A little less than three hours ago, NASA's Dawn Mission launched into space via a Delta II Heavy Lifter and is on it's way to the asteroid belt. The Dawn spacecraft is NASA's newest deep space explorer on the first interplentary mission in history. Dawn will slingshot around Mars, testing it's framing cameras, measuring x-rays, gamma rays and infra-red imagers as it leaves the red planet's orbit...and zooms on to Vesta, the first of two asteroid belt objects to study.
Dawn is also the first spacecraft to use Ion engines. Dawn has three Ion engines, which is one more than a George Lucas imagined TIE Fighter. Each Ion engine weighs about 20 pounds, has the diameter of a basketball and only functions in the vaccum of space, running very swiftly and thriftly on Xenon fuel. Xenon is a gas that is four times heavier than air. The Ion engines are designed for at least 5.5 years of functioning. Dawn's power source are the solar panel arms, fully extended at 54 feet, these panels will collect energizing solar rays as the space craft jets further and further from the sun. The asteroid belt objects Dawn will explore are about 3AU distant, give or take a couple thousand miles...these solar panels are NASA/JPL cutting edge tech.
Dawn has 112 levels of incremental throttle, over the next few days it's throttle will increase to level 28 as it rights itself from the launch spin and gains velocity. Slowly and deliberately Dawn will gently increase it's speed, over the next four days it will go from 0-60 mph...the follwing days 60 more mph...after 12 days in it will cruising at 180 mph. This puts less stress on the ion engines and conserves xenon. as the 2,600 lb spacecraft rockets through the solar system. After about a year in space Dawn will reach 5,500 mph...at 5 years in it's speed will reach 23,000 mph.
Absolutely interesting stuff. Space history was made today.
-A
PS: It's NASCAR weekend here in Kansas! I will be out at speedway for majority of the next three days watching my favorite drivers blow the quarterpanels off the competition. Won't be writing on here during that time.
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