Dawn dusk for NASA; The 11-year mission on the asteroid belt is coming to an end

NASA's Dawn spacecraft – which has orbited the two largest objects in the asteroid belt – is out of fuel, ending an historic 11-year mission that has solved many mysteries of our solar system. Dawn missed scheduled communication sessions with NASA's Deep Space Network on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1, the US Space Agency said in a statement.

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After the flight crew had eliminated other possible causes of missed communications, mission officials concluded that the spacecraft was finally failing hydrazine, the fuel that kept it oriented and remained in communication with the Earth. "Today we are celebrating the end of our Dawn mission – its incredible technical achievements, the vital scientific data it has given us, and the entire team that made it possible for the spacecraft to make these discoveries." said NASA in a statement Thursday night.

"said Thomas Zurbuchen, badociate director of the Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

"Amazing images and data collected by Dawn from Vesta and Ceres are essential to understanding the history and evolution of our solar system," Zurbuchen said. [19659004] Dawn can no longer keep her antennas formed on Earth to communicate with mission control or turn her solar panels to the sun to recharge.

Cu Currently, he is orbiting the dwarf planet Ceres, where he will remain for decades, NASA said.

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In 2011, Dawn became the first to orbit a body in the region between Mars and Jupiter when the probe arrived at Vesta, the second largest world of the main asteroid. "The demands we made on Dawn were huge, but it was a challenge every time – it's hard to say goodbye to this incredible spaceship, but the time has come," said Marc Rayman, Mission Director. and chief engineer of NASA. Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

What is NASA's Dawn mission?

Dawn is a space probe launched by NASA in September 2007 with the mission of studying two of the three known protoplanets of the asteroid belt, Vesta and Ceres. Dawn is the first spacecraft to orbit two extraterrestrial bodies, the first to visit Vesta or Ceres, and the first to visit a dwarf planet, arrived at Ceres in March 2015, a few months before New Horizons flies to Pluto in July 2015

The Dawn mission was managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, with spacecraft components provided by European partners from Italy, Germany, France and the United States. and the Netherlands.

(With the participation of agencies)