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NASA to Launch Asteroid Mission Sunday
NewsMax.com Wires Friday, July 6, 2007
LOS ANGELES -- NASA this weekend is set to launch a spacecraft that will
journey to the asteroid belt that lies between Mars and Jupiter, a mission
that involves a rendezvous with two of the solar system's largest asteroids.
Seeking clues about the birth of the solar system, the Dawn spacecraft will
first encounter Vesta, the smaller of the two bodies, four years from now.
In 2015, it will meet up with Ceres, which carries the status of both
asteroid and, like Pluto, dwarf planet.
"We're trying to go back in time as well as to go out there in space," said
planetary scientist Christopher Russell of University of California, Los
Angeles, who is heading up the mission.
Weather permitting, Dawn is set to blast off Sunday afternoon from Cape
Canaveral, Fla., on a Delta II rocket. The launch caps a tumultuous effort
in which the $344 million mission was killed last year because of cost
overruns and technical problems.
Ultimately, though, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, which manages
the spacecraft, appealed to NASA Administrator Michael Griffin and got the
project revived.
Adding to the drama, Ceres briefly flirted with planethood during last
summer's scientific debate about whether Pluto is a planet. Both Pluto and
Ceres were finally classified dwarf planets.
Vesta and Ceres are believed to have evolved in different parts of the solar
system more than 4.5 billion years ago around the same time as the formation
of the rocky planets including Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. Scientists
believe the asteroids' growth was stunted by Jupiter's gravitational pull
and never had the chance to become full-fledged planets.
Images by the Hubble Space Telescope show Vesta and Ceres as geologically
diverse.
Mysteries abound: Why are Vesta and Ceres so different? How do size and
water affect planet formation? What does the evolution of the asteroids say
about Earth's formation?
Vesta, which measures 326 miles across, is dry and pocked with a deep impact
crater in its southern hemisphere. By contrast, Ceres, about twice as large
as Vesta, has a dusty surface covered by what appears to be an ice shell and
may even contain water inside.
When Dawn reaches each asteroid, first Vesta in 2011, it will orbit each
body, photographing the surface and studying the asteroid's interior makeup,
density and magnetism. Pictures and data will be sent back to Earth.
Dawn will be powered by ion propulsion instead of conventional rocket fuel,
making it more fuel-efficient and allowing it to cruise between the
asteroids and lower itself to about 125 miles above the surface to study
them in depth.
Although previous spacecraft have explored smaller asteroids, researchers
hope Dawn will shed light on the solar system's origins.
"If you want to understand the Earth, it's important to understand how it
came to be and that's where asteroids come in. They're the building blocks,"
said Jay Melosh, a planetary geologist at the University of Arizona who has
no role of the Dawn mission.
NASA to Launch Asteroid Mission Sunday
NewsMax.com Wires Friday, July 6, 2007
LOS ANGELES -- NASA this weekend is set to launch a spacecraft that will
journey to the asteroid belt that lies between Mars and Jupiter, a mission
that involves a rendezvous with two of the solar system's largest asteroids.
Seeking clues about the birth of the solar system, the Dawn spacecraft will
first encounter Vesta, the smaller of the two bodies, four years from now.
In 2015, it will meet up with Ceres, which carries the status of both
asteroid and, like Pluto, dwarf planet.
"We're trying to go back in time as well as to go out there in space," said
planetary scientist Christopher Russell of University of California, Los
Angeles, who is heading up the mission.
Weather permitting, Dawn is set to blast off Sunday afternoon from Cape
Canaveral, Fla., on a Delta II rocket. The launch caps a tumultuous effort
in which the $344 million mission was killed last year because of cost
overruns and technical problems.
Ultimately, though, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, which manages
the spacecraft, appealed to NASA Administrator Michael Griffin and got the
project revived.
Adding to the drama, Ceres briefly flirted with planethood during last
summer's scientific debate about whether Pluto is a planet. Both Pluto and
Ceres were finally classified dwarf planets.
Vesta and Ceres are believed to have evolved in different parts of the solar
system more than 4.5 billion years ago around the same time as the formation
of the rocky planets including Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. Scientists
believe the asteroids' growth was stunted by Jupiter's gravitational pull
and never had the chance to become full-fledged planets.
Images by the Hubble Space Telescope show Vesta and Ceres as geologically
diverse.
Mysteries abound: Why are Vesta and Ceres so different? How do size and
water affect planet formation? What does the evolution of the asteroids say
about Earth's formation?
Vesta, which measures 326 miles across, is dry and pocked with a deep impact
crater in its southern hemisphere. By contrast, Ceres, about twice as large
as Vesta, has a dusty surface covered by what appears to be an ice shell and
may even contain water inside.
When Dawn reaches each asteroid, first Vesta in 2011, it will orbit each
body, photographing the surface and studying the asteroid's interior makeup,
density and magnetism. Pictures and data will be sent back to Earth.
Dawn will be powered by ion propulsion instead of conventional rocket fuel,
making it more fuel-efficient and allowing it to cruise between the
asteroids and lower itself to about 125 miles above the surface to study
them in depth.
Although previous spacecraft have explored smaller asteroids, researchers
hope Dawn will shed light on the solar system's origins.
"If you want to understand the Earth, it's important to understand how it
came to be and that's where asteroids come in. They're the building blocks,"
said Jay Melosh, a planetary geologist at the University of Arizona who has
no role of the Dawn mission.
