Dawn

Dawn is a spacecraft launched by NASA in September 2007 with the specific mission of investigating two of the three known protoplanets of the asteroid belt, Vesta and Ceres. The spacecraft is currently in orbit around Ceres, where it has been since March 2015. It is the first mission to visit a dwarf planet, and also the first to visit more than one body in the asteroid belt.

The name “Dawn” was chosen because it represents “the beginning of new knowledge about our solar system”. The spacecraft was built by Orbital Sciences Corporation, designed to be operated as an Earth-orbiting satellite for at least 10 years. Its total cost is approximately $466 million, which includes design, development, launch services, science instrument payloads, and mission operations.

As part of its scientific objectives, Dawn’s goal is to characterize the conditions and processes that led to the formation and evolution of these two unique objects in the solar system. In addition, Dawn will search for clues about the formation of planets elsewhere in our galaxy.

Dawn consists of three main parts: an ion propulsion module; a frameless stack containing all avionics, propellant tanks and other necessities; and a large solar array that provides power for everything on board except during eclipses when batteries take over. All three components were integrated together at Orbital Sciences’ Dulles campus before being shipped to Kennedy Space Center for final assembly and integration with a Delta II rocket.

Ion propulsion works by expelling electrons from atoms using electricity (in this case generated by solar panels), thus creating ions. The ions are then accelerated by electric fields out the back end of thrusters—much like how water comes out of a nozzle when you squeeze a garden hose—and because they’re electrically charged they interact with magnets inside the engine to create thrust without any moving parts…which means less maintenance than traditional chemical propulsion systems used on most satellites and spacecraft today! Not only does this make ion propulsion more efficient (it can propel Dawn faster using less fuel), but it also gives Dawn greater flexibility when choosing its trajectory because once in space there are no atmospheric drag forces acting on it like there would be if it were launched from Earth’s surface…so its operators can choose precise maneuvers that wouldn’t be possible otherwise!