[meteorite-list] Countdown to Vesta

From: Meteorites USA <eric_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2010 14:48:47 -0700
Message-ID: <4C6DA6BF.9070401_at_meteoritesusa.com>

Greg's right... I think the prospect of visiting other worlds and
asteroids is the next step as human beings in the advancement of our
knowledge. Science and technology is advancing at exponential rates. 200
Years ago we were still driving horse and buggy! Now we visit ancient
stars in the sky... Literally! Mercury, Venus, Mars, the Moon, now
Vesta. This is EXCITING! I can't contain myself, nor express in words
how much this means to humanity, our advancement as a species, and our
progression of knowledge.

This is an exciting time, and meteorites are already at the center of a
universal knowledge machine that is fueled by our imagination, ingenuity
and need to know.

Explore, learn, create, and explore more. It's what we do.

Regards,
Eric





On 8/19/2010 2:26 PM, Greg Hupe wrote:
> Now this will be way cool! Who is going to host the "Vesta Orbit
> Party", or better yet, the "Mercury Orbit Party" which will occur first?
>
> In the statement, "Meanwhile, "other sights could be completely unlike
> anything we've imagined [on Vesta]," says Rayman. "It'll be pure
> excitement!"
>
> I'd venture to say, "Absolutely new things will be revealed!" I
> believe scientists from around the world will get their socks rocked
> with a few surprises Vesta will reveal and tantalize us with. With
> today's latest technology, more seasoned scientists, along with the
> younger generations of specialists will step back in awe as the latest
> space-age tools provide proof to establish 'ground truth' to theories
> and speculations to go with many somewhat controversial scientific
> abstracts that have been published the last decade or longer! Might be
> the time for those without open minds to step back, welcome the new
> data and confirm the new findings without being so entrenched by
> outdated beliefs or theories. New meteorite discoveries over the last
> few decades have advanced the field at an astonishing rate, forcing
> old theories out and the need for more accurate meteorite class
> categories to be established. Science is a slow process as we all
> know, hopefully these missions will help us simple mortals realize the
> truth as it becomes known without delay by ego or other negative
> aspects towards advancement!
>
> The next couple years will be some great times with the asteroid Vesta
> orbit by the Dawn spacecraft and the Messenger Mission that is set to
> orbit Mercury for one year starting March 2011...
>
> Best regards,
> Greg
>
> ====================
> Greg Hupe
> The Hupe Collection
> NaturesVault (eBay)
> gmhupe at htn.net
> www.LunarRock.com
> IMCA 3163
> ====================
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>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ron Baalke"
> <baalke at zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>
> To: "Meteorite Mailing List" <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
> Sent: Thursday, August 19, 2010 4:40 PM
> Subject: [meteorite-list] Countdown to Vesta
>
>
>>
>> http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2010/19aug_dawn2/
>>
>> Countdown to Vesta
>> NASA Science News
>> August 19, 2010
>>
>> Let the countdown begin. NASA's Dawn spacecraft is less than one year
>> away from giant asteroid Vesta.
>>
>> "There's nothing more exciting than revealing an unexplored, alien
>> world," says Marc Rayman, Dawn's chief engineer at the Jet Propulsion
>> Laboratory. "Vesta," he predicts, "is going to amaze us."
>>
>> Dawn is slated to enter orbit around Vesta in late July 2011. As the
>> first breathtaking images are beamed back to Earth, researchers will
>> quickly combine them into a movie, allowing us all to ride along.
>>
>> "It will look as though the spacecraft is hovering in one place while
>> Vesta rotates beneath it," says Rayman.
>>
>> Previous missions have shown us a handful of asteroids, but none as
>> large as this hulking relic of the early solar system. Measuring 350
>> miles across and containing almost 10% of the mass of the entire
>> asteroid belt, Vesta is a world unto itself.
>>
>> "It's a big, rocky, terrestrial type body - more likely similar to the
>> moon and Mercury than to the little chips of rocks we've flown by in the
>> past," continues Rayman. "For example, there's a large crater at Vesta's
>> south pole, and inside the crater is a mountain bigger than asteroid
>> Eros."
>>
>> Dawn will orbit Vesta for a year, conducting a detailed study and
>> becoming the first spacecraft to ever orbit a body in the asteroid belt.
>> Later, Dawn will leave Vesta and go on to orbit a second exotic world,
>> dwarf planet Ceres--but that's another story.
>>
>> Many scientists consider Vesta a protoplanet. The asteroid was in the
>> process of forming into a full fledged planet when Jupiter interrupted
>> its growth. The gas giant became so massive that its gravity stirred up
>> the material in the asteroid belt so the objects there could no longer
>> coalesce.
>>
>> "Vesta can teach us a lot about how planets formed," says Christopher
>> Russell of UCLA, the mission's Principal Investigator. "There is a whole
>> team of scientists sitting on the edge of their seats waiting for that
>> first glimpse of Vesta."
>>
>> Dawn's official Vestian approach, which Rayman also calls the "oh man
>> this is so cool phase" of the mission, begins next May. Unlike most
>> orbital insertions, however, this one will be comparatively relaxing.
>>
>> "This may be the first planetary mission that doesn't cause its mission
>> team members to bite their nails while their spacecraft is getting into
>> planetary orbit," says Rayman.
>>
>> A conventional spacecraft's entry into a flight path around a celestial
>> body is accompanied by crucial periods during which maneuvers must be
>> executed with pinpoint precision. If anything goes wrong, all can be
>> lost. But Dawn, with its gentle ion propulsion, slowly spirals in to its
>> target, getting closer and closer as it loops around.
>>
>> "Dawn's entire thrust profile for its long interplanetary flight has
>> been devoted largely to the gradual reshaping of its orbit around the
>> Sun so that by the time the spacecraft is in the vicinity of Vesta, its
>> orbit will be very much like Vesta's."
>>
>> With just a slight change in trajectory, the spacecraft will allow
>> itself to be captured by Vesta's gravity.
>>
>> "Even that gentle ion thrust will be quite sufficient to let the craft
>> slip into orbit. It's like merging into traffic on an interstate - only
>> gradual acceleration is needed. Dawn won't even notice the difference,
>> but it will be in orbit around its first celestial target."
>>
>> Dawn's first survey orbits will be high and leisurely, taking days to
>> loop around Vesta at altitudes of about 1700 miles. After collecting a
>> rich bounty of pictures and data from high altitude, Dawn will resume
>> thrusting, spiraling down to lower and lower orbits, eventually settling
>> in a little more than 100 miles high--lower than satellites orbiting
>> Earth.
>>
>> Parts of the surface may be reminiscent of features on Earth or the Moon
>> with craters and perhaps even volcanoes.
>>
>> "We don't expect to see active volcanoes," notes Carol Raymond, the
>> mission's Deputy Principal Investigator at JPL, "but there could be
>> ancient volcanic features still recognizable among the craters."
>>
>> Meanwhile, "other sights could be completely unlike anything we've
>> imagined," says Rayman. "It'll be pure excitement!"
>>
>>
>> Author: Dauna Coulter
>> Editor: Dr. Tony Phillips
>> Credit: Science at NASA
>> ______________________________________________
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Received on Thu 19 Aug 2010 05:48:47 PM PDT