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Unmanned Spaceflight.com > Other Missions > Cometary and Asteroid Missions > Dawn
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Holder of the Two Leashes
Latest DAWN journal is out.

Link

First pictures of Vesta should be taken today.
elakdawalla
If you looked at the Dawn Journal earlier this morning, there was an important addition to one paragraph in the last hour:

QUOTE (Marc Rayman)
During the approach phase, images will be released in periodic batches, with priority viewing for residents of Earth. The flow will be more frequent thereafter.


Yay smile.gif
elakdawalla
I went through Marc's journals and summarized the various phases of Dawn's Vesta mission in a blog entry. And since the Vesta phase of the mission has now officially started, I've made a new topic! Yay Dawn!
bagelverse
Be nice to get an approach sequence as was done for Eros with NEAR/Shoemaker.

http://near.jhuapl.edu/media/image_sheets/snake.pdf
Phil Stooke
OK, Dawn team, this is the bit where you release an image...

Phil
elakdawalla
Would be nice. All they've released lately is what has to be one of the worst artist's concepts of a JPL mission I've seen in a long time. The least they could have done was to include the more recent simulation of Vesta rather than the unnaturally smooth-looking one from many years ago. And the clutter of the background with a hundred other little asteroid chunks makes me cringe.
Phil Stooke
Wow, that's scary! Little bits of Gaspra, Eros and Mathilde floating around, but luckily close enough to Vesta and Ceres that they could get them in the same field of view.

Phil
Stu
Ahhh... I think they're confusing DAWN with another spacecraft...

Click to view attachment

laugh.gif

Stefan
QUOTE (elakdawalla @ May 5 2011, 07:07 PM) *
Would be nice. All they've released lately is what has to be one of the worst artist's concepts of a JPL mission I've seen in a long time. The least they could have done was to include the more recent simulation of Vesta rather than the unnaturally smooth-looking one from many years ago. And the clutter of the background with a hundred other little asteroid chunks makes me cringe.


By any chance, have you approached Chris Russell?
Phil Stooke
While that might look like a good idea, I should point out the mission has half a dozen people on its outreach team. Chris might have other things on his mind!

EDIT - 8 people, one of whom is at JPL

Phil
Greg Hullender
I note we just passed the 1M km mark.


http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/orbits/fullview4.jpg

--Greg
mchan
OMG! Shades of MCO! It shows Dawn at 1M Km or 646K miles from Vesta. Which is it? blink.gif
djellison
Given that the metric value is expressed to one significant figure, it's accurate.
ElkGroveDan
The correct figure is 5.168 million furlongs.
stevesliva
I prefer one gigameter, pronounced "jigameter" like Doc in Back to the Future. Let me know when we've done 1.21 gigameters
tek_604
Press release from the Framing Camera Team @ MPS:

Land ho! A first glimpse of Vesta
tek_604
New website for Dawn Framing Camera @ MPS:

Dawn Framing Camera
centsworth_II
QUOTE (tek_604 @ May 18 2011, 02:05 AM) *
New website for Dawn Framing Camera...

The English version.
Phil Stooke
Hopefully we'll get another picture soon. Meanwhile, I took the first image and smoothed it from the big pixel format. No new information but it looks better... maybe!

Phil

Click to view attachment
MahFL
Well it at least appears to still be there, which I suppose is good news.
Vesta is my mother in laws first name too smile.gif.
Decepticon
My understanding is Dawn will reach HST resolution 2nd week of June!

Early Treat!
kenny
Vesta has fond assocations for some of us. It was a type of dehydrated chicken or beef curry meal we used to take camping in the 1970s...
Stu
haha! I remember those! I wouldn't be surprised if Vesta turns out to be *less* dense than some of those meals...!!

Edit: here's what we're talking about...

Vesta chow mein

Many happy/not so happy flashbacks for Brit forum members after clicking on that link... those "crispy noodles" were harder than a tramp's toenails.
ElkGroveDan
QUOTE (Stu @ May 19 2011, 06:15 AM) *
... those "crispy noodles" were harder than a tramp's toenails.

Well there's goes MY breakfast.
MahFL
I liked those Vesta Chow Mein meals !
AndyG
And I liked the crunchy noodles.

Makes me wonder whether GRaND will detect any Sodium 2-Aminopentanedioate though... rolleyes.gif

Andy
Phil Stooke
OK, Dawn team! This is the bit where you release another image!

Phil
Hungry4info
You aren't excited about this, are you? tongue.gif
I wouldn't think it would look too different from the previous image.
SFJCody
Pictures taken now should have almost twice the resolution of the first image.
Greg Hullender
QUOTE (Phil Stooke @ May 22 2011, 01:01 PM) *
OK, Dawn team! This is the bit where you release another image!

Up until June, when they have pics superior to Hubble, the only reason I can see for them to take the trouble to post anything is to remind us they love us. Their resources for outreach are thin, though, and I expect they're extremely busy right now. I'm sure they'll post something in due course.

--Greg
Explorer1
And posting on a Sunday would be a big event for an imaging team, I imagine...
JohnVV
Basically the same as Phil's
there is not much one can do with 16 px.
Click to view attachment

now some fun
the TV ncis's Abby
Click to view attachment

we will just have to wait and see
SFJCody
Can't wait! If you consider the imagery of Titan taken by Voyager 1 as Titan's preliminary reconnaissance, the last time humanity got a first close-up look at a body this size or larger was Triton in 1989. Exactly the same statement can be made about Dawn's encounter with Ceres, and the encounter of New Horizons with Pluto.
antipode
While we are all waiting for the next DAWN images, does somebody know that the IAA conventions will be for naming surface features on Vesta (and on Ceres eventually I guess)? What 'theme' will Vesta get, and will that include the giant south pole crater? I'm somewhat surprised that hasn't already been named, since its pretty unambiguous on ground based imagery...

P
charborob
Go to this page, and scroll down to "Vesta". Ceres is not mentioned on this page.
antipode
Thankyou sir - that's EXACTLY what I was looking for....

P
Paolo
a new Dawn Journal is out
http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/journal_05_27_11.asp
Toma B
These are few last sentences of text about DAWN that I found in Sky & Telescope recently:
QUOTE
As Dawn sails closer, its pictures will continue to get sharper. By the end of May, scientists hope to be receiving images 12 pixels wide. In mid-June Dawn’s pictures will probably be comparable to those of Vesta taken by Hubble. When Dawn slows into orbit, its cameras — which should by then be taking images 250 pixels wide, a resolution of 2 km per pixel — will be turned off. When they are turned on at its mapping orbit in mid-August, the resolution will be 300 m per pixel. Dawn is scheduled to dip as low as 110 miles (175 km) above the surface next year and achieve a resolution of 30 m per pixel.


However when I checked those numbers with what I already know from other sources I was a bit confused.
I think I can beleive Marc Rayman that survey orbit's hight is 2700 km and from there Dawn's cameras can see Vesta with 250m/pix. From this I calculated that in "HAMO" (660 km high) resolution would be about 61 m and from LAMO (180 km high) resolution would be about 16 m/pix.
That numbers doesn't seem to be right with S&T magazine's article?
So can somebody tell me who's wrong here or if Survey orbit, HAMO and LAMO hights have been changed?
CAP-Team
According to Celestia, Vesta is now 3' 32,5" in diameter, as seen from Dawn, at a distance of about 540,000 kilometers.
elakdawalla
Would sure be nice if we could confirm that with an actual photo from Dawn sad.gif
Astro0
I'm surprised that we haven't seen any more images from the approach phase.
Sure, they might be just a few pixels and little to see but at least that's 'something'.

I wonder if the mission realises that there is serious interest out there in the public for new images - 'even if it's just a blur of pixels'.
Is there a tree we can shake?
Phil Stooke
I did! Sometimes it's more a matter of people not seeing possibilities - like the ISRO people who didn't release video of the MIP descent to the Moon because it rotated too fast, not seeing that there would be other ways to do it, like placing images in turn on a scrolling map...

Here, we are supposed to be getting pictures each week. Just releasing the weekly images would show Vesta gradually growing, gradually being resolved a bit more each time, and by now there should be some variation with longitude to look at. or some colour to play with. Any number of composites and animations showing growth and rotation could already exist. I also pointed out that if they just release the images, outside people like UMSF will multiply their efforts many times over.

Come on Dawn! We're ready for you.

Phil
tek_604
For those of you on facebook, the Dawn Framing Camera now has its own page. You can like it if you wish smile.gif
SFJCody
If they get enough 'likes' will they release another image?
Bart
Well I just 'liked' it, anyway.
elakdawalla
QUOTE (tek_604 @ May 30 2011, 11:29 PM) *
For those of you on facebook, the Dawn Framing Camera now has its own page. You can like it if you wish smile.gif


QUOTE (SFJCody @ May 31 2011, 03:57 AM) *
If they get enough 'likes' will they release another image?


tek_604, you appear to be on the Framing Camera team, right? SFJCody's response is flippant, but to ask more seriously and politely, can you explain to us why the team has chosen not to release any images since the first one? I sent a question about this to Chris Russell and he said it was part of the Dawn mission's plan not to release any more images but didn't really provide a satisfactory explanation of why you would want to keep the public in the dark about your approach to Vesta.
Stu
I think it's a great shame we're not seeing more pictures. The front page of the DAWN mission's website declares the mission is all about "Exploring New Worlds". Sorry, but this lack of approach images is akin to Columbus locking all the Santa Maria's crew below decks and refusing to let them see The "New World" until they were within spitting distance of the beach... sad.gif
tek_604
QUOTE (elakdawalla @ Jun 1 2011, 03:34 PM) *
tek_604, you appear to be on the Framing Camera team, right? SFJCody's response is flippant, but to ask more seriously and politely, can you explain to us why the team has chosen not to release any images since the first one? I sent a question about this to Chris Russell and he said it was part of the Dawn mission's plan not to release any more images but didn't really provide a satisfactory explanation of why you would want to keep the public in the dark about your approach to Vesta.


I can confirm that I am on the (MPS) Framing Camera team (I guess it was only a matter of time before someone worked it out!).

I am but a small cog in a large machine (!), and as such, I do not know why the mission has chosen not to release any further images.

You had it right to contact Chris Russell, and his answer would be the final (and best!) one.
ngunn
QUOTE (Stu @ Jun 1 2011, 02:56 PM) *
this lack of approach images is akin to Columbus locking all the Santa Maria's crew below decks and refusing to let them see The "New World" until they were within spitting distance of the beach.


Good analogy. Here's another. We are approaching the New World in the belly of a whale.

They clearly have a policy that we would like to see changed, a policy that we did not know about until now. Too late for Vesta maybe but can anything be done to change their minds before the Ceres approach? Any ideas?
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