Dawn approaches Ceres, From opnav images to first orbit |
Dawn approaches Ceres, From opnav images to first orbit |
Jan 12 2015, 12:10 AM
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Solar System Cartographer Group: Members Posts: 10186 Joined: 5-April 05 From: Canada Member No.: 227 |
On Tuesday (two days from now, for visitors from the future), the first optical navigation image will be taken... hopefully we'll have it in our hands soon after that. So it's time for a new topic. Over the next few months we'll have progressively closer images and full orbit characterization sequences, no doubt including multispectral image sets.
A new world... This is a bit of reprocessing I have been doing with the Hubble images from a few years ago. Phil -------------------- ... because the Solar System ain't gonna map itself.
Also to be found posting similar content on https://mastodon.social/@PhilStooke Maps for download (free PD: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/comm...Cartography.pdf NOTE: everything created by me which I post on UMSF is considered to be in the public domain (NOT CC, public domain) |
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Mar 21 2015, 10:40 PM
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Director of Galilean Photography Group: Members Posts: 896 Joined: 15-July 04 From: Austin, TX Member No.: 93 |
Yes, the descoping that lost Dawn the magnetometer really hurts now. But if it was lose the magnetometer or lose the mission, the choice is easy. Still sucks though.
Radar just wasn't necessary with what we knew of these objects. If we knew now what we knew 10 years ago, of course we'd fly a different mission now. If the white spot is confirmed an active vent, does that place Ceres ahead of Europa and Enceladus now? Ceres has a benign radiation environment and a potentially much shorter cruise with chemical rockets and/or direct destination ion propulsion. I think a Discovery mission at least with magnetometer and higher resolution cameras is feasible, with a separately funded lander. -------------------- Space Enthusiast Richard Hendricks
-- "The engineers, as usual, made a tremendous fuss. Again as usual, they did the job in half the time they had dismissed as being absolutely impossible." --Rescue Party, Arthur C Clarke Mother Nature is the final inspector of all quality. |
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Lo-Fi Version | Time is now: 6th June 2024 - 08:38 AM |
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