Orbital ATK has since achieved its long awaited mission. The mission involved uncovering the mysteries of the solar system after a deep exploration. This involved the application of a great part of innovation, which was the use of solar electric ion propulsion to bring along the orbiting dwarf planet commonly known as Ceres. According to the president of Orbital ATK’s Space Systems Group Frank Culbertson, the innovation used is reliable enough and affordable.
The exploration brings to an end a historic journey of seven and a half years made by Dawn. Ceres has been defined as the second largest object the main asteroid belt and the journey towards it by Dawn began in September 2012. Though at the beginning the images were full of shade, sharper images of Cere have been noted in the recent past. The shaper the images become, the more the understanding by scientists of why it has progressed differently from Vesta.
It is thought that Ceres would be having some substantial amount of water of up to 27 percent but mostly in the form of ice. Dwarf planets takes a spherical shape of the celestial bodies which would easily pass for small planets but not meeting the actual classifications of a being a real planet.
The visit to a dwarf planet is the first mission for Dawn which runs under Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Not only have they accomplished this very exciting mission but they had a target of two extraterrestrial targets. Before the exploration of Ceres, Dawn first made their stop at Vesta. Spaceship now refers to Ceres as home according to Marc Rayman, the Director and Chief Engineer of the Dawn Mission.
It was within the greater mission for Dawn to carry out what has been referred to as the largest unexplored world within the Solar System. The images captured during this mission have left every scientist baffled. The whole unfolding has been defined to be such a great achievement.
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