Vesta (left) and Ceres. Vesta was photographed up close by the Dawn spacecraft from July 2011-Sept. 2012, while the best views we have to date of Ceres come from the Hubble Space Telescope. The bright white spot is still a mystery. Credit: NASA
Posted on 09/17/2014 2:17:55 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Controllers discovered Dawn was in safe mode Sept. 11 after radiation disabled its ion engine, which uses electrical fields to “push” the spacecraft along. The radiation stopped all engine thrusting activities. The thrusting resumed Monday (Sept. 15) after controllers identified and fixed the problem, but then they found another anomaly troubling the spacecraft.
...
Dawn is en route to Ceres after orbiting the huge asteroid Vesta between July 2011 and September 2012. A similar suspected radiation blast three years ago also disabled Dawn’s engine before it reached Vesta, but the ion system worked perfectly in moving Dawn away from Vesta when that phase of its mission was complete, NASA noted.
...
Spacecraft can experience radiation through energy from the Sun (particularly from solar flares) and also from cosmic rays, which are electrically charged particles that originate outside the Solar System. Earth’s atmosphere shields the surface from most space-based radiation.
Dawn’s main antenna was also disabled, forcing the spacecraft to send signals to Earth (a 53-minute roundtrip by light speed) through a weaker secondary antenna and slowing communications. The cause of this problem hasn’t been figured out yet, but controllers suspect radiation affected the computer’s software. A computer reset has solved the issue, NASA added. The spacecraft is now functioning normally.
(Excerpt) Read more at universetoday.com ...
This could be Hugh and Ceres.
With New Horizon's look at Pluto/Charon coming up soon as well, we seem to be at an era of "small airless body" discoveries. We're bound to be in for some surprises.
Now see? That's where text fails us! I cannot tell if you are typing that with a British accent which, of course, would make a world of difference as to the meaning of that phrase.
radiation disabled its ion engine
Man, I haven’t thought about that song for a long time. It is a great record.
I remember when it first hit the charts. That “three four” still gives me goosebumps.
Music was better once upon a time.
Judy “Sock it to me” Carne
Thanks BenLurkin. Extra to APoD.
Agreed!! (When I was a youth in the sixties I was lucky to have a transistor radio, and turned up the volume when the 4-Seasons was being played.)
BTW, Mrs. LVD and I saw the 4-Seasons movie a few months ago at a local matinee showing. It brought fond memories of the group! (We also saw the play in Vegas a few years ago, I believe the stage actors were the same as on film).
(Gentlemen, sorry for the temporary hijacking of your thread!)
Ceres was discovered on January 1, 1801, the first day of the 19th Century by a priest/astronomer in Sicily. She is named for the Ceres, the goddess of grain and protector goddess of Sicily. Ceres was the first asteroid discovered, and was originally given the status of planet, as was Vesta, later. But as more and more asteroids were discovered, like Pluto in the 21st Century, she was demoted. William Herschel suggested the designation asteroid and it stuck.
The rediscovery of Ceres after it was lost in the glare of the sun, using an analysis by Gauss help make the German’s reputation among European mathematicians, and established the method of least squares as the most used non-trivial method in statistics.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
