Vesta departure and journey to Ceres, A new phase of Dawn adventure Options

[elakdawalla]

I'd like to see Pallas and Hygeia! I want to see how the biggies transition down to the small ones we've seen. Also, while I'm wishing for things, I want much better imaging of Deimos. And heck let's go visit some Trojans too.

[Explorer1]

Hektor especially would be a great destination: a contact binary an order of magnitude bigger than 67P and with a moon (always a bonus). We know practically nothing about that region...
Now to wait until the next round of Discovery proposals.

[charborob]

It would be interesting also to visit a large metallic asteroid.

[Explorer1]

Yep, the team proposing a Psyche mission agrees:
http://www.planetary.org/blogs/guest-blogs...llic-world.html

[tedstryk]

I'd like to see Pallas and Hygeia! I want to see how the biggies transition down to the small ones we've seen. Also, while I'm wishing for things, I want much better imaging of Deimos. And heck let's go visit some Trojans too.

Pallas has always seemed particularly interesting as a transitional world.

[SFJCody]

I'm sure these are all fascinating in their own right. But there's something special about seeing the curving limb of a gravitationally relaxed body- Ganymede, Enceladus, Triton... these all seem like places to me in a way that Vesta never quite did.

Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken;
Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes
He star'd at the Pacific — and all his men
Look'd at each other with a wild surmise —
Silent, upon a peak in Darien.

[Explorer1]

Google Hangout about the Hubble/Dawn imagery comparison coming up:

http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/dawncommunity/goo..._12_11_2014.asp

It might also be time for a dedicated Ceres approach thread.

[OWW]

Less than 1 million km now!!! So close!
I'm wondering though, if the ion-thrusters would fail right now, how close would the flyby be? Or could it still limp into orbit by using all the remaining conventional fuel?

It might also be time for a dedicated Ceres approach thread.

And a Ceres prediction thread. Could be fun to see who makes the right prediction. Will the surface look like Tethys? Callisto? Enceladus?

[Explorer1]

I'd say Callisto or Mimas, just keeping expectations low (i.e. completely saturated with craters). That way everything else can be a pleasant surprise.

[Superstring]

I'd say Callisto or Mimas, just keeping expectations low (i.e. completely saturated with craters). That way everything else can be a pleasant surprise.

Its density is comparable to Ganymede and Callisto, but it's also warmer -- warmer than any icy moon. Plus we know there's some water vapor around it (outgassing? sublimation?) and that the surface is dark. So I think it could be quite a unique world even if it's not geologically active.

[antipode]

There was a paper published last year, in Icarus I think, that suggested the warmer surface of Ceres compared to the outer moons might result in VERY subdued crater topography (really all but small and fresh craters slump over geological time until they become mere albedo features) except right near the colder poles. So, even if its geologically 'boring', (and I hope it isnt!), I doubt Ceres is going to look like Callisto or Mimas.

P

[Mithridates]

Pallas has always seemed particularly interesting as a transitional world.

The planetoid I want to see the most next is 24 Themis:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/24_Themis

In a similar location to Ceres, 200 km in diameter, a surface with lots of water ice, and most importantly:

Inclination 0.7595°

So it orbits on exactly the same orbital plane as us. Very rare for an object of its type.

[djellison]

Inclination 0.7595°

So it orbits on exactly the same orbital plane as us. Very rare for an object of its type.

The Earth's orbital inclination is zero. Changing inclination to 0.76 degrees would require a delta V of about 0.4km/sec

[Explorer1]

Huh, that's a tiny fraction of the tilt of Vesta and Ceres; its even smaller than Mars and Venus.
So many tempting targets out there for future missions (Dawn 2 anyone?).

[jgoldader]

I would love to see a series of smallsats sent to asteroids. If successful, the Procyon satellite launched with Hayabusa-2 might encourage such missions. Imagine using a large booster to put dozens of these into the asteroid belt at the same time...