Dawn's last mission extensions at Ceres, From XMO3 to EOM |
Dawn's last mission extensions at Ceres, From XMO3 to EOM |
Feb 1 2017, 02:37 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 544 Joined: 17-November 05 From: Oklahoma Member No.: 557 |
This thread will cover all final phases of the Dawn mission, the end of which is not certain at this point.
XMO3 was suppose to be the final orbit, but now plans have changed and it will move into a new higher altitude and higher phase orbit soon. This will be XMO4. An interesting monthly journal for January details the plan: Dawn Journal 31 January 2017 |
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Jun 20 2017, 05:45 PM
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14434 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
Europa? No way it'll survive that far from the Sun and that sort of radiation dose. It really is Adiona, or Ceres. That's honestly all the options.
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Jun 22 2017, 01:35 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 656 Joined: 20-April 05 From: League City, Texas Member No.: 285 |
Europa? No way it'll survive that far from the Sun and that sort of radiation dose... True, only 28% as much solar energy at Jupiter (if I did the math right). Not sure if this is more a problem for propulsion or simply keeping the electronics running. And I have no expertise in judging the radiation problem, though (having been a software developer once upon a time), I do wonder whether radiation tolerant software could be developed -- perhaps using the RAM in a multiply redundant fashion -- but that's a broader problem. Anyway, my vote would be to go elsewhere if possible, with the argument being that flyby observations of another -- never explored -- asteroid would be more valuable than spending a bit more time at Ceres. |
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