Dawn: Visiting Vesta and Ceres

Students follow NASA's Dawn mission from its 2007 launch through a Mars gravity assist, its orbit of Vesta (2011 to 2012) and its orbit of Ceres (2015 to 2018), learning how ion engines work, what Dawn discovered, and why the spacecraft was left as a silent satellite of Ceres.

Grades 5-8About 15 minutes of narrated flight, plus discussion stops9 stops

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What students will see and do

Students fly from Earth to a solar system overview, to Mars, to Vesta (three stops) and to Ceres (three stops). Aetherion pauses for discussion above the solar system (how a tiny ion engine push builds huge speed over time), at Vesta (how meteorites were matched to Vesta and the Rheasilvia impact) and at Ceres (why the team protected Ceres from contamination at mission end).

Learning objectives

• Explain how an ion engine produces a very small push that adds up to a large change in speed over time.
• Describe how a gravity assist at Mars helped Dawn reach the asteroid belt.
• Compare what Dawn discovered at Vesta, including the Rheasilvia basin, with what it discovered at Ceres.
• Explain how the mission ended and why Dawn was left in a stable orbit around Ceres.

NGSS connections

Stops on this journey

1. Launch from Florida
2. The Gentle Push of Ion Engines (discussion stop)
3. A Boost from Mars
4. Arriving at Vesta
5. The Giant Rheasilvia Basin (discussion stop)
6. Problems and Clever Fixes
7. A Second World: Ceres
8. Swooping Low
9. A Silent Guardian (discussion stop)

Vocabulary

• ion engine
• xenon
• gravity assist
• orbit
• reaction wheel
• impact basin
• dwarf planet
• planetary protection