[X] My Assistant

[djellison]

(before reading the PDF)
If they've called it DUSK - I'm going to vomit

Doug

[Guest_BruceMoomaw_*]

"EVE" is apparently an acronym, but I have no idea for what.

Also notice that they say, that besides Hygeia, it would go to at least one member of an unnamed "dynamical family of asteroids". In Russell's previous description of it (without naming it), he had specified Psyche as its other stop. I can't find any other Google references to this thing.

[Toma B]

According to NASA watch : "NASA HQ has decided - that there won't be a decision about Dawn's fate - Today."
Well as somebody here sad , no news is good news for Dawn.
Maybe there is still a chance...I would be personally very happy if Dawn get "stand back up" decision...

BTW: Is NASA watch reliable site that can be thrusted?

[djellison]

B)-->

Is NASA watch reliable site that can be thrusted? [/quote]

Sometimes. He does have a nack of finding things out ( basically, people send him stuff ), BUT, Keith will often blend his own opinion in with the mix of reporting.

Doug

[Orlin Denkov]

However, NASA Watch is the only source of any information about the development. Don't we (UMSF) have our own reliable and well informed source of "inner information"?

[edstrick]

Kieth Cowing's NASA Watch is an essential press release, communications, leaks and rumors tracking site. He tends to salt the site with his acerbic comments at various targets and a significant fraction of those are more than deserved. But you can tell commentary from informational statements and he'll also say when he's wrong. Stickler for accuracy and proper attribution. (Antique News tends to grab stories he breaks without attribution)

[Toma B]

However, NASA Watch is the only source of any information about the development. Don't we (UMSF) have our own reliable and well informed source of "inner information"?

Maybe we should hire a NASA-spy...

[Ames]

Doug: "If they've called it DUSK - I'm going to vomit "

Ha ha! - Nice!

BruceMoomaw: ""EVE" is apparently an acronym, but I have no idea for what."

HOUPA!... Houpa!... Bleeeetch!

Well there goes my lunch!



Nick

[Guest_BruceMoomaw_*]

Actually, I was referring to the fact that they spell "EVE" all in capitals, implying that it's an acronym for something (unlike "Dawn"). Which just confirms again that tortured acronyms are getting commoner and commoner in naming space mission proposals.

[gpurcell]

B)-->

BTW: Is NASA watch reliable site that can be thrusted?
[/quote]

Yep. Keith's been in the Internet rumor business for a heck of a long time; got to be getting near 10 years now since the RIF WATCH days.

[Marz]

I can't beleive what I'm reading.

I seem to be hearing: "it's easy to put together an asteroid mission with ion drive, anyone can do it for cheap"

Uh.... wasn't that the basic problem here in the first place? They thought they could just take hardware off of Deep Space 1, modify it slightly, and off to Vesta Dawn will go?

I could have sworn that things didn't quite work out that smoothly, and Dawn just get canceled for budgetary and technical problems.

Precisely. I think one of the main "technical" problems with Dawn was they needed a lot more Xenon, so they tried pumping up the tanks with a few more liters... and *poof*, they found out Dawn need's a better gas tank.

But maybe a "Dawn-light" that skips Vesta and just loiters around Ceres wouldn't require as much fuel? I think I remember reading that they had a solution to make stronger gas tanks too...

[Guest_BruceMoomaw_*]

That possibility has been considered for Dawn in the past, and rejected as not cost-effective -- it cuts the total cost of the mission only slightly. (Also, of the two asteroids, Vesta is consisently ranked higher priority scientifically, being more unique.)

[djellison]

It was tests way over the operational pressures of the tank that caused it to go. Like finding a tyre for a family hatchback blows at 200 mph.

Doug

[David]

That possibility has been considered for Dawn in the past, and rejected as not cost-effective -- it cuts the total cost of the mission only slightly. (Also, of the two asteroids, Vesta is consisently ranked higher priority scientifically, being more unique.)

How do you get to be "more unique" than something else?

Okay, forget the sucky semantics of the phrasing -- the implication is that Ceres is in a class with some other object or objects which we've already studied, so we can expect to learn less that is new at Ceres than at Vesta.

But what other objects is Ceres in a class with? I wasn't under the impression that it was particularly like anything else.

[Guest_BruceMoomaw_*]

Ceres generally resembles the C-type asteroids -- the commonest of the lot -- although there are sufficient subtle differences that it's generally described as "G type". Certainly every asteroid exploration proposal I've read about since the late 1970s describes Vesta as the highest priority of all (with squabbling over second place) -- whereas, until Dawn came along, I had never ever seen Ceres described as a high priority target at all. (However, the recent discoveries suggesting a major ice layer on it certainly seem to justify a new higher status for it.)