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NASA's Dawn Mission to Asteroid Belt Comes to End
NASA's Dawn spacecraft has gone silent, ending a historic mission that studied time capsules from the solar system's earliest chapter.
Dawn missed scheduled communications sessions with NASA's Deep Space Network on Wednesday, Oct. 31, and Thursday, Nov. 1. After the flight team eliminated other possible causes for the missed communications, mission managers concluded that the spacecraft finally ran out of hydrazine, the fuel that enables the spacecraft to control its pointing. Dawn can no longer keep its antennae trained on Earth to communicate with mission control or turn its solar panels to the Sun to recharge.
The Dawn spacecraft launched 11 years ago to visit the two largest objects in the main asteroid belt. Currently, it's in orbit around the dwarf planet Ceres, where it will remain for decades.
Also at Ars Technica, The Verge, and Science News.
Previously: NASA's Dawn Spacecraft Nears the End of its Mission
NASA Retires the Kepler Space Telescope after It Runs Out of Hydrazine
Related:
Pluto and Ceres
After Eight Years, NASA's Dawn Probe Brings Dwarf Planet Ceres Into Closest Focus
NASA's Dawn Orbiter Finds a Mountain on Ceres
Dawn Spies Magnesium Sulphate and Possible Geological Activity on Ceres
Ceres' Cryovolcano Ahuna Mons Formed in the Geologically Recent Past
Ceres's Cryovolcanoes Viscously Relax Into Nothingness
Organic Molecules Found on Ceres
Early Asteroids May Have Been Made of Mud Rather Than Rock
Dawn Mission Extended at Ceres
Ceres May Have Had a Global Surface Ocean in the Past
Bright Areas on Ceres Suggest Geologic Activity
Dawn's Orbit Around Ceres: A New Low
Dawn's Orbit Around Ceres: First Images
Dawn Spacecraft Captures Closest-Ever Images of Ceres' Shiny Occator Crater
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 02 2018, @03:47PM (3 children)
Why does every astonomy article seem to have a problem with distinguishing assumptions/speculation from fact?
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday November 02 2018, @04:57PM
Because "You don't get people excited with boring truths, folks, trust me!"
Also because the job of the journalist / press release is to dumb down the information for the public.
And also because if the journalist / press release had an OCD-like attention to conveying complex facts perfectly, maybe they wouldn't be in that kind of job (exceptions do exist).
(Score: 2) by jmorris on Friday November 02 2018, @11:02PM
Here is a simpler and more general version of the same statement.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Saturday November 03 2018, @03:54AM
What was speculative about the quote in question? We do know that asteroids are for the most part ancient objects with origins in the near beginnings of the Solar System and thus qualify well enough for the meaning of "time capsules". Ceres may have a younger surface than that, but Vesta doesn't.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Friday November 02 2018, @06:36PM (8 children)
Hydrazine, isnt that the chemical shitcocktail that you have to be in a hazmat suit just to look at unless you want to get cancer all over? If so then perhaps we can all just be happy about it and come up with some other less horrible fuel source.
(Score: 3, Touché) by takyon on Friday November 02 2018, @07:02PM (6 children)
It's not like using hydrazine near Ceres is going to kill anyone.
The spacecraft also carried ion thrusters that used xenon. Maybe if ion thrusters become more powerful, they can be used for attitude control instead of hydrazine.
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(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 02 2018, @07:50PM (1 child)
For comparison, the Dawn spacecraft had three ion thrusters with a maximum thrust of 92mN each, and twelve hydrazine thrusters with a maximum thrust of 0.9N each.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday November 02 2018, @09:24PM
We need to see some VASIMR [wikipedia.org].
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(Score: 2) by The Archon V2.0 on Friday November 02 2018, @08:20PM (3 children)
> It's not like using hydrazine near Ceres is going to kill anyone.
I am reminded of a short story where the characters are forced to fill out EPA paperwork for a mining operation on Io, including a description of procedures in place for minimizing impact on rivers and wildlife.
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by takyon on Friday November 02 2018, @08:24PM (2 children)
Rivers of lava and fire elementals, maybe 🔥🔥🔥
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(Score: 4, Touché) by takyon on Friday November 02 2018, @10:25PM (1 child)
I guess I deserve that mod. 💥💥💥💥💥💥💥
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(Score: 3, Funny) by Pslytely Psycho on Friday November 02 2018, @10:37PM
One of the most 'literal' flamebait posts ever!
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 02 2018, @07:12PM
Yup, it's pretty nasty stuff. It's used for low-impulse thrusters like this primarily because hydrazine is a monopropellant: you need only one fuel system. That simplifies the spacecraft significantly.