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DAWN
The Dawn spacecraft launched 27 September 2007. After completing an initial check-out phase in December 2007, Dawn began its interplanetary cruise phase which included a gravity assist from Mars in February 2009 that put the spacecraft on a trajectory to rendezvous with the asteroid 4 Vesta in July 2011. After observing Vesta for a year, the spacecraft will depart in July 2012 and spend over 2.5 years travelling to the dwarf planet Ceres (or 1 Ceres, the asteroid). Dawn will rendezvous with Ceres in February 2015 and will spend 6 months taking measurements before departing in July 2015 (end of mission).
Dawn's primary science goal is to gain an understanding of the conditions and processes occurring when the solar system was only about 10 million years old. It will measure the size, shape, mass, volume and spin rate of the two protoplanets, Vesta and Ceres, to determine their internal structure, density and homogeneity. Dawn will also investigate their thermal history by measuring the elemental and mineral abundances. It will image their surfaces to determine their bombardment and tectonic history, and use gravity, spin and magnetic data to limit the size of any metallic core.
Instruments
- Framing Camera (FC) - Full surface imagery in seven colors at Vesta and three at Ceres
- Visible and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIR) - Full surface mineralogical mapping in two bands: VIS channel covers 0.25 - 1 micron, and IR channel covers 0.95 - 5 micron.
- Gamma Ray and Neutron Detector (GRaND) - Abundances of major rock-forming elements (O, Mg, Al, Si, Ca, Ti, and Fe), trace elements (Gd and Sm), long-lived radioactive elements (K, Th, and U), and light elements such as H, C, and N which are major constituents of ices
- Radio Science (RSS) - Radio tracking to determine mass, gravity field, principal axes, rotational axis and moments of inertia
Data Sets
Small Bodies Image Browser (SBIB)
This tool enables people to select Dawn Vesta images by looking at a map of Vesta and selecting the area in which they are interested. They can also search the data by various parameters, and download data in a selection of formats. Eric Palmer made this tool originally for the Dawn Science Team and now has adapted it for SBN.
Mars
- Framing Camera
- GRaND
- (No VIR data at Mars)
Vesta
Ceres
Cruise
- Framing Camera
- GRaND
- VIR (not yet available)
Calibration
- Framing Camera
- (VIR calibration data are included on the Vesta and Ceres L1b volumes.)
Other Mission Data
Related Datasets
Use the Small Bodies Data Ferret to find other datasets for this mission/target.
SBN Mgr:
Last updated: Tuesday January 03, 2017