Ceres, NASA's new take on bright spots. After dawn shut down?

With the amount of news coverage the journey to Ceres has gathered recently, it's no wonder that NASA may be a little worried about the possibility of Dawn seeing something it probably shouldn't. With everything NASA, they get the feed first we get the scraps later.

Recently this occurred.

On June 30th, NASA’s Dawn spacecraft was in its current orbit around the dwarf planet Ceres when it suddenly and inexplicably shut down without warning. After a few days of talk about “glitches” and “safe mode,” NASA announced that the craft was operational but in a holding pattern. Just as suddenly, a mission expert announced that those mysterious lights on the dwarf planet’s surface that it has been saying are “ice” are not ice at all but something else. Why the sudden change? Are these two events related?

NASA SOURCE

The most interesting part of all this is this area...

The official word on the June 30 Dawn shutdown is that the spacecraft’s software detected an unknown anomaly after firing its ion engines to move to its third orbit level closer to Ceres. The craft shut down all activities including thrusting, went into safe mode and requested further instructions from NASA. After two days, NASA announced that the software had been reconfigured and was up and running.

They then changed there story from the bright spots being ice to bright spots being 'reflective salt'. Strange. After detecting an anomaly, to shutting down, to change of story, odd.

Maybe something was/has been found and NASA have the evidence right now but are standing around with no real clue how to put it to the public or news. Could be something of nothing but oh well, it's always nice to assume the possibilities.

a reply to: BlackProject

Safe mode?
I hope its not controlled by Windowz.....maybe thats it! MS detected a pirated copy of xp and shut it down!

just like new horizons shut down for a time but not convinced it was something they tried to hide.

you ask me they seem to be open to anything on pluto and i,m eagerly waiting on the pics myself

originally posted by: sparky31
just like new horizons shut down for a time but not convinced it was something they tried to hide.

you ask me they seem to be open to anything on pluto and i,m eagerly waiting on the pics myself

You can bet your biscuit they are NOT open to signs of intelligent activity. They slammed the lid on that being a possibility on Phobos back with the Viking missions. Not likely will they tell us that those are solar energy collectors or whatever.

I thought the camera gain was turned way up to resolve features, over contrasting parts, making them appear 'glittery'.

Either that (as long as we are assuming…) or the salt and ice are being used by the aliens to make their roads less slippery.

maybe we got an "alien e.t. message" from them that 'we are not alone' and they want 'to help' us advance technologically , there's just "one" catch ..
sounds familiar?

Every time a NASA feed seems to shut down with a "glitch" when something is going to be revealed, only stokes the fires of conspiracy. It seems to happen a lot with the accompanying fan boy responses and excuses.

N...never
A...A
S...straight
A...answer

originally posted by: blacktie
maybe we got an "alien e.t. message" from them that 'we are not alone' and they want 'to help' us advance technologically , there's just "one" catch ..

The aliens will give us the tech if we will help them transfer 50 million dollars to our bank accounts by giving them our account numbers?

Nobody ever "changed their story". There was some speculation that the bright spots may be some form of ice; That was never definitively stated as a fact.

As for the "unknown anomaly", what else are they going to call it? Just because those words seem scary and mysterious to you, doesn't mean that there's any conspiracy about it. Get over yourself.

originally posted by: blacktie
maybe we got an "alien e.t. message" from them that 'we are not alone' and they want 'to help' us advance technologically , there's just "one" catch ..
sounds familiar?

How bout "To Serve Man" ?
Just dont get onboard the ship

The OP missed out the source of his article:

mysteriousuniverse.org...

There is nothing unusual about scientists changing their mind when they get new data.

There is nothing contradictory about the claim that water may be significant on Ceres and the reflective patches being salt.

Think about it.

The article is trying to fill webspace with a bunch of nothing.

a reply to: admirethedistance

Your replies always seem to be that of trying to put others ideas out, seems odd that you would scan theses forums to just do that.

Well done.

a reply to: BlackProject

Just doing my part in denying ignorance...

it's no wonder that NASA may be a little worried about the possibility of Dawn seeing something it probably shouldn't.

This opinion is based on what?

They then changed there story from the bright spots being ice to bright spots being 'reflective salt'.

There was never the story that the spots were definitely ice, stop inventing things. In fact, astronomers were dubious that it could be ice, since ice would have sublimated under the Sun's heat.

Let's face it, you're seeing a conspiracy in everything because you want to see a conspiracy. It's a sick, festering state of mind that prevents you from appreciating science and scientists for all the work they do, and keeps you in a state of agitation. Let it go my friend, the only ones benefiting from conspiracy theories are charlatans who're out to make a quick buck on people's gullibility and distrust.

a reply to: BlackProject

Detected an unknown anomaly......classic NASA

originally posted by: EA006
a reply to: BlackProject

Detected an unknown anomaly......classic NASA

I would have said 'Classic Star Trek."

P

It has always been very easy for NASA to prove the lights on Ceres are only reflections off a natural substance like water or salt. The Dawn spacecraft revolves around Ceres and has the ability to take photos of the lighted area when Ceres is not facing the Sun. Ergo, if the lights were caused by sunlight reflection there would be no lights in that area when Ceres has rotated away from the Sun. NASA could have shown us a photo of this area when Ceres rotated away from the Sun months ago. NASA hasn't shown us these photos. Why?

The Planetary Society's recent solar sail mission experienced a similar shut down and had to be rebooted due to what they think may have been a cosmic ray hit scrambling the mission computer.

Space is hard and these things happen because it really IS rocket science...

originally posted by: 1questioner
It has always been very easy for NASA to prove the lights on Ceres are only reflections off a natural substance like water or salt. The Dawn spacecraft revolves around Ceres and has the ability to take photos of the lighted area when Ceres is not facing the Sun. Ergo, if the lights were caused by sunlight reflection there would be no lights in that area when Ceres has rotated away from the Sun. NASA could have shown us a photo of this area when Ceres rotated away from the Sun months ago. NASA hasn't shown us these photos. Why?

Um wouldn't the sensitive cameras then be staring back in the direction of the Sun?

a reply to: EA006

It was a spacecraft anomaly. The onboard computer detected a glitch of some sort and put Dawn into safe mode until the engineers could sort it out. That is standard procedure to prevent loss of the spacecraft/mission. There is nothing sinister going on here.

On another note, if NASA ever discovered evidence of extraterrestrial life they would crow the news from the rooftops. A discovery of that magnitude would guarantee a huge increase in funding for the space agency, which now struggles to survive on the crumbs it is offered. Anyone who thinks otherwise is nuts.