KEYUR PATEL: So this is the spacecraft after
it’s separated from the launch vehicle.
We’ll separate from the launch vehicle 60 minutes after launch.
Once the spacecraft has settled down,
that the xenon has de-spun and the rates are steady,
we will deploy the massive solar panels that we have, five on each side.
Each wing of the solar panel is approximately 27 feet long,
and at Earth, they generate about 10 kilowatts of solar power.
At Ceres, where the spacecraft has to work, they generate approximately
a little over 1 kilowatt of power to drive the ion engines.
Here we are moving away from Earth,
and we have three ion engines onboard.
You can see them in there, and only one of them is used at a time.
And they will be used throughout the eight-year life of the mission,
and they’re primarily continuously thrusting.
And they will thrust for over six years,
and that would make it the longest powered flight in space history.
And in fact, here we are with the ion engines on,
and that blue glow that you see coming out of there is exactly
how it would look in space, also.
We carry 425 kilograms of xenon to power those engines and that 425
kilograms will provide us over 10 kilometers per second velocity change.
Here we are arriving at Vesta and we’ll use the same ion engines to get into
orbit around the asteroid, and we will stay there for,
we’ll arrive in August of 2011 and we’ll leave in May of 2012 on our way to
Ceres. And here we are orbiting Vesta,
using the instruments to get the scientific data that we need, that the science
team can analyze to satisfy the science objectives of the mission.
And here we are leaving Vesta, and we’ll use the ion propulsion system to
leave the orbit around Vesta and get to Ceres.