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mithridates
Joined: 03 Mar 2003
Location: President's office, Korean Space Agency
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 Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2007 8:35 am Post subject: Want to see Dawn launch? |
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Okay then, here it is:
http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=ncLLVj1qMC8
Dawn took off last night (morning in Florida) and I feel so much better knowing that it's on its way. It'll be going to two completely new worlds, Vesta and Ceres, which is exciting because we haven't had a probe go to somewhere completely new (with the exception of small asteroids and comets) for a long time. To give an idea of how little we know, here's the best resolution we have for the two right now:
Compare that to the detail we have on something like Hyperion, one of the moons of Saturn that Cassini has gotten a really good look at (and it's smaller than both of the objects Dawn will be visiting):
Ceres is especially exciting because it seems to have a layer of water ice and might even be a better target for colonization than Mars. |
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twg
Joined: 02 Nov 2006
Location: Getting some fresh air...
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| Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2007 8:19 pm Post subject: |
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| But isn't it further away and smaller? |
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mithridates
Joined: 03 Mar 2003
Location: President's office, Korean Space Agency
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| Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2007 8:35 pm Post subject: |
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| twg wrote: |
| But isn't it further away and smaller? |
Yes, but with Mars that actually equates to more frequent launch windows (Mars and Earth take a lot longer to line up with each other) and more fuel necessary to leave the planet. You need to be going at 5 km per second to leave Mars, but only a tenth of that to get away from Ceres. It's still large enough though that it doesn't feel like an asteroid, and has a differentiated interior like all other planets, something that small asteroids don't have. |
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