{"id":134,"date":"2024-11-09T23:51:44","date_gmt":"2024-11-10T04:51:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.stgeorges.bc.ca\/timd\/?p=134"},"modified":"2025-02-11T12:18:57","modified_gmt":"2025-02-11T17:18:57","slug":"project-ceres-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.stgeorges.bc.ca\/timd\/2024\/11\/09\/project-ceres-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Project Ceres Ep. 1: Planning and Research"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This new project tasked me, as well as my two partners Matthew<\/a> and Josh<\/a>, to create a vehicle that will travel 5 kilometers in total to and back two points on the surface of any planet or celestial body of our choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After careful consideration and thorough debate, we decide to pick Ceres, a dwarf planet in the asteroid belt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First found in 1801 by Italian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi, Ceres is the largest object in between Mars and Jupiter, making up 25% of our asteroid belt’s mass. It’s on average 413 million kilometers from the Sun, and one day on Ceres lasts about 9 hours. Additionally, being the only dwarf planet in the inner solar system, it has a radius of 476 kilometers, about 1\/13 of Earth’s radius. Ceres’ also has a very thin atmosphere, with no evidence of a magnetosphere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The majority of humanity’s knowledge surrounding Ceres came from the Dawn space probe, which orbited and studied Ceres from 2015-2018. One of it’s biggest accomplishments was discovering bright spots on the surface formed by reflective salts left behind when underground water evaporates on planets. Because some of the salt on the surface were detected to not yet have completely evaporated, scientists concluded that there was likely liquid salt water under Ceres’ surface. Dawn also found that Ceres’ interior materials were similar to those found in other terrestrial planets, featuring a mantle of water ice with up to 25% water content. If this statistic is true, it would mean that Ceres has more water in total than Earth!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Artists impression of Dawn in orbit around Ceres. Source: NASA<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

–<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why Ceres?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

My group chose Ceres for our project due to its extremely low gravity, water sources, and ideal location. We figured that, in the future, if humans want to explore the outer solar system, we would need a base or rest stop to refuel rockets and replenish resources. Mars is often considered for this purpose, but we believe it may not be the best choice. Mars\u2019 strong gravity and relatively dense atmosphere would require substantial fuel for reentry into space, using up valuable resources on board spacecraft. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ceres’ low gravity and almost nonexistent atmosphere make it an ideal place for “pit stops”. It’s low gravity means it will take very little energy to move our vehicle a long distance. Plus, its location within the asteroid belt allows us to use Ceres as a reliable base to store and send back resources found in the belt, such as rare metals like gold and platinum. The abundance of usable water on Ceres can also be converted into rocket fuel through electrolysis, which would create a huge fuel source for our vehicle and other rockets. All these factors make it an excellent candidate to build a base on in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

–<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Potential Challenges<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Of course, wanting to live on a planet so far away comes with its challenges. The two biggest issues my group collectively identifies are the extremely low gravity and limited energy sources. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the low gravity on Ceres is the main aspect we plan to take advantage of to use less energy while moving our vehicle, it also means that when we want equipment or even people to stay still on the surface, it\u2019s quite hard due to how easily things can move. The gravity on the surface of Ceres is only about 3% that of Earth’s. In fact, to demonstrate just how exaggeratingly less powerful the gravity on Ceres is compared to Earth, here is quick simulation showing the same 10 centimeter jump on Earth and on Ceres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simulation done trough: https:\/\/cosmos-book.github.io\/high-jump\/index.html<\/em><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The other major challenge we face is the limited energy sources on Ceres. Although water is present and can be converted into rocket fuel through electrolysis, it could be extremely deep underground or scattered throughout the soil, making it a significant challenge to extract enough to counter the amount being used and actually serve as a reliable fuel source. Ceres is also very far from the Sun \u2014 about twice the distance that Mars is. This makes using solar panels much less efficient, as we would need many more panels, which would be very ineffective given how hard it would be to transport them to Ceres and how much maintenance they would need to stay operational.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

–<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Potential Implications<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Because of the unique properties of Ceres, we will need to make many adjustments to our vehicle\u2019s design to handle the low gravity, scarce power sources, low temperatures, and other challenges we may encounter. For now, my group has decided that our vehicle will need special mechanisms to counter the low gravity, something like an anchor to keep it controlled without drifting or taking too long to stop. It also needs to be weighted down or equipped with stabilizers to prevent tipping while the vehicle slows down. Our vehicle will also need to be highly energy-efficient, using specific materials and movement methods to conserve power. Additionally, we know that temperatures on Ceres can be extremely cold. NASA’s Dawn spacecraft used data from its Visible and InfraRed mapping spectrometer to make a map of dark and bright spots on the surface of Ceres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Example of bright spots on the surface of Ceres caused by asteroid craters. Source: Sci News<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

They found that bright regions usually have lower temperatures compared to dark regions since darker materials absorb more heat. This map of brightness could then be used to estimate the temperature of a region. Scientists found that temperatures at night could reach as low as minus 143\u00b0C on Ceres. Because of this we\u2019ll need heaters to ensure our vehicles machinery functions properly and life support instruments to ensure the vehicle’s operator’s safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Topographic temperature maps of Ceres’ East and West hemispheres. Source: JPL<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

–<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reference list can be accessed here<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

–<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AI Transparency Statement<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

ChatGPT was used to some degree for summarizing articles and condensing past research to be easier to read. No AI generated content was directly included in this article, and all summarized points by AI was looked over to ensure accuracy. Full transcripts of the AI conversations can be viewed here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

–<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This new project tasked me, as well as my two partners Matthew and Josh, to create a vehicle that will travel 5 kilometers in total to and back two points on the surface of any planet or celestial body of our choice. After careful consideration and thorough debate, we decide to pick Ceres, a dwarf […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stgeorges.bc.ca\/timd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stgeorges.bc.ca\/timd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stgeorges.bc.ca\/timd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stgeorges.bc.ca\/timd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stgeorges.bc.ca\/timd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stgeorges.bc.ca\/timd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":182,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stgeorges.bc.ca\/timd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134\/revisions\/182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stgeorges.bc.ca\/timd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stgeorges.bc.ca\/timd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stgeorges.bc.ca\/timd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}