Asteroid Vesta - Dawn Spacecraft
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The Dawn Spacecraft is using
ION PROPULSION
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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).
Dawn's engines have a specific impulse of 3100 s and a thrust of 90mN. While a chemical rocket on a spacecraft might have a thrust of up to 500 Newtons, Dawn's much smaller engine achieves an equivalent trajectory change by firing over a much longer period of time. The figure below shows the specific impulse and thrust of different thruster types.
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The ion thruster is powered by large solar panels. The power ionizes the fuel (Xenon) and then accelerates it with an electric field between two grids. Electrons are injected into the beam after acceleration to maintain a neutral plasma.
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Ion Propulsion (http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/ion_prop.asp)
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Flight path of NASA's Dawn spacecraft:
NASA Dawn Mission Page (http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/)
Asteroid spacecraft Dawn: a change in course near our neighbour, Mars (http://spacefellowship.com/news/art8226/asteroid-spacecraft-dawn-a-change-in-course-near-our-neighbour-mars.html)
HAMO and LAMO images of Eusebia crater
(http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/imageoftheday/201208/f2_377661265_eusebia_page.jpg) (http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/imageoftheday/201208/f2_377661265_eusebia_full.jpg)
Image Credit: NASA/ JPL-Caltech/ UCLA/ MPS/ DLR/ IDA click for full size
August 7, 2012
These Dawn framing camera (FC) images of Vesta show Eusebia crater at both HAMO (high-altitude mapping orbit) and LAMO (low-altitude mapping orbit) resolutions. The left image is the HAMO image and the right image is the LAMO image. Eusebia is the large crater that almost fills the LAMO image. The LAMO image is approximately 3 times better spatial resolution than the HAMO image. In images with higher spatial resolutions smaller objects can be better distinguished. For example, in the LAMO image many more tiny craters can be seen in the base of Eusebia than in the HAMO image. Also, details such as boulders below the right rim of Eusebia, distinguished by the dark shadows that they cast, can be seen much more clearly in the LAMO image.
These images are located in Vesta's Tuccia quadrangle, in Vesta's southern hemisphere. NASA's Dawn spacecraft obtained the left image with its framing camera on Oct. 11, 2011. This image was taken through the camera's clear filter. The distance to the surface of Vesta is 700 kilometers (435 miles) and the image has a resolution of about 68 meters (223 feet) per pixel. This image was acquired during the HAMO (high-altitude mapping orbit) phase of the mission. NASA's Dawn spacecraft obtained the right image with its framing camera on Dec. 20, 2011. This image was taken through the camera's clear filter. The distance to the surface of Vesta is 272 kilometers (169 miles) and the image has a resolution of about 24 meters (79 feet) per pixel. This image was acquired during the LAMO (low-altitude mapping orbit) phase of the mission.
The Dawn mission to Vesta and Ceres is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington D.C. UCLA is responsible for overall Dawn mission science. The Dawn framing cameras have been developed and built under the leadership of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany, with significant contributions by DLR German Aerospace Center, Institute of Planetary Research, Berlin, and in coordination with the Institute of Computer and Communication Network Engineering, Braunschweig. The framing camera project is funded by the Max Planck Society, DLR, and NASA/JPL.
HAMO and LAMO images of Eusebia crater (http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/imageoftheday/image.asp?date=20120807)
Apparent brightness and topography images of Fabia crater
(http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/imageoftheday/201208/278_f2_372292345_fabia_albedo_page.jpg) (http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/imageoftheday/201208/278_f2_372292345_fabia_albedo_full.jpg)
Image Credit: NASA/ JPL-Caltech/ UCLA/ MPS/ DLR/ IDA Click for full size
August 6, 2012
The left-hand image is a Dawn FC (framing camera) image, which shows the apparent brightness of Vesta's surface. The right-hand image is based on this apparent brightness image, which has had a color-coded height representation of the topography overlain onto it. The topography is calculated from a set of images that were observed from different viewing directions, which allows stereo reconstruction. The various colors correspond to the height of the area. The white and red areas in the topography image are the highest areas and the blue areas are the lowest areas. There is a white and red colored hill dominating the bottom left part of the topography image. Fabia crater is located on the side of this hill, offset just to the right of the highest, white-colored, part of the hill. The steep slope of the inner left side of Fabia is clear in the topography image because the colored topography contours range from white at Fabia's rim to orange near its center. There is a large blue colored depression in the top left of the topography image. It is possible that this depression is part of an old, large, very degraded crater.
Apparent brightness and topography images of Fabia crater (http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/imageoftheday/image.asp?date=20120806)
Fabia crater
(http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/imageoftheday/201208/277_f2_372292345_fabia_page.jpg) (http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/imageoftheday/201208/277_f2_372292345_fabia_full.jpg)
Image Credit: NASA/ JPL-Caltech/ UCLA/ MPS/ DLR/ IDA click for full size
August 3, 2012
This Dawn framing camera (FC) image of Vesta shows Fabia crater, which is the large crater offset to the bottom right of the center of the image. Fabia crater is very distinctive because the two sides of its rim have very different states of freshness. In this image the bottom part of the rim is distinct and fresh but the top part of the rim is much more rounded and degraded. This dichotomy between the rims is possibly due to material slumping over the top part of Fabia's rim, which caused the rim to become obscured and look more degraded. There are linear features visible on the illuminated part of Fabia crater, which were probably created by material cascading towards the center of the crater. There is also a distinguishing band of bright material along the bottom rim of the crater.
Fabia crater (http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/imageoftheday/image.asp?date=20120803)
Apparent brightness and topography images of Arruntia crater
(http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/imageoftheday/201208/276_f2_372688701_arruntia_page.jpg) (http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/imageoftheday/201208/276_f2_372688701_arruntia_full.jpg)
Image Credit: NASA/ JPL-Caltech/ UCLA/ MPS/ DLR/ IDA click for full size
August 2, 2012
The left-hand image is a Dawn FC (framing camera) image, which shows the apparent brightness of Vesta's surface. The right-hand image is based on this apparent brightness image, which has had a color-coded height representation of the topography overlain onto it. The topography is calculated from a set of images that were observed from different viewing directions, which allows stereo reconstruction. The various colors correspond to the height of the area. The white and red areas in the topography image are the highest areas and the blue areas are the lowest areas. Arruntia crater is the large crater offset from the center of the image. In the topography image it is clear that the area Arruntia formed on is sloping from the top of the image to the bottom. Also, the colored topography contours inside of the crater to the right of Arruntia show that it is very shallow. This is because they follow the pattern of the contours outside of the crater. If the crater was deeper or more pronounced the contours would have a different pattern inside of the crater.
Apparent brightness and topography images of Arruntia crater (http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/imageoftheday/image.asp?date=20120802)
Arruntia crater
(http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/imageoftheday/201208/275_f2_372688701_arruntia_page.jpg) (http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/imageoftheday/201208/275_f2_372688701_arruntia_full.jpg)
Image Credit: NASA/ JPL-Caltech/ UCLA/ MPS/ DLR/ IDA click for full size
August 1, 2012
This Dawn framing camera (FC) image of Vesta shows Arruntia crater, which is the large crater offset to the top right of the center of the image. Slightly over half of Arruntia crater is covered in a large shadow. But, the non-shadowed part of Arruntia shows impressive details. There is bright material cropping out slightly below the left rim and just below the top and bottom rims there are distinct ridges of material, which are probably formed by material from the rim cascading down towards the center of Arruntia. Hummocky slumps of material can be seen on the lower parts of the interior of Arruntia crater. Arruntia crater is probably one of the freshest craters in this image because it has a sharp, distinct rim and because of the range of preserved features in its interior. Younger craters tend to be the ones that have suites of features within them because not enough time has passed for the features to be erased.
Arruntia crater (http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/imageoftheday/image.asp?date=20120801)
PIA14714: Impressive Mountain Tops on Vesta
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Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA
Full-Res TIFF: PIA14714.tif (1.05 MB) (http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/tiff/PIA14714.tif)
Full-Res JPEG: PIA14714.jpg (105.5 kB) (http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpeg/PIA14714.jpg)
Original Caption Released with Image:
In this image of the south pole region of the asteroid Vesta, a mountain is rising approximately 9 miles (15 kilometers) above the floor of a crater. This mountain, which measures about 125 miles (200 kilometers) in diameter at its base, is one of the highest elevations on all known bodies with solid surfaces in the solar system.
The image has been recorded with the framing camera aboard NASA's Dawn spacecraft from a distance of about 1,700 miles (2,700 kilometers). The image resolution is about 260 meters per pixel.
The Dawn mission to Vesta and Ceres is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. UCLA is responsible for overall Dawn mission science. The Dawn framing cameras were developed and built under the leadership of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany, with significant contributions by DLR German Aerospace Center, Institute of Planetary Research, Berlin, and in coordination with the Institute of Computer and Communication Network Engineering, Braunschweig. The Framing Camera project is funded by the Max Planck Society, DLR, and NASA/JPL.
More information about Dawn is online at http://www.nasa.gov/dawn and http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov.
Image Addition Date: 2011-09-16
PIA14714: Impressive Mountain Tops on Vesta (http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA14714)
The Anomalies
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A Closeup View of the Giant Asteroid Vesta.
In this image of Vesta, taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft just shortly before the beginning of high altitude mapping orbit, north is up and the upper right corner is to the northeast. The spacecraft's distance to Vesta's center is about 420 miles (680 kilometers), and the image resolution is approximately 65 meters per pixel.
The Dawn mission to Vesta and Ceres is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif., for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. UCLA is responsible for overall Dawn mission science. The Dawn framing cameras were developed and built under the leadership of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany, with significant contributions by DLR German Aerospace Center, Institute of Planetary Research, Berlin, and in coordination with the Institute of Computer and Communication Network Engineering, Braunschweig. The Framing Camera project is funded by the Max Planck Society, DLR, and NASA/JPL.
More information about Dawn is online at http://www.nasa.gov/dawn and http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov .
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA
(http://astrobob.areavoices.com/files/2012/07/Vesta-1-troughs-1024x681.jpg) (http://astrobob.areavoices.com/files/2012/07/Vesta-1-troughs-1024x681.jpg)
Huge parallel troughs, probably related to the stress of the huge impact that created the south polar crater Rheasilvia, stripe the 326-mile-diameter asteroid's equator. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA
(http://astrobob.areavoices.com/files/2012/07/Vesta-1-craters-variety-bright-dark-1024x720.jpg) (http://astrobob.areavoices.com/files/2012/07/Vesta-1-craters-variety-bright-dark-1024x720.jpg)
The crust of Vesta is pocked with all variety of craters that have excavated both light and dark materials from beneath the surface. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA
Skipper labels this one a Crash site
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ASTEROID VESTA EVIDENCE
Report 214
December 23, 2011
Joseph P. Skipper Mars Anomaly Research (http://www.marsanomalyresearch.com/evidence-reports/2011/214/asteroid-vesta.htm)
Dawn Orbiting Vesta
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Full-Res TIFF: PIA15174.tif (17.3 MB) (http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/tiff/PIA15174.tif)
Full-Res JPG: PIA15174.jpg (0.67 MB) (http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpeg/PIA15174.jpg)
Dawn Orbiting Vesta
This artist's concept shows NASA's Dawn spacecraft orbiting the giant asteroid Vesta. The depiction of Vesta is based on images obtained by Dawn's framing cameras.
Dawn's mission to Vesta and Ceres is managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Dawn is a project of the directorate's Discovery Program, managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. UCLA is responsible for overall Dawn mission science. Orbital Sciences Corp. in Dulles, Va., designed and built the spacecraft. The German Aerospace Center, the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, the Italian Space Agency and the Italian National Astrophysical Institute are international partners on the mission team.
More information about Dawn is online at http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov.
(http://www.thelivingmoon.com//43ancients/04images/Vesta/Clip_003.png)
Dawn Orbiting Vesta (http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=pia15174)
Thats a great compilation, Zorgon! Many odd shaped craters on Vesta, eh? At least for my untrained eye. Something I noticed about it is that it has the same general shape and appearance as Phobos, the Moon of Mars.
Phobos also has these horizontal lines and patterns running around it, and Hoagland, in an obvious moment of drunkenness calls Phobos an abandoned spaceship...Hmm.
What I noticed was the interior structure of the "crash site object" to look a lot like a broken sand dollar with chambers and such, and a lot of the other features on Vesta look like live sand dollars under the surface a bit.
Alien sand dollars? They are pretty prehistoric, and maybe an asteroid is where they originally came from?
Whatcha think?
Cheers!