DAWN

DAWN is classified as:

Space & Earth Science

NORAD ID: 32249

Int'l Code: 2007-043A

Launch date: September 27, 2007
Source: United States (US)
Launch site: AIR FORCE EASTERN TEST RANGE (AFETR)

Dawn is a mission designed to rendezvous and orbit the asteroids 4 Vesta and 1 Ceres. The scientific objectives of the mission are to characterize the asteroids' internal structure, density, shape, size, composition and mass and to return data on surface morphology, cratering, and magnetism. These measurements will help determine the thermal history, size of the core, role of water in asteroid evolution and what meteorites found on Earth come from these bodies, with the ultimate goal of understanding the conditions and processes present at the solar system's earliest epoch and the role of water content and size in planetary evolution. The data returned will include, for both asteroids, full surface imagery, full surface spectrometric mapping, elemental abundances, topographic profiles, gravity fields, and mapping of remnant magnetism, if any.