tvashtarkatena Posted July 16, 2011 Posted July 16, 2011 NASA's Dawn spacecraft may or may not have gone into orbit around the large asteroid Vesta yesterday. The spacecraft is still firing its thrusters for the rendezvous - it must wait until the burn is over before turning its antenna back towards earth to communicate. Dawn is scheduled to transmit its first data from Vesta orbit around midnight tonight. If it misses orbital insertion, it has enough fuel for at least one more try. Dawn will orbit Vesta for a year, then move on to Ceres, the solar systems largest asteroid for a second orbital survey. Good stuff. Quote
bstach Posted July 16, 2011 Posted July 16, 2011 Couldn't this money be better spent building schools and hospitals? Or at the very least, blowing up brown people in far away lands? Quote
tvashtarkatena Posted July 16, 2011 Author Posted July 16, 2011 If we can figure out how to maneuver asteroids to impact specific geographic areas, we could save a mint on munitions. Quote
tvashtarkatena Posted July 17, 2011 Author Posted July 17, 2011 Dawn began orbiting Vesta late yesterday. No new pics just yet.... Nicely done. Quote
rob Posted July 18, 2011 Posted July 18, 2011 Doesn't Dawn sport one of the new ion drives? Totally badass. Constant acceleration. Quote
G-spotter Posted July 18, 2011 Posted July 18, 2011 Better blow that fucker apart before the UFO shows up. Quote
bstach Posted July 18, 2011 Posted July 18, 2011 orbital insertion Huh huh huh...orbiter? don't even know 'er Quote
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