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Flight path of NASA's Dawn spacecraft: Past Mars and into the asteroid belt
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NASA's Dawn discovery mission has covered around one billion kilometres in the inner Solar System since its launch. The Mars fly-by (MGA, Mars Gravity Assist) serves two purposes. Firstly, the spacecraft's flight speed will increase due to the gravitational force of Mars, thereby expanding the radius of Dawn's flight path around the Sun. As a result the spacecraft will gradually travel in the direction of the main asteroid belt, that is, onto an orbit outside that of Mars. The second important goal of the MGA manoeuvre is to alter the angle of Dawn's orbital plane around the Sun. Compared to the ecliptic, the plane of the Earth's orbit around the Sun, Vesta's orbit is tilted at an angle of more than seven degrees. As a result of the Mars fly-by, Dawn will be steered into the orbital plane of the asteroid.
Credit: DLR.
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Links
DLR Space Agency: Dawn
Max-Planck-Insitut für Sonnensystemforschung - Dawn
NASA-JPL - Dawn Mission Home Page
HRSC - the High Resolution Stereo Camera
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