Ceres to get some love

[Alidar Jarok]

Link

Located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, Ceres is the largest unexplored space rock in the inner solar system. But that distinction ends Friday, when NASA's Dawn spacecraft arrives after nearly an eight-year journey, which included a stopover at the asteroid Vesta.

...

THE IDENTITY CRISIS

Located about 250 million miles from the sun, Ceres was deemed a comet when it was first discovered. Then it was promoted to a planet and later downgraded to an asteroid. Since 2006, it has been classified as a dwarf planet like Pluto, the one-time ninth planet. Dwarf planets are spherical in shape like planets, but they share the same celestial neighborhood with other similar-sized objects.

THE BRIGHT SPOTS

Ceres — with a diameter of about 600 miles — is thought to have a rocky core surrounded by an icy mantle. Long ago it might have harbored an underground ocean. As Dawn approached Ceres, it spotted a pair of puzzling bright spots inside a crater. Scientists think the shiny dots may be exposed ice or salt.

Ceres was a planet before Pluto and demoted from a planet along time ago. The creation of the Dwarf Planet elevated its status back up. I'd like to see it get a little more love. Maybe it'll never get as much attention as Pluto, but I think it should be in the same category.

 

[Christopher]

^Ohh, once we get into colonizing space, Ceres is going to get enormously more attention than Pluto. It's believed to have more fresh water in its icy crust than exists on the entire Earth. And it'll be easier for space colonies to get their water from the asteroids than to haul it up out of Earth's powerful gravity well. Ceres's ice could become the most precious resource in the Solar System.

 

[Timewalker]

Link

Located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, Ceres is the largest unexplored space rock in the inner solar system. But that distinction ends Friday, when NASA's Dawn spacecraft arrives after nearly an eight-year journey, which included a stopover at the asteroid Vesta.

...

THE IDENTITY CRISIS

Located about 250 million miles from the sun, Ceres was deemed a comet when it was first discovered. Then it was promoted to a planet and later downgraded to an asteroid. Since 2006, it has been classified as a dwarf planet like Pluto, the one-time ninth planet. Dwarf planets are spherical in shape like planets, but they share the same celestial neighborhood with other similar-sized objects.

THE BRIGHT SPOTS

Ceres — with a diameter of about 600 miles — is thought to have a rocky core surrounded by an icy mantle. Long ago it might have harbored an underground ocean. As Dawn approached Ceres, it spotted a pair of puzzling bright spots inside a crater. Scientists think the shiny dots may be exposed ice or salt.

Ceres was a planet before Pluto and demoted from a planet along time ago. The creation of the Dwarf Planet elevated its status back up. I'd like to see it get a little more love. Maybe it'll never get as much attention as Pluto, but I think it should be in the same category.

Several of Ben Bova's novels in his Grand Tour series take place on or near Ceres, during the story arc involving the Asteroid Wars. It'll be interesting to see how much of Bova's stories turn out to be outdated as far as the science goes (he really is a scientist as well as a science fiction writer, so his stories are usually more plausible than most SF stories).

 

[Christopher]

Several of Ben Bova's novels in his Grand Tour series take place on or near Ceres, during the story arc involving the Asteroid Wars. It'll be interesting to see how much of Bova's stories turn out to be outdated as far as the science goes (he really is a scientist as well as a science fiction writer, so his stories are usually more plausible than most SF stories).

The featured organization in my novel Only Superhuman is based on a habitat orbiting Ceres, so I'm a little concerned about the risk of contradiction myself. Dawn reached Vesta in time for me to incorporate some of its findings before publication, but with Ceres I'm just holding my breath and hoping. So far, though, things are looking good. My novel included the following passage:

The sunlit side of the dwarf planet was a dusty gray, except for the bright glints where craters or mining operations had exposed fresh ice beneath.

So far, so good.

 

[Silvercrest]

Ceres was a planet before Pluto and demoted from a planet along time ago ... I'd like to see it get a little more love. Maybe it'll never get as much attention as Pluto, but I think it should be in the same category.

Now I've got this crazy image in my head of Ceres (demoted to asteroid) singing to the probe, "DAWWWN, go away, I'm no good for you!"

 

[Crazy Eddie]

Ceres was a planet before Pluto and demoted from a planet along time ago ... I'd like to see it get a little more love. Maybe it'll never get as much attention as Pluto, but I think it should be in the same category.

Now I've got this crazy image in my head of Ceres (demoted to asteroid) singing to the probe, "DAWWWN, go away, I'm no good for you!"

 

[Metryq]

Good one, Crazy Eddie. There are many who will always consider Pluto a planet "because that's how I learned it as a child." Such people might be jumping off cliffs if Pluto is later "demoted" to minor planet or comet. Pluto does sweep in and out of Neptune's orbit, but then that should "demote" Neptune to something "less" than planet for not clearing out the area of its orbit.

 

[Christopher]

What labels you stick on these objects are the least important possible aspect of their study, so I wish people would stop dwelling on that and just pay attention to the important discoveries.

 

[Metryq]

What labels you stick on these objects are the least important possible aspect of their study, so I wish people would stop dwelling on that and just pay attention to the important discoveries.

That's my take, as well. I just felt like being snarky because some people have made an awful stink about Pluto's reclassification.

Still, labels tend to imply certain attributes. Despite numerous up-close missions to comets (including sample return, and the recent Rosetta mission to 67P), almost every press release reiterates the idea that they are "dirty snowballs that seeded Earth's oceans."

 

[Crazy Eddie]

Still, labels tend to imply certain attributes. Despite numerous up-close missions to comets (including sample return, and the recent Rosetta mission to 67P), almost every press release reiterates the idea that they are "dirty snowballs that seeded Earth's oceans."

Which is the kind of mistake that is usually caught by fact checkers, if and when newspapers and/or wire services actually bother to fact check science news.

 

[JES]

^Ohh, once we get into colonizing space, Ceres is going to get enormously more attention than Pluto. It's believed to have more fresh water in its icy crust than exists on the entire Earth. And it'll be easier for space colonies to get their water from the asteroids than to haul it up out of Earth's powerful gravity well. Ceres's ice could become the most precious resource in the Solar System.

Agreed. Whoever manages to set up a mining company there is going to be extremely wealthy.

And asteroids themselves also have tons of valuable minerals that can be mined, and be worth trillions.

I don't think it is a stretch to say that asteroid mining companies will become the oil companies in the coming centuries.

 

[publiusr]

Some speculation of Ceres:
http://nextbigfuture.com/2015/03/liquid-water-possible-non-earth-life.html

O/T a delightful old space book
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=36985.0
Liquid metal robots.
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Liquid_Metal_Robots_Are_Almost_Here_999.html

I wonder if something like that--as weak as it might be here on Earth, might expand into artificial arteries on Ceres, flowing more valuable bits back via stream.

Titan may be better, however--plenty of high test--just bring LOX, or get it from ice.
http://nextbigfuture.com/2015/03/best-colonization-target-in-outer-solar.html

Fuel friendly.