Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
1717102 Acta Astronautica 2007 9 Pages PDF
Abstract

The Dawn project is progressing toward its 2007 launch on a mission to orbit main belt asteroids (1) Ceres and (4) Vesta. Designed to provide insights into important questions about the evolution of the solar system, Dawn will spend more than 0.5 years in orbit about each of these bodies. This challenging mission is enabled by an ion propulsion system. In contrast to missions that use conventional chemical propulsion, the use of this system creates a strong coupling of allowable flight system mass and available power, thereby requiring different methods of managing these and other technical resources. Now that the project is nearing launch, the refinement of resource estimates allows the identification of excess margin, which is being applied in novel ways to benefit the project both in development and in operations.

Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering Engineering Aerospace Engineering
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