occultation data from 29 May 1978. In 1980, speckle interferometry suggested a much larger satellite, whose existence was later refuted a few years later with occultation data. Exploration Pallas itself has never been visited by spacecraft. Proposals have been made in the past though none have come to fruition. A flyby of the Dawn probe's visits to 4 Vesta and 1 Ceres was discussed but was not possible due to the high orbital inclination of Pallas. The proposed Athena SmallSat mission would have been launched in 2022 as a secondary payload of the Psyche mission and travel on separate trajectory to a flyby encounter with 2 Pallas, though was not funded due to being outcompeted by other mission concepts such as the Transorbital Trailblazer Lunar Orbiter. The authors of the proposal cited Pallas as the "largest unexplored" protoplanet with the main belt. Gallery See also Objects formerly considered planets Notes References External links Pallas at Encyclopædia Britannica, Edward F. Tedesco 000002 Discoveries by Heinrich Olbers Named minor planets 000002 000002 000002 000002 18020328 18020328