432p, 480p, & 720p.
 
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  • #895
OmCheeto said:
They did eventually get the video online from the meeting this morning:

Press Briefing: Ceres: Dispatches from a Dwarf Planet

For some reason, the sound doesn't work if I play it at the lowest resolution: 272p.
But it does work at the other resolutions: 432p, 480p, & 720p.

Appreciate the link and info, can't wait to see what they have to say. :smile: (I see it's keeping you up late also)
 
  • #897
OmCheeto said:
They did eventually get the video online from the meeting this morning:

Press Briefing: Ceres: Dispatches from a Dwarf Planet

For some reason, the sound doesn't work if I play it at the lowest resolution: 272p.
But it does work at the other resolutions: 432p, 480p, & 720p.
Definitely worth watching! The GRaND segment starts around minute 19:28. The questions from press start around minute 30:00 and they are good--they elicit interesting answers which are often more speculative and more deeply informative than the initial presentations. I wouldn't skip the Q&A.

1oldman2 said:
Interesting reading in this take on things.
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-31754585
That BBC article from Dec 2015 is also informative. Different albedo figures for different parts of the Occator bright spots, and so on. Thanks for posting it!

Here's something more recent about that:
http://news.discovery.com/space/is-ceres-mysterious-bright-dome-an-ice-volcano-160323.htm
It derives from yesterday's (Tuesday's) press conference that we can watch in full via Om's link.
 
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  • #898
==Rayman==

March 22 - Dawn Revealing New Sights

Dawn is healthy and continuing its observations of Ceres. After transmitting data to Earth on March 18 and 19, the spacecraft began a new set of measurements. Now, instead of looking straight down, it is pointing its sensors a little bit to the left as it circles Ceres. This provides a slightly different perspective on the alien landscape and may reduce the rate at which the probe consumes its dwindling hydrazine propellant. (Hydrazine is essential for Dawn's operation.)

A new view of the famous bright area in Occator crater, photographed by Dawn from the closest it will ever come to the intriguing geological feature, is now available here.You can see other new Ceres images based on Dawn's measurements at the Ceres image gallery
==endquote==
PIA20350_fig1.jpg


The brighter (parts) of the bright spots could be water ice and newer. the not so bright spots could be older---salt residue after the water ice sublimes
 
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  • #899
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  • #900
marcus said:
Here's an article that features that same (colored) image that Om posted:
http://techcrunch.com/2016/03/23/ceres-mysterious-bright-spots-revealed-in-unprecedented-detail/
It was processed some (the color data came from an earlier orbit and was superimposed). Mfb referred to this. So I thought it would be good to have the straight black and white version as well.
Interesting article, thank you for linking that. I've been busy sorting through all the image downloads that have come up lately here, lots to look at. Some of the imaging when zoomed in on is still amazingly detailed and my curiosity is killing me on certain features, can't wait to hear explanations for some of what we are seeing. :thumbup:
 

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