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Riding an Ion Drive to the Asteroid Belt

Posted by samzenpus on from the to-infinity-and-beyond dept.

Iron Condor writes "JPL is now close to embarking on another of its trademark, one-of-a-kind missions, this time to the heart of the asteroid belt: The Dawn mission is being prepared for launch this summer from Kennedy Space Center. Dawn will explore Ceres and Vesta, the two largest known asteroids in our solar system, which lie in the vast expanse between Mars and Jupiter. In the process, the mission will make history on several fronts. Besides being the first spacecraft to orbit a main-belt asteroid and the first to ever orbit two targets after leaving Earth, Dawn will be the first science mission powered by electric ion propulsion, the world's most advanced and efficient space propulsion technology."

3 of 141 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Not the first ion thruster propelled spacecraft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    For decades, we Mac users haven't really given a shit what was happening off in PC land. Every few years we'd hear about a new version of Windows, and we'd glance into the abyss just long enough to remind ourselves of Microsoft's eternal cluelessness. Other than that, I think our closest brush with Windows was Word 6, and that was a decade and a half ago.

    So what makes Windows suddenly relevant to us now? Who are all these "Mac users" clamoring for aberrations like "Macintosh Explorer"? Are these the same "Mac users" on VersionTracker writing glowing reviews of Firefox and Azureus? Who let them in, anyway?

    If you're some sort of tragic square who needs to run Windows, maybe you should have thought of that before you bought a Mac. Sometimes I wonder if it wouldn't be better to just round up these so-called "Mac users" and send them all on trains to Redmond.

  2. please help by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    my mom has a myspace page....which is like soooo embarrassing!!!! please troll her into getting rid of it....thanks

                                                                                                                                    http://www.myspace.com/amandagrashel

    alex

  3. i think i can by phrostie · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    i think i can, i think i can, i think i can

    seriously, this very cool.
    +5 points to JPL