Welcome to the Dawn Mission!

Dawn's goal is to characterize the conditions and processes of the solar system's earliest epoch by investigating in detail two of the largest protoplanets remaining intact since their formations. Ceres and Vesta reside in the extensive zone between Mars and Jupiter together with many other smaller bodies, called the asteroid belt. Each has followed a very different evolutionary path constrained by the diversity of processes that operated during the first few million years of solar system evolution.

Overview + Mission Objectives + Vesta Planning + Dawn Launch + Description of    mission (PDF 230 KB) + Connection to E/PO		Dawn News + Mission Status Update + Dawn Journal + Dawn's Early Light + Dawn E-News		Mission Multimedia + Where is Dawn? + Mission Video + Introduction to Dawn     (QT 1.9 MB) + More Multimedia		Ion Propulsion + About Ion Propulsion + Ion Propulsion    Simulation + Ion Propulsion Content    Module for HS