The dawn mission on the asteroid belt completes

NASA's Dawn spacecraft has become silent, ending a historic mission that studies the time capsules of the first chapter of the solar system.

Dawn missed scheduled communication sessions with NASA's Deep Space Network on Wednesday, Oct. 31 and Nov. 1. After the flight crew eliminated other possible causes for missed communications, mission officials concluded that the spacecraft was lacking hydrazine, the fuel that allows the spacecraft to control its score. Dawn can no longer keep her trained antennas on Earth to communicate with mission control or to rotate her solar panels to the Sun.

The Dawn space shuttle was launched 11 years ago to visit the two largest objects in the asteroid belt. Currently, it is in orbit around the dwarf planet Ceres, where it will remain for decades.

"Today, we celebrate the end of our Dawn mission – its incredible technical achievements, vital scientific knowledge, and the entire team that made the spacecraft make these discoveries," said Thomas Zurbuchen. , Assistant Administrator of the NASA Science Mission Directorate in Washington. "The amazing images and data that Dawn has collected from Vesta and Ceres are essential to understanding the history and evolution of our solar system."

Dawn launched a trip in 2007 with an odometer reading of about 4.9 billion miles. Powered by ion engines, the spacecraft made many firsts along the way. In 2011, when Dawn arrived at Vesta, the second largest world of the main asteroid belt, the satellite became the first to orbit a body in the region between Mars and Jupiter. 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 get into orbit around from two destinations beyond the Earth.

"The fact that the license plate frame of my car proclaims:" My other vehicle is in the main asteroid belt "testifies to my pride for Dawn," said the director of the mission and Chief Engineer Marc Rayman at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "The demands we made on Dawn were huge, but we have taken up the challenge every time – it's hard to say goodbye to this incredible spaceship, but now is the time."

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 achievements, Dawn has shown the importance of the location and evolution of objects in the early solar system. Dawn also reinforced the idea that dwarf planets could have harbored oceans for a significant part of their history, if at all.

"In many ways, Dawn's legacy is just beginning," said lead researcher Carol Raymond at JPL. "Dawn's data will be further developed by scientists working on planetary growth and differentiation, and when and where life could have formed in our solar system." Ceres and Vesta also play an important role in Study of remote planetary systems, overview of conditions that may exist around young stars. "

As Ceres presents interesting conditions for scientists studying the chemistry that leads to the development of life, NASA applies strict planetary protection protocols for the elimination of the Dawn spacecraft. Dawn will remain in orbit for at least 20 years and engineers have more than 99% confidence that the orbit will last at least 50 years.

So, while the mission plan does not include closing a last heated dive – the NASA Cassini spacecraft ended last year, for example – at least, that's for sure: Dawn has passed the last drop of hydrazine to make scientific observations of Ceres we are sending them by radio so that we can learn more about the solar system that we call our country.

Explore further:
Coincidence between two extraordinary NASA missions