Dawn Cruise |
Dawn Cruise |
Sep 27 2007, 12:31 PM
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#1
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Member Group: Members Posts: 100 Joined: 11-October 04 From: Oxford, UK (Glasgow by birth) Member No.: 101 |
Pushing out of Earth orbit now...........
-------------------- "There are 10 types of people in the world - those who understand binary code, and those who don't."
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Jan 8 2008, 09:33 PM
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#2
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 57 Joined: 21-September 06 Member No.: 1172 |
Good news everyone!
Extended version of the Dawn trajectory is now available at HORIZONS (two additional segments till April 2008). I did some simulations and found that Dawn will pass within 0.048 AU from comet 79P/du Toit-Hartley somewhere around March 17, 2008. Exact date and distance depends on actual thrusting, nevertheless, upcoming event will be the closest of this kind till EPOXI encounter with comet Hartley-2. Comet 79P was rediscovered last November in its 5th apparition and will pass perihelion in May 2008. That's a faint comet, but I hope not a smallest one. Even with coma/tail size of 20-30 thousands km Framing Camera and VIR spectrometer will be able to distinguish some details. I think that's a good opportunity to test and calibrate instruments on the real object, especially for VIR, which is a relative of Rosetta's VIRTIS spectrometer. PS Attached image features comet orbit, Dawn trajectrory and planets positions on March 17, 2008. |
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Jan 9 2008, 11:53 AM
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#3
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Interplanetary Dumpster Diver Group: Admin Posts: 4405 Joined: 17-February 04 From: Powell, TN Member No.: 33 |
That is still 7 million miles, but it could be done, at least as a test. It also flies by a really big object in February 2009.
Ted -------------------- |
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