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Dawn (spacecraft)
&sq=crain_ford&lang=en&file=File:Dawn_spacecraft_model.png) Illustration of the Dawn spacecraft | |||||||||
| Mission type | Vesta/Ceres orbiter | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operator | NASA / JPL | ||||||||
| COSPAR ID | 2007-043A | ||||||||
| SATCAT no. | 32249 | ||||||||
| Website | science.nasa.gov | ||||||||
| Mission duration | 11 years, 1 month and 5 days [1][2] | ||||||||
| Spacecraft properties | |||||||||
| Manufacturer | Orbital Sciences[3] JPL UCLA | ||||||||
| Launch mass | 1,217.7 kg (2,684.6 lb)[4] | ||||||||
| Dry mass | 747.1 kg (1,647.1 lb)[4] | ||||||||
| Dimensions | 1.64 × 19.7 × 1.77 m (5.4 × 65 × 5.8 ft)[4] | ||||||||
| Power | 10 kW at 1 AU[4] 1.3 kW at 3 AU[5] | ||||||||
| Start of mission | |||||||||
| Launch date | September 27, 2007, 11:34 UTC[6] | ||||||||
| Rocket | Delta II 7925H D-327 | ||||||||
| Launch site | Cape Canaveral SLC-17B | ||||||||
| Contractor | United Launch Alliance | ||||||||
| End of mission | |||||||||
| Disposal | Decommissioned | ||||||||
| Last contact | October 30, 2018[7] | ||||||||
| Decay date | ~2038[8] | ||||||||
| Orbital parameters | |||||||||
| Reference system | Ceres | ||||||||
| Regime | Highly elliptical | ||||||||
| Semi-major axis | 2,475.1356 km (1,537.9780 mi)[9] | ||||||||
| Eccentricity | 0.7952 [9] | ||||||||
| Periapsis altitude | 37.004 km (22.993 mi) | ||||||||
| Apoapsis altitude | 3,973.866 km (2,469.246 mi) | ||||||||
| Inclination | 76.1042° [9] | ||||||||
| Period | 1,628.68 minutes[9] | ||||||||
| RAAN | −79.4891° [9] | ||||||||
| Argument of periapsis | 164.1014° [9] | ||||||||
| Epoch | October 30, 2018, 00:00:00 UTC[9] | ||||||||
| Flyby of Mars | |||||||||
| Closest approach | February 18, 2009, 00:27:58 UTC[6] | ||||||||
| Distance | 542 km (337 mi)[6] | ||||||||
| 4 Vesta orbiter | |||||||||
| Orbital insertion | July 16, 2011, 04:47 UTC[10] | ||||||||
| Orbital departure | September 5, 2012, 06:26 UTC[6] | ||||||||
| 1 Ceres orbiter | |||||||||
| Orbital insertion | March 6, 2015, 12:29 UTC[6] | ||||||||
| |||||||||
&sq=crain_ford&lang=en&file=File:Dawn_logo.png){kind=logo} Dawn mission patch | |||||||||
Dawn is a retired space probe that was launched by NASA in September 2007 with the mission of studying two of the three known protoplanets of the asteroid belt: Vesta and Ceres.[1] In the fulfillment of that mission—the ninth in NASA's Discovery Program—Dawn entered orbit around Vesta on July 16, 2011, and completed a 14-month survey mission before leaving for Ceres in late 2012.[11][12] It entered orbit around Ceres on March 6, 2015.[13][14] In 2017, NASA announced that the planned nine-year mission would be extended until the probe's hydrazine fuel supply was depleted.[15] On November 1, 2018, NASA announced that Dawn had depleted its hydrazine, and the mission was ended. The derelict probe remains in a stable orbit around Ceres.[16]
Dawn is the first spacecraft to have orbited two extraterrestrial bodies,[17] the first spacecraft to have visited either Vesta or Ceres, and the first to have orbited a dwarf planet.[18]
The Dawn mission was managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, with spacecraft components contributed by European partners from Italy, Germany, France, and the Netherlands.[19] It was the first NASA exploratory mission to use ion propulsion, which enabled it to enter and leave the orbit of two celestial bodies. Previous multi-target missions using rockets powered by chemical engines, such as the Voyager program, were restricted to flybys.[5]
- ^ a b Cite error: The named reference
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- ^ a b c d "Dawn at Ceres" (PDF) (Press kit). NASA / Jet Propulsion Laboratory. March 2015.
- ^ a b Rayman, Marc; Fraschetti, Thomas C.; Raymond, Carol A.; Russell, Christopher T. (April 5, 2006). "Dawn: A mission in development for exploration of main belt asteroids Vesta and Ceres" (PDF). Acta Astronautica. 58 (11): 605–616. Bibcode:2006AcAau..58..605R. doi:10.1016/j.actaastro.2006.01.014. Retrieved April 14, 2011.
- ^ a b c d e "Dawn". National Space Science Data Center. NASA. Retrieved November 20, 2016.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
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NASA-20180906was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ a b c d e f g "Nasa Horizons Ephemeris – Target body name: Dawn (spacecraft) (-203)". NASA JPL. January 6, 2022.
- ^ Brown, Dwayne C.; Vega, Priscilla (August 1, 2011). "NASA's Dawn Spacecraft Begins Science Orbits of Vesta". NASA. Archived from the original on February 2, 2019. Retrieved August 6, 2011.
- ^ "NASA's Dawn Spacecraft Hits Snag on Trip to 2 Asteroids". Space.com. August 15, 2012. Retrieved August 27, 2012.
- ^ "Dawn Gets Extra Time to Explore Vesta". NASA. April 18, 2012. Archived from the original on April 21, 2012. Retrieved April 24, 2012.
- ^ Landau, Elizabeth; Brown, Dwayne (March 6, 2015). "NASA Spacecraft Becomes First to Orbit a Dwarf Planet". NASA. Retrieved March 6, 2015.
- ^ Rayman, Marc (March 6, 2015). "Dawn Journal: Ceres Orbit Insertion!". Planetary Society. Retrieved March 6, 2015.
- ^ Landau, Elizabeth (October 19, 2017). "Dawn Mission Extended at Ceres". NASA. Retrieved October 19, 2017.
- ^ Northon, Karen (November 1, 2018). "NASA's Dawn Mission to Asteroid Belt Comes to End". NASA. Retrieved November 12, 2018.
- ^ Rayman, Marc (April 8, 2015). Now Appearing At a Dwarf Planet Near You: NASA's Dawn Mission to the Asteroid Belt (Speech). Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures. Foothill College, Los Altos, CA. Retrieved July 7, 2018.
- ^ Siddiqi, Asif A. (2018). Beyond Earth: A Chronicle of Deep Space Exploration, 1958–2016 (PDF). The NASA history series (second ed.). Washington, D.C.: NASA History Program Office. p. 2. ISBN 9781626830424. LCCN 2017059404. SP2018-4041.
- ^ Evans, Ben (October 8, 2017). "Complexity and Challenge: Dawn Project Manager Speaks of Difficult Voyage to Vesta and Ceres". AmericaSpace. Retrieved February 28, 2018.
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