NASA DAWN Mission: DLR Takes Another step closer to Vesta

Click on the picture to see it in full size

Dawn spacecraft is another step closer to Vesta; only 5200 kilometres now separate the asteroid and its new 'neighbour', Dawn. The Framing Camera on board the spacecraft is imaging Vesta's surface with steadily increasing accuracy.

Researchers at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) starts generating detailed maps and elevation models using these data. The images show Vesta from ists south pole to areas in the northern hemisphere and allow first geological analysis.

It is expected that by 11 August, Dawn will have approached to within approximately 2700 kilometres of Vesta.

"Then the in-depth analysis of the asteroid begins; with these images, we will create 3D models of Vesta in order to understand its rough surface", explained Ralf Jaumann, Head of the Planetary Geology Department at the DLR Institute of Planetary Research in Berlin.

By August 2012, the distance between the spacecraft and the asteroid will have been reduced to approximately 200 kilometres.

At that time, the objective of the DLR researchers is to map the surface of Vesta and generate a three-dimensional terrain model in order to understand its origin and evolution.

Through the exploration of the asteroid, scientists will learn more about the birth of the planets.

Dawn has spent four years travelling to Vesta and is currently about 184 million kilometres from Earth.

Vesta is now providing the first opportunity to study an asteroid at close quarters over an extended period of time.

Along with the German Framing Camera, Dawn is also carrying the Visible and Infrared Spectrometer, an instrument developed by the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica; INAF) and the Gamma Ray and Neutron Detector (GRaND) instrument, built by the Los Alamos National Laboratory.