Here comes the Dawn

Originally posted by d8track
I like the ion propulsion engine.

The Dawn spacecraft uses ion propulsion to get the additional velocity needed to reach Vesta once it leaves the Delta rocket. It also uses ion propulsion to spiral to lower altitudes on Vesta, to leave Vesta and cruise to Ceres and to spiral to a low altitude orbit at Ceres. Ion propulsion makes efficient use of the onboard fuel by accelerating it to a velocity ten times that of chemical rockets. This efficiency is measured in terms of the specific impulse of the fuel (Isp).

Accelerating to velocity ten times that of chemical rockets.

Have you any idea how long it takes to do that that will make you go

Dawn's ion drive is capable of accelerating from 0 to 60 mph (97 km/h) in 4 days

So, did anyone see it last night? I fell asleep.

Yes! I got a Tweet from the Dawn team (@NASA_Dawn) that said:

A little thrust of my ion engine and I'm now in ORBIT around asteroid Vesta! Whoohoo!

I was pretty excited! But no new pics still I reckon.
What times we live on man... ION FREAKING ENGINES!!!
I wanna go up, I wanna wanna wannaaaaaaa moooomm!!!!
Awaiting the first images from up-close........

Drakus

reply to post by wmd_2008


So it's not a sports car, but at 0-97kpm in 4 days at a constant acceleration would bring it to 8851kph/year or 147kms/year. So at that rate if it traveled as long as Voyager 1 (34years) it would be going 5016kms. Voyager is traveling at 17kms. But still it would take it 1680years to reach the speed of light.

reply to post by d8track


Yes, the Dawn space probe is not meant for anxious fast travel.
And it's the first of it's kind in many ways, I'd say she's doing pretty fine...

Did anybody get a pic or is there a site with pics? It rained all wkd here in the NW.
I want to see what the 'solar wings' looks like.

spec

The "solar wings" are the solar panels of the DAWN spacecraft! They are nothing to do with Vesta

reply to post by Mogget

Booya, ignorance denied! < covers face > Thanks, even with the rolling eyes.

New images!

Expect more soon

Take a look here:
www.nasa.gov...

Embedded, for your pleasure...

Let the conspiracy begin! Muahahahaaaaa

Vesta is just another Rock. Ceres will be the jewel. It may have water ice.

reply to post by drakus


Thanks for joining in!

I just love seeing heavenly bodies for the first time.

the orbit of Dawn, is in a slow spiral down...The pictures will become more detailed.
It really is a Planetary type object, rather than a space rock. A wanna-be planet..Possibly spoiled by Jupiter's Greedy Gravitational pull.

According to some articles I've read. Vesta was big enough to differentiate into layers.
Crust, mantle, core...that kind of thing.

Then it got whacked by something large...knocking off a large piece of one of the poles.
the South pole, I think. This could be a lucky break for us. Giving us a peek into the "guts" of a proto-planet.

Closest image to date.
www.jpl.nasa.gov...

NASA's Dawn spacecraft obtained this image with its framing camera on July 23, 2011. It was taken from a distance of about 3,200 miles (5,200 kilometers) away from the giant asteroid Vesta. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA

There is a press conference on August 1st. 9am Pacific.
There will more full frame pics released at that time.