Dawn launch spectacular
Last week's launch of NASA's Dawn mission to the asteroid Vesta and "dwarf planet" Ceres came, coincidentally, at dawn on the East Coast. The weather was perfect and the liftoff made for some spectacular photography. This mosaic image is a good example.
Dawn is now en route to the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Mission managers plan a 2011 rendezvous with Vesta, where Dawn will pause and orbit for six months. From there, it will push on to Ceres. Scientists hope to learn more about the chemistry, minerology and natural history of the two tiny worlds, and from that they expect to learn more about the formation of the solar system.
The flight - 4 billion miles around the solar - system is being powered by an ion propulsion engine. The fuel consists of solar power and 72 gallons of xenon gas. Amazing. Somebody asked me this morning why NASA can't provide that kind of gas mileage for the rest of us here on Earth. It would be nice, but you wouldn't like the acceleration - zero to 60 in four days.
