PASADENA, Calif., March 22 (UPI) -- NASA says the instruments on its Dawn spacecraft, headed for a rendezvous with an asteroid, have been awakened after a six-month hibernation.
The reactivation prepares the instruments for the May approach and July arrival at the asteroid Vesta, Dawn's first destination in the asteroid belt, a NASA release said Tuesday.
"Last week, we gently 'woke up' Dawn's three science instruments, which typically spend most of their time sleeping during the 3 1/2-year journey to Vesta," said Robert Mase, Dawn project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
"This activity confirms that Dawn is on track for the first close examination of one of the last unexplored worlds of the inner solar system."
The instruments being activated included a camera, a spectrometer, and a gamma ray and neutron detector to study the asteroid's composition.
The camera will help navigate the spacecraft to its rendezvous with Vesta so that other instruments on board can begin analyzing and measuring the asteroid, NASA said.
