NASA's Dawn Spacecraft Makes Final Approach to Ceres

NASA's space probe Dawn was launched in 2007, its mission, to study the two most-massive objects of the asteroid belt: the proto-planet Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres.  Dawn probe is scheduled to arrive at rdgf March 6.

Dawn is the first spacecraft to visit Vesta, entering orbit on July 16, 2011. Dawn then successfully completed its 14-month survey of Vesta  in late 2012. Should its entire mission succeed, it will also be the first spacecraft to visit Ceres and to orbit two separate extraterrestrial bodies.

Previous multi-destination missions were hampered by the use of conventional drives, such as the Voyager program. Since conventional engines have a weight penalty, they were restricted to flybys.

The Dawn mission is the first NASA exploratory mission to use ion propulsion to enter and leave orbit, as well as course corrections.

Top photo the asteroid Vesta taken by Dawn
Middle is an artist's representation of Dawn
Bottom is Ceres                                  

Dawn Leaves Vesta to Rendevous With Ceres

Hubble photo of Ceres

NASA's Dawn spacecraft has completed its' mission at the asteroid Vesta and is now heading to dwarf planet Ceres.

NASA reported a successful start of Dawn's ion thruster engines and the craft began moving away from Vesta at a steadily increasing rate. Due to the efficiency of Dawn's engines, it will only use 250 pounds of fuel. The ion engines produce very little thrust but they can be run for extended periods which will allow Dawn to reach Ceres in just two and a half years which would be impossible with standard chemical rocket engines.


Below is a high-res farewell tour of Vesta made up of images from Dawn

New Photos From NASA's Dawn Spacecraft of Asteroid Vesta

Rheasilvia impact basin is 310 miles in diameter.

NASA's Dawn spacecraft continues to do spectacular science on it's mission to first off, study asteroid Vesta.

From the Daily Galaxy Blog

• Vesta is one of the brightest objects in the solar system and the only asteroid in the ... main (asteroid) belt between Mars and Jupiter visible to the naked eye from Earth.

From NASA:

• Dawn has found that some areas on Vesta can be nearly twice as bright as others, revealing clues about the asteroid's history.

From Wikipedia

• Vesta, is one of the largest asteroids, with a mean diameter of about 330 miles is the second-most-massive asteroid after the dwarf planet Ceres, and comprises an estimated 9% of the mass of the asteroid belt. Vesta is thought to be a remnant protoplanet.   It lost some 1% of its mass less than a billion years ago in a collision that left an enormous crater occupying much of its southern hemisphere. Debris from this event has (even) fallen to Earth . 

Lots of great info and pics on all the sites.  enjoy

NASA’s Dawn Asteroid Orbiter Low Orbit Manuver Successful

Vesta @ 140 miles by Dawn Orbiter

NASA has confirmed that the Dawn Asteroid Orbiter has successfully completed it's programmed instructions and moved into a much lower orbit around the second largest asteroid in the solar system Vesta.

Dawn's present altitude above the surface of Vesta is a mere 130 miles. At this altitude it takes about 4 hours to complete a single orbit.

The image is from Dawn's framing camera which took the shot at only 140 miles above the heavily cratered surface.


Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA 

Daily Galaxy

3d Vesta flyover from Dawn Spacecraft

Here we go for the fans of 3d - From the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory is a short over-flight of the proto planet Vesta. This 3-D video incorporates images from the framing camera instrument aboard NASA's Dawn spacecraft from July to August 2011. The images were obtained as Dawn approached Vesta and circled the giant asteroid during the mission's survey orbit phase. Survey orbit took place at an altitude of about 1,700 miles (2,700 kilometers).

You will need red/green or blue 3d specs to see the film best. NASA lists a few sites but in truth I found the best deals on Ebay.








Embedded video from


NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology

Vesta from Dawn

This image obtained by the framing camera on NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows the south pole of the giant asteroid Vesta. The video below is a series of photos built up from the same framing camera on Dawn. These images will go a long way towards helping scientists determine the processes that formed Vesta's striking features. As the film shows, Vesta has a massive impact event recorded in the southern hemisphere as well as striking formation of ridges running around the equator of the asteroid. These images were obtained when Dawn was about 1,700 miles above Vesta's surface. Later this year, most likely in October, NASA plans to have Dawn lower it's orbital height to gain even higher resolution photographs.

Dawn Sending Back Vesta Photos

NASA's Dawn spacecraft began sending back photographs of Vesta from the asteroid belt. At this NASA site you can get a full run down of the mission to this point as well as some excellent high rez pictures.

Of particular interest is this stereo image of Vesta's south polar region which is showing some extremely interesting structures from very large impacts.

Lots more good stuff to come out of the Dawn mission, this is only a small treat.

Check it out here

Dawn Closing on Vesta

The Dawn spacecraft is on final approach to the solar system's second largest asteroid Vesta. Dawn is due to arrive at 1:00 a.m. EDT on July 16. Launched in 2007, it has taken four years of careful maneuvering to arrive at Vesta.

Located 117 million miles from Earth, Vesta has a circumference of 329 miles - making it second after the dwarf planet Ceres , as the largest object in the asteroid belt.

Once Dawn arrives, it's ion thrusters will park it at an altitude of almost 10k miles above Vesta's surface. While it is there, Dawn will use a gamma-ray detector and a neutron detector to study the Vesta's surface.

Dawn will remain at Vesta for a year, then it will again fire its' ion thrusters to start moving towards Ceres.

Below is video from Wired.com containing NASA video and animation of Dawn's Vesta mission.

DAWN readying for July arrival at Vesta

Science Digest blog reports some of the details NASA's DAWN space craft as it starts to power up after fix months of inactivity. DAWN fired up instruments last week and the framing camera this week. All this activity is practice for the July arrival at Vesta.

According to the Science Daily article:

• In the months to come, the camera system will provide images needed to navigate the spacecraft to its rendezvous with Vesta, and will begin to image the asteroid's surface. These early images on approach will be the start of a campaign to systematically map Vesta's surface in detail and will provide tantalizing clues as to its mineralogical composition.

Read complete SD article here

Nimoy Narrates Dawn Video

Does anything more need be said? Nasa has produced a beautiful new, thirteen minute long, video about the asteroid belt and Dawn's mission to visit Vesta (in 2011) and Ceres (in 2015), the two largest objects in the belt. I'm much more excited about Ceres, but both asteroids should provide good science.


<Dawn's Homepage>