Posted by Davin Flateau on 17 Mar 2006 at 12:31 pm.
Filed under Astronomy.
Right on the heels of my previous post about NASA’s termination of the asteroid-orbiting mission DAWN, CNN reports that NASA is taking a second look at the mission.
NASA’s unusual step to review Dawn’s termination came after the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, which manages the mission, presented new evidence in support of it, the space agency said Wednesday in a statement.
Space.com also has an article up on the breaking news.
The death of Dawn has stirred up anger in scientific circles, both in the United States and abroad – a fact that surfaced here earlier this week at the 37th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC).
When pressed by scientists to clarify whether or not the Dawn mission has been restored, NASA Associate Administrator for Science, Mary Cleave, said NASA is responsive to Congressional language that dictates “if we get to a certain percentage cost overrun we have to review a project. And if it gets to another percentage Congress will zero the money going in and we will be in this limbo with no money going in.”
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Another reply regarding the status of Dawn came from Andrew Dantzler, director of NASA’s solar system division in Washington, D.C.
“I really can’t get into the details on Dawn,” Dantzler told the LPSC gathering, but noted that the cancellation “is under review by our management.” Because of that fact, he added, it would not be appropriate to get into specifics.
Space probes like these usually involve international partners. In DAWN’s case, they were none too happy with the cancellation, or the fact that apparently no one even bothered to pick up the phone.
“It’s totally unacceptable what’s happening now,” said Gerhard Neukum, professor of planetary sciences at Freie Universität Berlin in Germany and a member of the Dawn team.
There is international involvement in Dawn, Neukum pointed out. “NASA has responsibility to their cooperation partners first and foremost before they go to the last resort of canceling a mission,” he told SPACE.com.
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“This is absolutely unacceptable what’s going on there. It was unilateral, without prior warning and no discussion,” Neukum said. “I know that there were some other technical problems, but no fundamental ones. They all could be fixed,” he explained.
Let’s hope that NASA can find a way to make DAWN happen, especially so late in its development. It’s going to be an incredible mission, orbiting the two largest asteroids in the solar sytem - Ceres and Vesta.
DAWN was originally slated to launch this summer, arriving at Vesta in October of 2011, orbiting and studying the huge asteroid for 7 months, then heading to Ceres, arriving at the largest “minor planet” in the solar system in August of 2015. By studying the largest members of the asteroid belt, scientists can study the results of two very different ways that planetary bodies were made when the planets and asteroids were first formed. It’s also thought that Ceres may harbor a tenuous atmosphere, which would be unique for an asteroid.
I also couldn’t help but notice that DAWN’s website was down yesterday. It’s now back up. I have no clue whether that was related to the cancellation and subsequent review or not, but it sure is a rather odd coincidence.
Stars Over Kansas » DAWN Oops on 21 Mar 2006 at 10:43 am: 1
[…] I was just watching NASA TV, and caught a nice summary of Discovery class missions to asteroids and comets. DAWN was still in there. Take that as either a good sign or someone at NASA TV didn’t realize that their agency had cancelled the program. Hmm! […]