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NASA's pioneering Dawn spacecraft – which orbited the two largest objects in the asteroid belt – is out of fuel, thus ending an 11-year historic mission that broke through many mysteries of our solar system, announced the US Space Agency.
The $ 467 million Dawn mission, launched in 2007 to study the protoplanet Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres, missed scheduled communication sessions with NASA's Deep Space Network on Oct. 31. and November 1, announced NASA in a statement.
After eliminating other possible causes of loss of communication, mission officials concluded that the spacecraft eventually ran out of hydrazine, fuel allowing it to control its score.
"Today we celebrate the end of our Dawn mission – its incredible technical accomplishments, the vital science it brought us and the entire team that made the spacecraft make these discoveries." said Thomas Zurbuchen, badociate director of the Sc Science Mission Directorate here.
"Amazing images and data collected by Dawn from Vesta and Ceres are essential to understanding the history and evolution of our solar system," said Zurbuchen.
It was an expected end of the mission, although the shuttle lasted two years longer than originally planned.
On Tuesday, NASA announced that its Kepler Space Telescope, a hunter of exoplanets, was running out of hydrazine fuel, and that it would be ordered to cease operations.
Dawn can no longer keep her trained antennas on Earth to communicate with mission control or turn her solar panels to the Sun to recharge, according to the US Space Agency.
The spacecraft was launched 11 years ago to visit the two largest objects of the principal. Belt of asteroids. Currently, it is in orbit around the dwarf planet Ceres, where it will remain for decades, NASA said.
Dawn launched in 2007 a journey of 6.9 billion kilometers on the clock. Powered by ion engines, the spacecraft made many firsts along the way.
In 2011, when Dawn arrived at Vesta, the second largest group of the world's asteroid belt, he became the first to orbit a body in the region between Mars.
In 2015, when Dawn came into orbit around Ceres, a dwarf planet that is also the world's largest asteroid belt, the mission became the first to visit a dwarf planet and set itself orbiting two
"The demands we imposed on Dawn were enormous, 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 at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
The data that Dawn sent back to Earth from her four scientific experiments allowed scientists to compare two planet-like worlds that evolved in a very different way.
Among his accomplishments, Dawn showed how important the location of objects in the early solar system was, NASA said.
Dawn also reinforced the idea that the dwarves The planets could have harbored oceans during a significant part of their history – and could still do so
"In many ways, the Dawn's legacy is just beginning. Scientists will study in depth the growth and differentiation of planets, as well as the time and place where life could have formed in our solar system, "said lead researcher Carol Raymond at JPL.
"Ceres and Vesta are important to society. studying distant planetary systems as well, because they provide insight into the conditions that may exist around young stars, "said Ms. Raymond.
Because Ceres presents interesting conditions for scientists who study chemistry that leads to the development of NASA follows strict global protection protocols for the disposal of the Dawn spacecraft, said NASA.
Dawn will remain in orbit for at least 20 years and engineers have more than 99% confidence that its orbit will last at least 50. That said.
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