Why didn’t Dawn land on dwarf planet Ceres?

Planetary Radio: Space Exploration, Astronomy and Science

The Planetary Society

Science, Technology

4.8 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 6 October 2021

⏱️ 39 minutes

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Summary

The ion engine-powered Dawn spacecraft will orbit Ceres for many years. Could it have touched down on the surface of the dwarf planet?

Transcript

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0:00.0	Don did not attempt the first landing on a dwarf planet.
0:05.2	Mark Raymond will tell us why, this week on Planetary Radio.
0:13.0	Welcome.
0:14.0	I'm Matt Kaplan of the Planetary Society with more of the human adventure across our solar
0:19.2	system and beyond.
0:21.6	I only meant to pass along a simple question from a listener, but conversations with Mark
0:26.6	Raymond are just too good to abbreviate.
0:30.2	That's why we'll spend a few extra minutes talking with JPL's new chief engineer for
0:35.1	mission operations and science.
0:38.3	More than 27 months sailing on sunlight and our lightsale 2 is still up there.
0:44.8	We'll get a mission update from lightsale program manager Bruce Betts, just before he
0:49.2	treats us to a great night sky and much more, including a special extended deadline for
0:55.9	the new space trivia contest.
0:59.0	Have you seen the newest close-ups of Mercury?
1:02.2	The European Space Agency's Beppy Colombo snapped them on October 1st as it zipped past
1:07.8	the planet in a slingshot maneuver.
1:10.6	You can read about the mission in this week's edition of the downlink, the Planetary
1:14.7	Society's weekly newsletter.
1:17.5	The spacecraft will finally enter orbit around that hot and cold world in 2025.
1:24.2	And down Mars fleet, its solar conjunction time, when Earth is blocked from the red planet
1:29.6	by the sun.
1:30.6	Don't expect much work to get done until Mars comes out the other side around the 16th.
	...

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