ABOVE: This image marks the path traveled by the Dawn spacecraft as of 11:00 AM, Pacific Standard Time, on December 26, 2007. Click here to view the official webpage showing where Dawn is in space.
DAWN: Last Update for 2007... On December 18, after a 3-month checkout period following launch, the Dawn spacecraft begun its interplanetary cruise phase. What that means is that from now on, any of the three thrusters of its ion propulsion system will be firing continuously for weeks...not as a test but to finally propel the probe towards the first of its two destinations: the asteroid Vesta. Dawn will reach Vesta in 2011, and then use its ion engines to push the spacecraft to its second target: the dwarf planet Ceres—which it will reach in 2015. Above is an image that shows Dawn’s position in space as of 11:00 AM today, while all the pics below were calibration shots taken with the probe’s two onboard Framing Cameras.
NASA JPL
What makes these shots so significant—to me, at least—is that they are, in a way, tangible proof that Dawn is indeed in space. A microchip bearing my name, as well as 360,000 others, is onboard the probe and sailing amongst the stars. So to speak. I could, um, sound more ‘dramatic’ than this, but I’ll spare you additional sappy sentences. According to this Planetary Society blog, Dawn was 17 million miles from Earth as of December 18. Radio signals, traveling at the speed of light, took 3 minutes to make the round trip between the spacecraft and Earth. There are no significant events for Dawn in 2008...but it will fly past Mars for a gravitational assist to Vesta in 2009. Here’s hoping things go smooth for the mission till then. And 2011. And 2015. That is all.
NASA JPL / The Planetary Society
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