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By Ellen Kang
Daily Bruin Contributor
UCLA professor Christopher Russell will conduct a mission in the
near future that has never been done before ““ the visiting of
the two oldest planets in the solar system.
With a nine-year journey to study the minor planets Ceres and
Vesta, the UCLA-led project, “Dawn Mission,” will
involve the first spacecraft to orbit two planetary bodies during
the same mission.
The exploration goal is to travel to the part of the solar
system that has not been explored, Russell said, while the
scientific goal is to understand the formation of the solar
system.
“The team will be exploring in the present time but going
back to dawn ““ the time when the light first shined on the
solar system,” Russell, a professor in the earth and space
sciences department, said of the project’s name.
The mission’s spacecraft is scheduled to launch from Cape
Canaveral on May 27, 2006. It will study Vesta beginning July 2010
and Ceres beginning August 2014.
Led by Russell, the project is managed by NASA’s Jet
Propulsion Laboratory in Washington, D.C. The spacecraft used for
the mission ““ called the “Deep Space 1″ ““
is little more than a one-meter cube with two 21-meter solar panels
attached to two of its sides that supply electrical power. The
Dulles, Va.-based company, Orbital Sciences Corporation, will
develop the spacecraft.
The mission focuses on two of the first bodies formed in the
solar system, the minor planets Ceres and Vesta, both located in
the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
To accomplish its mission of studying the physical structure and
evolution of Ceres and Vesta, Dawn will carry a framing camera,
mapping spectrometer, laser altimeter, gamma ray spectrometer and a
magnetometer.
These instruments will allow the mission to determine the
pre-planets’ physical attributes, such as shape, size, mass,
craters and internal structure, and study more complex properties
such as composition, density and magnetism.
Ceres ““ named after the Roman goddess of agriculture
““ circles the sun in 4.6 terrestrial years and was the first
minor planet discovered in our solar system.
Vesta ““ named after the Roman goddess of the hearth
““ circles the sun in 3.6 terrestrial years, is the brightest
minor planet in our solar system and the only one visible with the
unaided eye.
Today, Ceres and Vesta represent two of the few large
“protoplanets” that have remained relatively unchanged
since their formation at the dawn of the solar system. The mission
aims to understand the evolution of Ceres and Vesta ““
information that may provide keys to the secrets of the creation of
the solar system.
Expeditions like “Dawn Mission” are efficient
because they tackle important scientific question while being
relatively modest in cost, said Dr. Edward Weiler, associate
administrator for space science at NASA headquarters in
Washington.
“Dawn is exactly the kind of mission NASA should be
launching,” Weiler said.
Compared to the past, the cost of exploring today has gone down
tremendously due to advances in technology, Russell said.
Lightweight technology and lower costs of exploration will allow
the mission to go forward, he added.
“(The mission is) an indicator of how far we’ve come
in our capability to explore space,” Weiler said.
Even so, some remain concerned about the mission’s
budget.
Though Dawn was selected on Dec. 21, 2001 as one of two awardees
for NASA’s Discovery Program, the mission must stay within
the Discovery Program’s development-cost cap of about $299
million.
“The biggest difficulty for the NASA headquarters would be
to keep the program on track and on budget,” said Donald
Savage, public affairs officer for space science at NASA
headquarters in Washington.