March 2015
Dawn of ion propulsion
... its extraordinary extra-terrestrial expedition, the Dawn spacecraft is far from the planet where its...the overexposed Vesta can be seen against the background of stars 2. The Dawn spacecraft observed Ceres for an hour on Jan. 13, 2015, from a distance...
12 March 2015
Ceres breakthrough: NASA's Dawn is first probe to visit a dwarf planet
NASA's Dawn spacecraft arrived at Ceres last Friday (March 6), becoming the first probe ever to visit a dwarf planet. Dawn is currently spiraling down to its first science orbit, which it's scheduled to reach on April 23. The spacecraft will then ...
13 December 2017
Bright spots suggest Ceres is surprisingly active
... active, evolving world. Just over ten years ago, NASA's Dawn spacecraft set sail for a closer look at the two most massive...been in orbit around Ceres since 2015. This makes Dawn the only spacecraft ever to orbit two destinations beyond Earth (and not...
February 2016
Searching for water in the Solar System
...is even proposing an ambitious mission with a solar-sail spacecraft that would perform a sample return from one Trojan asteroid...of Ceres into a salty ocean below Image from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft of Kupalo crater, one of the youngest craters on Ceres....
October 2016
Unlocking the potential of annular ion engines
... Technologist for In-Space Propulsion at NASA’s Glenn Research Center, worked on NASA’s Deep Space One and Dawn missions; and NASA’s Next Generation Ion Propulsion System programme. References 1. Patterson, M.J, Soulas, G.C., Young, J.A, Crofton...
04 July 2018
Majority of asteroids come from a handful of ancient planets
... Eulalia. The names refer to the biggest object in the bunch, once of which got a visit from NASA’s Dawn Spacecraft in 2011 – Vesta. Those that can’t be placed into a family, the asteroid orphans as it were, are given the...
