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 was the first spacecraft to orbit two extraterrestrial bodies.

Accepted Answer

True. Dawn orbited the asteroid Vesta from 2011 to 2012 and the dwarf planet Ceres from 2015 to 2018, making it the first mission to orbit two distinct celestial targets.

Question 3

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 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 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 6

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 7

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.

Question 8

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.

Dawn spacecraft Trivia Questions