Artist's rendering of Dawn gathering data from Vesta. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/McREL)
NASA’s Dawn mission was launched in September 2007. The spacecraft is now approaching Vesta, a protoplanet that is currently some 143 million miles from Earth.
Powered by an ion engine, Dawn will arrive at Vesta next month.
Starting in September, the spacecraft will orbit the body some 400 miles from its surface. It will then move closer, to about 125 miles from the surface, beginning in November. By January of 2012, mission scientists expect high-resolution images and other data about surface composition.
Dawn is arriving ahead of schedule and is expected to orbit Vesta for a year.
Prepare for surprises
According Christopher Russell, the mission’s principal investigator, prepare yourself for surprises that likely await the spacecraft.
“There are many mysteries about Vesta,” said Russell, a professor of geophysics and space physics at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA).
“One of them is why Vesta is so bright. The Earth reflects a lot of sunlight — about 40 percent — because it has clouds and snow on the surface, while the Moon reflects only about 10 percent of the light from the sun back. Vesta is more like the Earth. Why? What on its surface is causing all that sunlight to be reflected? We’ll find out,” Russell explained.
“It’s been a long trip,” said Russell in a UCLA press statement. “Finally, the moment of truth is about to arrive.”
NOTE: Scientists working with NASA’s Dawn spacecraft have created a new video showing the giant asteroid Vesta as the spacecraft approaches this unexplored world in the main asteroid belt.
Check out:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/dawn/news/dawn20110613.html
Onward to Ceres
After orbiting Vesta, Dawn will leave for its three-year journey to Ceres. The spacecraft will rendezvous with Ceres and begin orbiting in 2015, conducting studies and observations for at least five months.
The Dawn mission is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.
Scientific partners include the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Katlenburg, Germany; the DLR Institute for Planetary Research in Berlin; the Freie Universitaet in Berlin; the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics in Rome; and the Italian Space Agency.
Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Va., designed and built the Dawn spacecraft.
For more information, go to:
www.nasa.gov/dawn
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By Leonard David