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takyon writes:

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.

Ceres, Vesta, and Dawn.

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:

Original Submission

1. "takyon" - https://soylentnews.org/~takyon/
2. "NASA's Dawn Mission to Asteroid Belt Comes to End" - https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7275
3. "launched" - https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/dawn/launch/index.html
4. "Ceres" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceres_(dwarf_planet)
5. "Vesta" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4_Vesta
6. "Dawn" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawn_(spacecraft)
7. "Ars Technica" - https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/11/the-dawn-spacecraft-exploring-the-asteroid-belt-has-gone-dark/
8. "The Verge" - https://www.theverge.com/2018/11/1/18053366/nasa-dawn-spacecraft-dead
9. "Science News" - https://www.sciencenews.org/article/dawn-spacecraft-nasa-asteroid-belt-ceres-silent
10. "NASA's Dawn Spacecraft Nears the End of its Mission" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=18/09/10/2111209
11. "NASA Retires the Kepler Space Telescope after It Runs Out of Hydrazine" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=18/10/31/0050228
12. "Pluto and Ceres" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=15/02/07/0426256
13. "After Eight Years, NASA's Dawn Probe Brings Dwarf Planet Ceres Into Closest Focus" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=15/12/29/1243230
14. "NASA's Dawn Orbiter Finds a Mountain on Ceres" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=16/03/09/0425241
15. "Dawn Spies Magnesium Sulphate and Possible Geological Activity on Ceres" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=16/03/23/127223
16. "Ceres' Cryovolcano Ahuna Mons Formed in the Geologically Recent Past" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=16/09/03/1420230
17. "Ceres's Cryovolcanoes Viscously Relax Into Nothingness" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=17/02/06/1923244
18. "Organic Molecules Found on Ceres" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=17/02/17/2126251
19. "Early Asteroids May Have Been Made of Mud Rather Than Rock" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=17/07/14/2123219
20. "Dawn Mission Extended at Ceres" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=17/10/20/0145218
21. "Ceres May Have Had a Global Surface Ocean in the Past" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=17/10/28/1623222
22. "Bright Areas on Ceres Suggest Geologic Activity" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=17/12/18/1443231
23. "Dawn's Orbit Around Ceres: A New Low" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=18/06/01/0158238
24. "Dawn's Orbit Around Ceres: First Images" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=18/06/14/125229
25. "Dawn Spacecraft Captures Closest-Ever Images of Ceres' Shiny Occator Crater" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=18/07/08/0154259
26. "Original Submission" - https://soylentnews.org/submit.pl?op=viewsub&subid=29898

printed from SoylentNews, Dawn Spacecraft Runs Out of Hydrazine, Ceases Operations on 2026-10-05 17:21:19