4 ms·

Nasa's Dawn probe achieves orbit around Ceres

85 points by S4M 12y ago

chriskanan 12y ago
This article has more details: http://www.wired.com/2015/03/nasa-probe-finally-arrives-icy-alien-world/ http://www.wired.com/2015/03/nasa-probe-finally-arrives-icy-... The most interesting bit of information to me: [Dawn] won’t be sending back any pictures or data until late April, when it reemerges from Ceres’s dark side. When it does, it will start to map the surface, analyze the chemical composition, and make the most accurate measurements yet of the planet’s mass.
- S4M 12y ago
  Thanks, that article is indeed better, I hope a moderator can change it.
  - dang 12y ago
    OK. Url changed to that from http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-31754586 http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-31754586. We'll keep the latter's title since it's more informative.
Piskvorrr 12y ago
Initially misread as "Nasa's Dawn probe-bears down on Ceres".
- TeMPOraL 12y ago
  I don't recall NASA ever sending bears to space. Wouldn't be surprised if Russians had such program though.
  - dekhn 12y ago
    Just water bears (tardigrades)
- raldi 12y ago
  s/-/: /
  - mlonkibjuyhv 12y ago
    ;
grecy 12y ago
I saw it launch - it was supremely impressive. http://theroadchoseme.com/dawn-launch-cape-canaveral-florida http://theroadchoseme.com/dawn-launch-cape-canaveral-florida
- benihana 12y ago
  This is the biggest thing I miss from living in Orlando - back when the Space Shuttle was still flying, a night launch would light up the sky - the SRBs were brighter than the moon. Some of my best memories as a child were a couple of specific little league baseball games that took place during evening launches. We'd always stop the game and stare up at the sky in wonder and watch the shuttle slip Earth's surly bonds.
- drzaiusapelord 12y ago
  There's something so slow and then tremendously fast about space exploration. Your blog post was a little bit over seven years ago. It must be nerve-wracking to be on the engineering team for these projects. You spend years building the craft then there's this long wait until it gets near the destination. Now the world is all of a sudden watching you. A failure might be a career or reputation killer as well, and for nothing you did wrong or could avoid. This makes me think about the failure of the Beagle 2. Colin Pillinger's star faded pretty quickly after that. Turns out it landed during a dust storm which thinned the atmosphere which meant parachutes were deployed too late (deployed by barometric pressure?). Its remains on Mars show that its solar panels still folded. Its assumed it hit the surface so hard that the motors needed to open them failed to operate. I believe the cost was pretty close to 100m USD. Not super expensive, but certainly not cheap, especially for the ESA. And the waiting game continues: > [Dawn] won’t be sending back any pictures or data until late April
ChuckMcM 12y ago
And now we might get to figure out those bright spots :-) I look forward to the day when someone could take their space tug, fuel up at depot at the Earth-Moon L2 point, then plot an intercept trajectory to the asteroid belt station.

85 points by S4M 12y ago

This article has more details: http://www.wired.com/2015/03/nasa-probe-finally-arrives-icy-alien-world/ http://www.wired.com/2015/03/nasa-probe-finally-arrives-icy-... The most interesting bit of information to me: [Dawn] won’t be sending back any pictures or data until late April, when it reemerges from Ceres’s dark side. When it does, it will start to map the surface, analyze the chemical composition, and make the most accurate measurements yet of the planet’s mass.

S4M 12y ago
Thanks, that article is indeed better, I hope a moderator can change it.
- dang 12y ago
  OK. Url changed to that from http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-31754586 http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-31754586. We'll keep the latter's title since it's more informative.

Piskvorrr 12y ago

Initially misread as "Nasa's Dawn probe-bears down on Ceres".

TeMPOraL 12y ago
I don't recall NASA ever sending bears to space. Wouldn't be surprised if Russians had such program though.
- dekhn 12y ago
  Just water bears (tardigrades)
raldi 12y ago
s/-/: /
- mlonkibjuyhv 12y ago
  ;

grecy 12y ago

I saw it launch - it was supremely impressive. http://theroadchoseme.com/dawn-launch-cape-canaveral-florida http://theroadchoseme.com/dawn-launch-cape-canaveral-florida

benihana 12y ago
This is the biggest thing I miss from living in Orlando - back when the Space Shuttle was still flying, a night launch would light up the sky - the SRBs were brighter than the moon. Some of my best memories as a child were a couple of specific little league baseball games that took place during evening launches. We'd always stop the game and stare up at the sky in wonder and watch the shuttle slip Earth's surly bonds.
drzaiusapelord 12y ago
There's something so slow and then tremendously fast about space exploration. Your blog post was a little bit over seven years ago. It must be nerve-wracking to be on the engineering team for these projects. You spend years building the craft then there's this long wait until it gets near the destination. Now the world is all of a sudden watching you. A failure might be a career or reputation killer as well, and for nothing you did wrong or could avoid. This makes me think about the failure of the Beagle 2. Colin Pillinger's star faded pretty quickly after that. Turns out it landed during a dust storm which thinned the atmosphere which meant parachutes were deployed too late (deployed by barometric pressure?). Its remains on Mars show that its solar panels still folded. Its assumed it hit the surface so hard that the motors needed to open them failed to operate. I believe the cost was pretty close to 100m USD. Not super expensive, but certainly not cheap, especially for the ESA. And the waiting game continues: > [Dawn] won’t be sending back any pictures or data until late April

ChuckMcM 12y ago

And now we might get to figure out those bright spots :-) I look forward to the day when someone could take their space tug, fuel up at depot at the Earth-Moon L2 point, then plot an intercept trajectory to the asteroid belt station.