NASA managers got a scare this week when a wayward wrench damaged the Dawn spacecraft. But the mission鈥檚 chief scientist says the damage can be fixed in time for the spacecraft鈥檚 planned 7 July launch.
The Dawn mission aims to visit asteroids Vesta and Ceres in 2011 and 2015, respectively.
The spacecraft has been undergoing preparations for launch at a facility of the Astrotech Space Operations company in Titusville, Florida, a few kilometres from the Cape Canaveral launch pad where it is scheduled to take off on a Delta II rocket.
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But on Monday, an accident damaged one of the spacecraft鈥檚 solar panels. 鈥淎 wrench slipped out of somebody鈥檚 hand and went into the spacecraft,鈥� Christopher Russell, the mission鈥檚 chief scientist at the University of California in Los Angeles, US, told 麻豆传媒.
The wrench hit the back of a solar panel on the spacecraft, creating a tear about 5 centimetres long in the fabric that covers it.
The damage appears to be minor. 鈥淚t didn鈥檛 look like it did any structural damage,鈥� Russell says. 鈥淚nitially we were all alarmed of course, but after some thought and some analysis it does not look like it鈥檚 a problem [for the 7 July launch].鈥�
The tear will be patched up 鈥渁nd we鈥檒l be on our way鈥�, he says, adding that there are extra days available in the launch preparation schedule to deal with such last-minute problems. 鈥淚t has not slowed us down, as far as I can tell.鈥�
Dawn had been slated for launch on 30 June 2007, but delays in assembling the Delta II rocket pushed that to 7 July.
Aside from the wrench accident, final preparations of the spacecraft have been going smoothly. Tests of its instruments have been completed and it has been loaded with xenon fuel for its ion propulsion system.
