The Dawn probe is outfitted with ion thrusters that allow it to exit and enter asteroid orbits. This is how it became the first probe ever to orbit two different bodies. (Previous missions like Voyager 2 involved flybys rather than orbits.) There’s a limited amount of fuel left in the probe, but the team believes it’s enough to visit one last asteroid body.
Part of the problem with a Ceres landing is that the probe wasn’t sterilized prior to launch, and since then, the picture of Ceres as a past or present “ocean world” has emerged, so an end-of-mission needs to make sure the probe can’t contaminate the small world.
The potential target hasn’t been announced yet, as it still awaits approval by NASA. Principal investigator Chris Russell said he hopes the decision doesn’t take months. In the meantime, though, there’s still plenty to learn from Ceres, including figuring out what caused a series of bright salt deposits across the surface of the dwarf planet.
