Ceres High Altitude Mapping Orbit (HAMO), Late summer through fall 2015 |
Ceres High Altitude Mapping Orbit (HAMO), Late summer through fall 2015 |
Aug 17 2015, 01:42 AM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 541 Joined: 17-November 05 From: Oklahoma Member No.: 557 |
DAWN arrived in its new lower mapping orbit on August 13th. The DAWN team is preparing to resume science observation tomorrow on the 17th.
From the Current Mission Status page at the DAWN website: QUOTE August 13, 2015 - Dawn Arrives in Third Mapping Orbit
Dawn completed the maneuvering to reach its third mapping orbit and stopped ion-thrusting this afternoon. This was a little ahead of schedule because the spiral descent went so well that some of the allocated thrusting time was not needed. Since July 14, the spacecraft has reduced its orbital altitude from 2,700 miles (4,400 kilometers) to approximately 915 miles (1,470 kilometers). The orbit period has correspondingly decreased from 3.1 days to 19 hours. Dawn is scheduled to begin its new observations on the evening of Aug. 17 (PDT) and continue for more than two months. First, however, the mission control team will measure the actual orbit parameters accurately and transmit them to the spacecraft. |
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Sep 2 2015, 08:12 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 555 Joined: 27-September 10 Member No.: 5458 |
Took me a bit to understand why you painted a white line on the image Hendric then I realized finally that you cut and moved a section of the crater floor. This seems to lend some evidence to sinkholes being on Ceres. Based on other (suspected) impact craters with a lot of slumping, it could also be the result of an impact meeting a certain energy threshold that causes the surface to destabilize. Maybe the soil is made up of solidified mud with locked up water crystals that, when heated from a large enough impact, get released and sublimate away, leaving the soil very brittle and likely to collapse. Could also be driven by an annual cycle.
I know it isn't planned but I hope that when the mission is done and Dawn is left in it's final orbit, that they can drum up some support for a Cerian Summer mission. Would definitely bring some insite into how an ice body behaves at the frost line. -------------------- |
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Lo-Fi Version | Time is now: 5th June 2024 - 04:43 AM |
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