Mr Robot

This automated RSS Feed post is about: With the film*September Dawn*being released along with Rescue Dawn*and*me (who’s real name is Dawn) being born in September, I believe that NASA has decided to honor*me by launching Dawn in such a beautiful month.
Originally due to scheduled for launch in July, fate* had other things in store:
Dawn at a Glance
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During its nearly decade-long mission, the Dawn mission will study the asteroid Vesta and dwarf planet Ceres, celestial bodies believed to have accreted early in the history of the solar system. The mission will characterize the early solar system and the processes that dominated its formation.
During the earliest epochs of our solar system, the materials in the solar nebula varied with their distance from the sun. As this distance increased, the temperature dropped, with terrestrial bodies forming closer to the sun, and icy bodies forming farther away.
The asteroid Vesta and the recently categorized dwarf planet Ceres have been selected because, while both speak to conditions and processes early in the formation of the solar system, they developed into two different kinds of bodies. Vesta is a dry, differentiated object with a surface that shows signs of resurfacing. It resembles the rocky bodies of the inner solar system, including Earth. Ceres, by contrast, has a primitive surface containing water-bearing minerals, and may possess a weak atmosphere. It appears to have many similarities to the large icy moons of the outer solar system.

By studying both these two distinct bodies with the same complement of instruments on the same spacecraft, the Dawn mission hopes to compare the different evolutionary path each took as well as create a picture of the early solar system overall. Data returned from the Dawn spacecraft could provide opportunities for significant breakthroughs in our knowledge of how the solar system formed.
To carry out its scientific mission, the Dawn spacecraft will carry three science instruments whose data will be used in combination to characterize these bodies. These instruments consist of a visible camera, a visible and infrared mapping spectrometer, and a gamma ray and neutron spectrometer. In addition to these instruments, radiometric and optical navigation data will provide data relating to the gravity field and thus bulk properties and internal structure of the two bodies.
Mission Timeline
Launch* Summer 2007*
Mars gravity assist* March 2009*
Vesta arrival* September 2011*
Vesta departure* April 2012*
Ceres arrival* February 2015*
End of primary mission* July 2015*
Dawn Launching on Delta II Sept. 26 to Explore Planetary Mysteries
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Launch of NASA’s Dawn spacecraft is scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 26, from Pad 17-B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The launch window is 7:25 to 7:54 a.m. EDT. NASA’s Launch Services Program at the Kennedy Space Center is responsible for the launch of Dawn aboard a Delta II rocket. United Launch Alliance is conducting the launch service for NASA. Should the launch be postponed 24 hours for any reason, the launch window will extend from 7:20 to 7:49 a.m. EDT. For a 48-hour postponement, the launch window will be from 7:14 to 7:43 a.m.
Dawn’s goal is to characterize the conditions and processes of the solar system’s earliest epoch 4.5 billion years ago by investigating in detail two of the largest asteroids, Ceres and Vesta. They reside between Mars and Jupiter in the asteroid belt. Scientists theorize these were budding planets never given the opportunity to grow. However, Ceres and Vesta each followed a very different evolutionary path during the solar system’s first few million years. By investigating two diverse asteroids during the spacecraft’s eight-year flight, the Dawn mission aims to unlock some of the mysteries of planetary formation. Dawn will be the first spacecraft to orbit an object in the asteroid belt and the first to orbit two bodies after leaving Earth. Recent images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope raise further intriguing questions about the evolution of these asteroids.
Technorati Tags: NASA, Dawn, Ceres, Vesta


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