#dawn spacecraft

[gemini-enthusiast]

Blocks slide down the wall of Ceres' Occator Crater, Dawn probe.

[rollie-rolerson]

i made this a year ago but i thought i'd share it here.

The background music I made myself :D The sound of the ion engine itself I did not make, but I did edit it for this little demo (ex. volume and panning, i probably added an equalizer effect? i dont remember)

Dawn cruisin in spaaaace...oh to be a silly SEP spacecraft wait I already am one

[krakenmare]

Dawn: Ceres and the bright regions in Occator Crater - one of the last views the spacecraft transmitted before it depleted its remaining hydrazine and completed its mission (September 1, 2018)

[wikipediapictures]

Solar cell

[blasteffect]

Ceres!

A mosaic image from NASA's Dawn spacecraft uses false color to highlight the recently exposed brine, or salty liquids, that were pushed up from a deep reservoir under Ceres' crust. In this view of a region of Occator Crater, they appear reddish. 

Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA

[beauty-funny-trippy]

The ion-powered Dawn spacecraft orbited the dwarf planet Ceres, taking false-color images that highlight differences in surface materials. It appears that Ceres once had a global liquid ocean whose surface is now frozen and bound up with rocks, salts and clathrate hydrates(a cage of water molecules surrounding a gas molecule). Yet, liquid water may still exist deep below the icy crust.

In fact, Dawn sent back images of a huge cryovolcano (a volcano that erupts liquid water instead of lava) named Ahuna Mons; it towers 3 miles(5km) above the surface.

Ceres has a diameter of about 590 miles (950km), making it the largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, comprising 25% of the belt's total mass.

Ceres is named for the Roman goddess of grains/agriculture. The word 'cereal'  comes from the same name. ~beauty-funny-trippy

[the-telescope-times]

The End is Near for NASA's Historic Dawn Mission to the Asteroid Belt

The Dawn spacecraft’s first stop: Vesta. An asteroid with an iron core. Credit: NASA

Dawn passes over Occator Crater on dwarf planet Ceres observing the Great White Spot. Credit: NASA

Photo: NASA Kennedy

Ion drive Photo: NASA/JPL 

NASA's Dawn spacecraft arrived at the giant asteroid Vesta in July 2011 and continued on to Ceres on Sept. 4, 2012 PDT (Sept. 5 EDT). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Following text by Space.com:   

Appreciate those gorgeous photos of the dwarf planet Ceres that NASA's Dawn spacecraft keeps beaming home, because that tap will soon run dry.

Dawn — the only probe ever to orbit two objects beyond the Earth-moon system — will likely run out of fuel in the next month or so, between mid-September and mid-October, mission team members said today (Sept. 7).

When that happens, the venerable probe will lose the ability to orient itself as needed to study Ceres or transmit data back to its controllers on Earth. Dawn will become a cosmic ghost, orbiting the dwarf planet in silence for decades to come. [Photos: Dwarf Planet Ceres, the Solar System's Largest Asteroid]

"Although it will be sad to see Dawn's departure from our mission family, we are intensely proud of its many accomplishments," Lori Glaze, acting director of NASA's Planetary Science Division, said in a statement yesterday (Sept. 6). "Dawn's science and engineering achievements will echo throughout history."

Read more ~space.com/

[beautyandtheuniverse]

This image of Nar Sulcus in Yalode Crater was obtained by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on May 19, 2018