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(meteorobs) Excerpt from "NEO News (01/03/01)..."
Here is news of yet another interesting-sounding asteroid rendezvous
mission which is now in the works!
Lew Gramer <owner-meteorobs@jovian.com>
------- Forwarded Message
Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2001 09:58:59 -0800
To: david.morrison@arc.nasadot gov
From: David Morrison <dmorrison@arc.nasadot gov>
Subject: NEO News (01/03/01) Chapman White Paper
[...]
===============================================
PROPOSED DAWN MISSION TO CERES & VESTA
from Chris Russell
Community Forum - March 11 on Dawn: A Discovery Mission to Vesta and Ceres
NASA has selected the proposed Dawn Discovery mission for a concept
study leading to a Step 2 proposal. Dawn uses solar electric
propulsion to fly to both Vesta and Ceres orbiting each for a period
of nine months. The spacecraft carries a framing camera, a mapping
spectrometer, a gamma ray/neutron spectrometer, a laser altimeter and
a magnetometer. Vesta is a dry, differentiated asteroid with a
basaltic crust and is the presumed parent body of the HED meteorites.
Ceres appears to be wet and have less distinct features. It has no
known associated meteorites. It has been postulated that Vesta
accreted dry and Ceres wet and that the water kept Ceres cool enough
to avoid differentiation. Thus these two asteroidal neighbors
represent two quite different end members of solar system evolution.
The top level science objectives, the measurement suite, and the
science team were approved during the Step 1 selection process. Over
the next several months the Dawn team will demonstrate to NASA that
we can safely achieve those objectives within the constraints of the
Discovery program. It is the intent of the Dawn science team to
engage the scientific community throughout the mission, with
community forums on our plans as we build the spacecraft and
instruments, and with participating scientist programs and data
analysis programs when we are obtaining data. The first community
forum will be held in Houston, TX on Sunday, March 11, 2001 from 1:00
to 4:00 p.m. in Admiral Room A at the Hilton Nassau Bay Hotel across
from the Johnson Space Center. The purpose of this meeting is both to
inform the community of our plans and to initiate meaningful
interactions as we execute the various mission phases. If you wish to
make a formal presentation, please contact amcglynn@igpp.ucla.ed!
u by March 1, 2001.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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