

Destination asteroid: NASA probe arrives at ancient ‘mini moon’ - vbtemp
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/destination-asteroid-nasa-probe-arrives-at-ancient-mini-moon/2011/07/15/gIQAsOxdGI_story.html?hpid=z4

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vbtemp
For many reasons, DAWN is one of the coolest spacecraft in the Interplanetary
fleet.

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alphadog
Evidence, please.

How does it stack up to Cassini or New Horizons?

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InclinedPlane
Firstly, Dawn uses ion engines for primary propulsion, this enables it to
rendezvous with two separate asteroids, something that has never been done
before. Secondly, Dawn's primary science instrument is an incredible imaging
spectrometer right out of star trek. It will create a high resolution global
map of Vesta (and later Ceres) except at every pixel it won't merely record
greyscale data or even a few color channels it'll record an entire high
resolution spectrum from visible to IR wavelengths. It's secondary instrument
is a gamma ray and neutron spectrometer, capable of probing the sub-surface
compositon of the asteroid.

In terms of raw high-tech instrumentation, New Horizons is close, but Dawn's
use of electric propulsion sets it apart.

Personally I'd rather not pick favorites, but Dawn is definitely the van guard
of a stunning new generation of scientific spacecraft.

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sehugg
More about the ion engines:

<http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/ion_prop.asp>

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T-hawk
Last line isn't quite accurate: _If successful, Dawn’s double-destination
mission will mark the first time a spacecraft has orbited two bodies in the
solar system._

Of course the Apollo manned missions orbited both the Earth and the Moon, so
we certainly have precedence for thrusting out of one body's orbit into
another.

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yesbabyyes
I hope it doesn't end up in the belly of some huge creature.

Seriously, this sounds amazing.

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wedesoft
Here is NASA's press release.
[http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/feature_stories/spacecraft_to_enter...](http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/feature_stories/spacecraft_to_enter_asteroid_orbit.asp)

