U.S. Dawn first probe sets off on asteroid mission

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Source: CCTV.com | 09-28-2007 11:17

NASA's Dawn spacecraft will be the first to orbit an object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Dawn rocketed away from Cape Canaveral toward an unprecedented double encounter in the asteroid belt Thursday.

This is the first time a NASA spacecraft has attempted to journey to a celestial body and orbit it.

Scientists hope the mission will shed light on the early solar system by exploring the two largest bodies there: an asteroid named Vesta and a dwarf planet called Ceres.

By using the same set of instruments at two separate destinations, scientists will be able to get more accurate data.

Chiris Russell, Dawn principal investigator, UCLA, said "The science team has already had a chance to look at some of the parameters from their instruments. We haven't checked them out but we do have things like temperatures and voltages and stuff like that. And the team has already received a shipment of that data and are going and looking at it and they're very, very pleased by what they see."

Dawn's science instruments will make detailed measurements and seek out water-bearing minerals.

The Dawn spacecraft will measure the gravity fields of both Vesta and Ceres after it orbits them.

Dawn will reach Vesta in 2011, and then continue on to Ceres in 2015.