The Lord giveth , and the Lord taketh aside . While scientist celebrate funding for many missions being extended latterly , includingNASA ’s New Horizons spacecraft , others were leave bemoaning their luck .
That ’s because the Dawn spacecraft , currently in range around the dwarf planet Ceres in the asteroid belt , has been deny a proposal to leave Ceres and explore another objective of interest group .
Dawn , as you may hump , is the first ballistic capsule ever to orb two freestanding dead body other than Earth , having traveled to the protoplanet Vesta in 2011 , and then to Ceres in 2015 . But Dawn has nowcompleted its science goalsat Ceres , so the mission squad had ask NASA if they could send it to a new , unchartered destination – the relatively small asteroid Adeona in the asteroid belt .
Sadly , though , NASArejected this proposallast calendar week , instead steer the squad to stay on in orbit around Ceres . The reason , NASA enjoin , is that Ceres ’ orbit will soon fetch it closer to the Sun , so some interesting change could take place on its airfoil .
Personally , it ’s a morsel of a bummer . To have a spacecraft so far from Earth , with the ability to research different locations thanks to its ion locomotive , it seems like a bit of a wasteland . Marc Rayman , Dawn ’s chief engineer and mission film director , tell IFLScience that the new directive was still exciting – although perhaps not as much as some had hoped .
“ I am very well-chosen with this decision , ” he said . “ Some people on Dawn thought Ceres was the better pick , and some think Adeona was . NASA ’s determination was not base on the squad ’s predilection , nor should it be . The decision was found on an documentary , rational appraisal of the data we provided on the two choice .
“ The third selection was to end the foreign mission now . That option would have been a disappointment . ”
Dawn would n’t have orbited Adeona , but just fly by in May 2019 before the missionary work came to an end , accord toWired . Still , it would have been exciting to see this other consistence , which is much smaller than Ceres ( 950 kilometers/590 mi ) and Vesta ( 525 kilometers/326 international mile ) , at just 150 kilometers ( 93 miles ) across .
Dawn ’s chief mission at Ceres really ended on June 30 , so we ’ll have to await and see what the spacecraft is tasked to do next . Those hop for a young destination , though , are out of luck .
