NASA's Dawn spacecraft is now in approach mode as it hones in on Ceres, a dwarf planet. Dawn launched in 2007 and is scheduled to arrive on the planet on March 6, 2015.
Dawn was in solar conjuncture, which is when the spacecraft is on the opposite side of the sun, according to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. That position limited communication with Earth. Dawn is now in position to maintain communication with mission controllers, who will program the tactics for the next phase: the Ceres approach phase.
Dawn is currently about 400,000 miles from Ceres and travelling at 450 miles per hour.
Dawn will be the first spacecraft to visit the Texas-sized planet, according to JPL, and its arrival will be the first time a spacecraft has orbited two solar system targets. (Dawn examined the protoplanet Vesta from 2011 to 2012).
"Ceres is almost a complete mystery to us," said Dawn mission principal investigator Christopher Russell, who is based at the University of California in Los Angeles. "Ceres, unlike Vesta, has no meteorites linked to it to help reveal its secrets. All we can predict with confidence is that we will be surprised."
"Orbiting both Vesta and Ceres would be truly impossible with conventional propulsion. Thanks to ion propulsion, we're about to make history as the first spaceship ever to orbit two unexplored alien worlds," said Marc Rayman, Dawn's chief engineer and mission director.
