NASA's Dawn Spacecraft Begins Science Orbits of Vesta

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JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
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http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Dwayne C. Brown 202-358-1726
Headquarters, Washington
dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov

Priscilla Vega 818-354-1357
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
priscilla.r.vega@jpl.nasa.gov

News release: 2011-235 Aug. 1, 2011

NASA's Dawn Spacecraft Begins Science Orbits of Vesta

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-235&cid=release_2011-235

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Dawn spacecraft, the first ever to orbit an object in the main asteroid
belt, is spiraling towards its first of four intensive science orbits. That initial orbit of the rocky world
Vesta begins Aug. 11, at an altitude of nearly 1,700 miles (2,700 kilometers) and will provide in-
depth analysis of the asteroid. Vesta is the brightest object in the asteroid belt as seen from Earth and
is thought to be the source of a large number of meteorites that fall to Earth.

The Dawn team unveiled the first full-frame image of Vesta taken on July 24:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/dawn/multimedia/pia14317.html

This image was taken at a distance of 3,200 miles (5,200 kilometers). Images from Dawn's framing
camera, taken for navigation purposes and as preparation for scientific observations, are revealing
the first surface details of the giant asteroid. These images go all the way around Vesta, since the
giant asteroid turns on its axis once every five hours and 20 minutes.

"Now that we are in orbit around one of the last unexplored worlds in the inner solar system, we can
see that it's a unique and fascinating place," said Marc Rayman, Dawn's chief engineer and mission
manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

After traveling nearly four years and 1.7 billion miles (2.8 billion kilometers), Dawn has been
captured by Vesta's gravity, and there currently are 1,800 miles (2,900 kilometers) between the
asteroid and the spacecraft. The giant asteroid and its new neighbor are approximately 114 million
miles (184 million kilometers) away from Earth.

"We have been calling Vesta the smallest terrestrial planet," said Chris Russell, Dawn's principal
investigator at UCLA. "The latest imagery provides much justification for our expectations. They
show that a variety of processes were once at work on the surface of Vesta and provide extensive
evidence for Vesta's planetary aspirations."

Engineers still are working to determine the exact time that Dawn entered Vesta's orbit, but the team
has reported an approximate orbit insertion time of 9:47 p.m. PDT on July 15 (12:47 a.m. EDT on
July 16).

In addition to the framing camera, Dawn's instruments include the gamma ray and neutron detector
and the visible and infrared mapping spectrometer. The gamma ray and neutron detector uses 21
sensors with a very wide field of view to measure the energy of subatomic particles emitted by the
elements in the upper yard (meter) of the asteroid's surface. The visible and infrared mapping
spectrometer will measure the surface mineralogy of both Vesta and Dawn's next target, the dwarf
planet Ceres. The spectrometer is a modification of a similar one flying on the European Space
Agency's Rosetta and Venus Express missions.

Dawn also will make another set of scientific measurements at Vesta and Ceres using the
spacecraft's radio transmitter in tandem with sensitive antennas on Earth. Scientists will monitor
signals from Dawn and later Ceres to detect subtle variations in the objects' gravity fields. These
variations will provide clues about the interior structure of these bodies by studying the mass
distributed in each gravity field.

"The new observations of Vesta are an inspirational reminder of the wonders unveiled through
ongoing exploration of our solar system," said Jim Green, planetary division director at NASA
Headquarters in Washington.

Dawn launched in September 2007. Following a year at Vesta, the spacecraft will depart in July
2012 for Ceres, where it will arrive in 2015. Dawn's mission to Vesta and Ceres is managed by JPL
for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. JPL is a division of the California Institute
of Technology in Pasadena. Dawn is a project of the directorate's Discovery Program, managed by
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

UCLA is responsible for overall Dawn mission science. Orbital Sciences Corp. in Dulles, Va.,
designed and built the spacecraft. The German Aerospace Center, the Max Planck Institute for Solar
System Research, the Italian Space Agency and the Italian National Astrophysical Institute are
international partners on the mission team.

For more information about Dawn, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/dawn .

-end-

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