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TOPIC: Dawn spacecraft


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Dawn Observing Ceres; 3rd Reaction Wheel Malfunctions

NASA's Dawn spacecraft is preparing to observe Ceres on April 29 from an "opposition" position, directly between the dwarf planet's mysterious Occator Crater and the sun. This unique geometry may yield new insights about the bright material in the center of the crater.
While preparing for this observation, one of Dawn's two remaining reaction wheels stopped functioning on April 23. By electrically changing the speed at which these gyroscope-like devices spin, Dawn controls its orientation in the zero-gravity, frictionless conditions of space.

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NASA's Dawn spacecraft entered into its first science orbit on Thursday, April 23, as scheduled.

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NASA's Dawn spacecraft has become the first mission to achieve orbit around a dwarf planet. The spacecraft was approximately 61,000 kilometers from Ceres when it was captured by the dwarf planets gravity at about 4:39 a.m. PST (7:39 a.m. EST) Friday.
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Spoiler

NASA's Dawn mission will arrive at Ceres on March 6, 2015, and will be the first spacecraft to explore a dwarf planet. Ceres is the largest body in the main asteroid belt. At the time of its discovery in 1801 it was considered a planet and later demoted.



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Dawn Captures Shaper Images of Ceres

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Dawn spacecraft gets an eyeful of dwarf planet Ceres

The American space agency's Dawn spacecraft is bearing down on Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
New pictures released on Monday will help navigators put the satellite on the correct path to go into orbit around the dwarf planet on 6 March.

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Title: Moon Search Algorithms for NASA's Dawn Mission to Asteroid Vesta
Authors: Nargess Memarsadeghi, Lucy A. McFadden, David Skillman, Brian McLean, Max Mutchler, Uri Carsenty, Eric E. Palmer, the Dawn Mission's Satellite Working Group

A moon or natural satellite is a celestial body that orbits a planetary body such as a planet, dwarf planet, or an asteroid. Scientists seek understanding the origin and evolution of our solar system by studying moons of these bodies. Additionally, searches for satellites of planetary bodies can be important to protect the safety of a spacecraft as it approaches or orbits a planetary body. If a satellite of a celestial body is found, the mass of that body can also be calculated once its orbit is determined. Ensuring the Dawn spacecraft's safety on its mission to the asteroid (4) Vesta primarily motivated the work of Dawn's Satellite Working Group (SWG) in summer of 2011. Dawn mission scientists and engineers utilised various computational tools and techniques for Vesta's satellite search. The objectives of this paper are to 1) introduce the natural satellite search problem, 2) present the computational challenges, approaches, and tools used when addressing this problem, and 3) describe applications of various image processing and computational algorithms for performing satellite searches to the electronic imaging and computer science community. Furthermore, we hope that this communication would enable Dawn mission scientists to improve their satellite search algorithms and tools and be better prepared for performing the same investigation in 2015, when the spacecraft is scheduled to approach and orbit the dwarf planet (1) Ceres.

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Anniversary of the launch of the Dawn spacecraft in 2007.



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Dawn has departed the giant asteroid Vesta

Mission controllers received confirmation today that NASA's Dawn spacecraft has escaped from the gentle gravitational grip of the giant asteroid Vesta. Dawn is now officially on its way to its second destination, the dwarf planet Ceres.
Dawn departed from Vesta at about 06:26 UT on Sept. 5. Communications from the spacecraft via NASA's Deep Space Network confirmed the departure and that the spacecraft is now travelling toward Ceres.

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NASA's Dawn Prepares for Trek Toward Dwarf Planet

NASA's Dawn spacecraft is on track to become the first probe to orbit and study two distant solar system destinations, to help scientists answer questions about the formation of our solar system. The spacecraft is scheduled to leave the giant asteroid Vesta on Sept. 5 to start its two-and-a-half-year journey to the dwarf planet Ceres.
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