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Topic Name: NASA Spacecraft Is a 'Go' for Asteroid Belt
Category: STAR (Space, Telecommunications & Radioscience)
Research persons: Mr Keyur Patel
Location: Suite 5K39, Washington, DC 20546-0001, United States
Details
Launch and flight teams are in final preparations for the planned Sept. 27
liftoff from Pad 17-B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., of
NASA's Dawn
mission. The Dawn spacecraft will venture into the heart of the asteroid belt,
where it will document in exceptional detail the mammoth rocky asteroid Vesta,
and then, the even bigger icy dwarf planet Ceres.
"If you live in the Bahamas this is one time you can tell your neighbor, with a
straight face, that Dawn will rise in the west," said Dawn Project Manager Keyur
Patel of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Weather
permitting, we are go for launch Thursday morning -- a little after dawn."
Dawn's Sept. 27 launch window is 7:20 to 7:49 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time (4:20
to 4:49 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time). At the moment of liftoff, the Delta II's
first-stage main engine along with six of its nine solid-fuel boosters will
ignite. The remaining three solids are ignited in flight following the burnout
of the first six. The first-stage main engine will burn for 4.4 minutes. The
second stage will deposit Dawn in a 185-kilometer-high (100- nautical-mile)
circular parking orbit in just under nine minutes. At about 56 minutes after
launch, the rocket's third and final stage will ignite for approximately 87
seconds. When the third stage burns out, actuators and push-off springs on the
launch vehicle will separate the spacecraft from the third stage.
"After separation, the spacecraft will go through an automatic activating
sequence, including stabilizing the spacecraft, activating flight systems and
deploying Dawn's two massive solar arrays," said Patel. "Then and only then will
the spacecraft energize its transmitter and contact Earth. We expect acquisition
of signal to occur anywhere from one-and-a-half hours to three-and-a-half hours
after launch."
The Dawn mission will explore Vesta, and later Ceres, because these two asteroid
belt behemoths have been witness to so much of our solar system's history.
"Visiting both Vesta and Ceres enables a study in extraterrestrial contrasts,"
said Dawn Principal Investigator Christopher Russell of the
University of
California, Los Angeles. "One is rocky and is representative of the building
blocks that constructed the planets of the inner solar system. The other may
very well be icy and represents the outer planets. Yet, these two very diverse
bodies reside in essentially the same neighborhood. It is one of the mysteries
Dawn hopes to solve."
Using the same spacecraft to reconnoiter two different celestial targets makes
more than fiscal sense. It makes scientific sense. By utilizing the same set of
instruments at two separate destinations, scientists can more accurately
formulate comparisons and contrasts. Dawn's science instrument suite will
measure mass, shape, surface topography and tectonic history, elemental and
mineral composition, as well as seek out water-bearing minerals. In addition,
the Dawn spacecraft itself and the way it orbits both Vesta and Ceres will be
used to measure the celestial bodies' gravity fields.
"Understanding conditions that lead to the formation of planets is a goal of
NASA's mission of exploration," said David Lindstrom, Dawn program scientist at
NASA Headquarters, Washington. "The science returned from Vesta and Ceres could
unlock many of the mysteries of the formation of the rocky planets including
Earth."
Before all this celestial mystery unlocking can occur, Dawn has to reach the
asteroid belt and its first target – Vesta. This is a four-year process that
begins with launch and continues with the firing of three of the most efficient
engines in NASA's space motor inventory - ion propulsion engines. Employing a
complex commingling of solar-derived electric power and xenon gas, these frugal
powerhouses must fire for months at a time to propel as well as steer Dawn. Over
their eight-year, almost 4-billion-mile lifetime, these three ion propulsion
engines will fire cumulatively for about 50,000 hours (over five years) - a
record for spacecraft.
The Dawn mission to asteroid Vesta and dwarf planet Ceres is managed by JPL, for
NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. JPL is a division of the
California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. The University of California,
Los Angeles, is responsible for overall Dawn mission science. Other scientific
partners include: Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico;
Max Planck
Institute for Solar System Research, Katlenburg, Germany; and Italian National
Institute of Astrophysics, Rome. Orbital Sciences Corporation of Dulles, Va.,
designed and built the Dawn spacecraft.
Additional information about Dawn is online at http://www.nasa.gov/dawn or
http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov . For more information about NASA and agency programs
on the Internet, visit http://www.nasa.gov
About Researcher:
Keyur Patel
Email: kpatel@comventures.com
.mac IM handle: kapatel
Assistant: Michaela Sullivan
msullivan@comventures.com
I have always been an entrepreneur. As a child growing up in India I helped
sell color television sets for my family's business. I loved engaging with my
customers and decided that someday I wanted to own and operate my own business.
I first came to the United States eighteen years ago, and like many Indian
immigrants, I came here looking for opportunities and to fulfill my desire to
learn more.
I've been lucky during the last two decades to either stumble upon or interfere
with the trends of natural technological evolutions. It's great to be part of a
generation where human dynamics and technology interactivity are so intertwined,
and magically both of these evolving fields are emulating each other's natural
and sometimes predictably-disruptive responses and actions.
Over the years I've had a series of epiphanies and successes achieved through a
lot of hard work and luck. I've managed to work on both sides of the fence: as
an entrepreneur and company founder five times, and as a corporate executive
four times. With a single vision, having fun, I've ended up with many
opportunities. Sometimes building companies from the ground up (PSI, Webvibe,
Brience); sometimes turning them around (Inktomi); and sometimes redirecting
them to create completely new categories and markets. For example, launching the
Maxtor OneTouch consumer storage brand, which catapulted to a number-one
position and leads the industry in marketing innovation and global market share.
I simply cannot resist indulging in entrepreneurship because of my immense
interest in media, entertainment and the Internet. Currently, I sit on the
boards of HIP Digital, Nanocast Labs, Fabrik and Sonicwall (NASDAQ:snwl).
Brands that Matter: Apple, Virgin
Economies to Watch: B.R.I.C.
Things that will change the future: Micro Services, Green Power
The Future: Social Innovation
Technology Predictions: Superweb build-up, FLEX viral adoption
Tsunami Effect: Spiritual Discovery
About NASA:
Public Communications and
Inquiries Management Office
NASA Headquarters
Suite 5K39
Washington, DC 20546-0001
(202) 358-0001 (Office)
(202) 358-3469 (Fax)
public-inquiries@hq.nasa.gov
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