September 27, 2007—NASA today launched the DAWN spacecraft on a mission to study an asteroid and a dwarf planet. 

The unmanned probe will orbit the asteroid Vesta, and then scoot off to examine Ceres, which is a dwarf planet in the same class as recently demoted Pluto. DAWN will get from here to there by using an ion engine. The idea is to give an electric charge to xenon gas on board the vehicle, which "ionizes" the gas and those particles stream out at twenty five miles a second to propel DAWN to its destinations.

Science lesson over.

However, over the years, I’ve noticed a few ideas that were popularized on the Star Trek television series and movies that have wound up being related to experiments on the Space Shuttle or other NASA spacecraft. Hardcore fans of the series will remember the episode where aliens stole Spock’s brain (not the series shining moment). Anyway, the "bad guys" used a spaceship with an ion engine. No doubt the writers of the show meant it to be faster than DAWN's propulsion system.

Perhaps the most notable "Trek" related experiment was when Space Shuttle Discovery blasted off in 1998 to look for "anti matter". Yes, the same stuff that the fictitious U.S.S. Enterprise used as fuel to fly to "where no one has gone before". During a pre-launch press conference, I asked mission commander Charlie Precourt if he watched Kirk and Spock on TV as a kid, and he responded with a resounding "yes!" And he’s not alone among Astronauts who derived inspiration from the science fiction series.

Another connection can be found on the polo shirts NASA staffers currently wear with the logo of the new "Orion" crew exploration vehicle, which will replace the Space Shuttle around 2015. The logo with three stars streaming away from a blue Earth was designed by Michael Okuda. He created many of the sets, props, and spaceships for the "Star Trek" TV series and films.

Live long and prosper!

Photos courtesy of NASA and Paramount Pictures