NASA revives mission to explore huge asteroids

0 Comments | AFP, March, 2006

WASHINGTON (AFP) — NASA revived a project to send a probe to explore two of the solar system's biggest asteroids, nearly four weeks after the Dawn mission had been cancelled due to cost overruns and technical glitches.

The probe would travel to the huge Vesta and Ceres asteroids orbiting the sun between Mars and Jupiter, the US space agency said.

The mission, named Dawn because it was designed to study objects from the early days of the solar system, would use an electric propulsion system and orbit multiple objects.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration decided to reinstate the mission after the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the agency in charge of the mission, called for Dawn's revival.

"We revisited a number of technical and financial...