Dawn
A NASA Discovery mission and the first spacecraft to orbit two extraterrestrial bodies — it used ion propulsion to orbit the giant asteroid 4 Vesta and then the dwarf planet 1 Ceres, the two most massive bodies in the main asteroid belt.
Imagery
Dawn Mission Patch
NASA Dawn mission patch, part of the Dawn Mission Art series.
2007
NASA/McREL · NASA media (public domain)
This is the small-body-missions view of Dawn. See its main mission page for the full profile.
Targets & sample
Mission & science
- Goals
- Orbit and compare Vesta and Ceres to understand the earliest epochs of the Solar System.
- Engineering milestones
- First to orbit Vesta (2011) and Ceres (2015); first to orbit two extraterrestrial bodies.
- Science discoveries
- Confirmed Vesta as the parent of the HED meteorites; found bright carbonate deposits and possible subsurface brine on Ceres.
- Outcome
- Complete success.
Knowledge connections
- Target of4 Vesta
- Target ofCeres
- Operated byNASA
- Part of programDiscovery Program
- Mission target4 Vesta
- Mission targetCeres
- VisitedCeres
- Visited4 Vesta
- Member of groupOrbiter Mission
- Member of groupRendezvous Mission
- Launched byDelta II
- Operated byNASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
- Orbited4 Vesta
- OrbitedCeres
- Associated withLaunch & Cruise
- Carries instrumentDawn Framing Camera
- Associated withOccator Crater
- Associated withAhuna Mons
- Associated withRheasilvia
Sources
The primary and reference sources this topic draws on.
- NASANational Aeronautics and Space Administration
Mission data, planetary science, space telescopes, and public-domain imagery.
Most NASA-produced imagery is in the public domain; individual items are checked for usage terms before publication.
- NASA JPLJet Propulsion Laboratory / Solar System Dynamics
Orbital data, ephemerides, and small-body parameters for planets, asteroids, and comets.