Question 1

True or false: Dawn discovered bright spots on Ceres that are made of salt deposits.

Accepted Answer

True. Those bright spots in Occator Crater are sodium carbonate salts, possibly from briny water.

Question 2

True or false: Dawn used nuclear power because solar panels wouldn't work that far from the Sun.

Accepted Answer

False. Dawn used solar panels, not nuclear power. It was a pioneering mission with ion thrusters.

Question 3

True or false: Dawn was the first spacecraft to orbit two different extraterrestrial bodies.

Accepted Answer

True. Dawn orbited Vesta (2011-2012) and Ceres (2015-2018), a unique dual-orbit mission.

Question 4

True or false: Dawn ended its mission by crashing into the surface of Vesta.

Accepted Answer

False. Dawn ended its mission in a controlled, fuel-depleted orbit around Ceres, not by crashing into Vesta.

Question 5

True or false: Dawn revealed that Ceres has a subsurface ocean of liquid water.

Accepted Answer

True. Data suggests a brine reservoir beneath Ceres' crust, possibly a relic ocean.

Question 6

True or false: Dawn was the first NASA mission to use ion propulsion as its primary engine.

Accepted Answer

True. Before Dawn, Deep Space 1 tested ion propulsion, but Dawn was the first to rely on it entirely.

Question 7

True or false: Dawn's ion engine could accelerate the spacecraft to over 100,000 mph.

Accepted Answer

False. Ion thrusters are efficient but slow. Dawn's top speed was about 25,000 mph, not 100,000.

Question 8

True or false: Dawn took over 10 years to travel from Earth to the asteroid belt.

Accepted Answer

False. Dawn launched in 2007, reached Vesta in 2011, and Ceres in 2015—about 8 years total.

Dawn spacecraft Trivia Questions