Dawn Maneuvering to Third Science Orbit

.

 .

Mission Status Report - NASA's Dawn spacecraft is using its ion propulsion system to descend to its third mapping orbit at Ceres, and all systems are operating well. The spiral maneuvering over the next five weeks will take the spacecraft to an altitude of about 900 miles (less than 1,500 kilometers) above the dwarf planet.The spacecraft experienced a discrepancy in its expected orientation on June 30, triggering a safe mode. Engineers traced this anomaly to the mechanical gimbal system that swivels ion engine #3 to help control the spacecraft's orientation during ion-thrusting.

Dawn has three ion engines and uses only one at a time.Dawn's engineering team switched to ion engine #2, which is mounted on a different gimbal, and conducted tests with it from July 14 to 16. They have confirmed that the spacecraft is ready to continue with the exploration of Ceres.By the end of the day on July 17, Dawn will have descended to an altitude of about 2,400 miles (3,900 kilometers). After arrival at its next mapping orbit -- called the High-Altitude Mapping Orbit, or HAMO -- in August, Dawn will begin taking images and other data at unprecedented resolution.

More information on the Dawn mission is online at: http://www.nasa.gov/dawn  or  http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov

Source: News | Dawn Maneuvering to Third Science Orbit
 .
               Welcome back My Dear Shoevians to The Other Shoe. While working up some more great images from the New Horizons of Pluto I ran across this great article about the Dawn mission, currently mapping Ceres. Ceres, you might remember, was all in the news right before New Horizons started sending historic images back from Pluto. If you look over the right hand sidebar, you will see a rotating image of Ceres. Currently Dawn has descended to an altitude of 2,400 feet from the surface of Ceres.  . I am hoping that, over the next few days, NASA will release more of the imaging from the low-altitude flybys so that I can get more and more images to all of you, My Dear Shoevians. 
.
This coming week I will be publishing; an all new edition of 'The Mars Report' and 'Lost in Space' here at The Other Shoe. Just keep dropping by and checking in, that way you can be the first to 'Like' and 'Share' these great images and articles with friends and family. . As always, it is great to have you come by and look at the images I have to share and read my works. In the coming months I am hoping to return to publishing more (maybe even the end of) "The Horror in Smithville'! This great young adult fantasy/horror was scheduled to be finished last year... but we all know what happened... and why I have yet to finish this terrific tale. (FYI - My cancer diagnosis and treatment).
 .
That's all for now, I will see all of you, My Dear Shoevians, soon!
 .
  Adieu!
 .
  Thank you!

 .

Danny Hanning Writer, Editor, Research Staff and Publisher at The Other Shoe

.

© 2010 – 2015 Hanning Web Wurx and The Other Shoe