The Toledo Astronomical Association and Ritter Planetarium present

A Free Public Lecture

Saturday, June 14, 2008 at 7:30 PM

UT Main Campus, McMaster Hall 1005

by

Marc D. Rayman

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena CA

"Now Flying Through a Solar System Near You:
The Dawn Mission to the Asteroid Belt"

NASA's latest venture into the solar system is the ambitious and exciting Dawn mission, which was launched in September 2007. The spacecraft will orbit both Ceres and Vesta, which are among the last unexplored worlds in the inner solar system. They are the two most massive residents of the asteroid belt, that vast collection of bodies between Mars and Jupiter. Ceres is so large that it is included in the new category of dwarf planets, along with Pluto. The alien landscapes Dawn will reveal should provide humankind with a new perspective on the solar system. Remnants from the time that planets were formed, Ceres and Vesta hold clues that will help scientists understand the dawn of the solar system.
Dawn will be the first spacecraft ever to orbit an object in the asteroid belt and the first ever to orbit two targets. Such a mission would be impossible without the use of ion propulsion, a technology that has mostly been in the domain of science fiction, but which was tested extensively on the successful Deep Space 1 mission, paving the way for Dawn.
Image credit: NASA/JPL/McREL; Background: William K. Hartmann, courtesy of UCLA.

Dr. Marc Rayman will describe the Dawn mission and its use of ion propulsion as well as its two exotic destinations. He will also share the excitement of controlling a spacecraft in deep space.

Dr. Rayman's bio (PDF, 40 KB)