On
January 19, 2006, the New Horizons spacecraft launched from Cape Canaveral,
Florida. The spacecraft, managed by NASA, the Johns Hopkins University Applied
Physics Laboratory, and the Southwest Research Institute, will reach Pluto, its
intended destination on July 14, 2015. This will be the first space mission for
the recently reclassified dwarf planet. The mission is part of NASA’s New
Frontiers program that seeks to explore Pluto, Jupiter, and Venus. A second
spacecraft, Juno, launched in 2011 and will reach Jupiter in July 2016. After
exploring Pluto, the spacecraft will then be re-tasked to explore other objects
in the Kuiper Belt—the group of small rock and metal bodies that are remnants
of the creation of the Solar System. Over the past several weeks, New Horizons
has been sending back the most detailed images of Pluto that we have ever seen.
The New Horizons Spacecraft |
In
February 2007, the spacecraft passed within 1.4 million miles of Jupiter and
performed a test run of New Horizons’ equipment. It spent four months
photographing Jupiter and its moons. The spacecraft studied Jupiter’s atmosphere
and captured some amazing images of the planet’s famed Red Spot. New Horizons
then went into hibernation mode in order to preserve its equipment for the long
trip to Pluto. Mission engineers have periodically awoken the spacecraft in
order to make sure it is running properly. On December 6, 2014, the New
Horizons team began waking up the spacecraft to prepare it for its approach to
Pluto. Since January 2015, the spacecraft has been sending back images of the
dwarf planet. It transmits the images via a radio transmitter and 83 inch
antenna. Full communication between NASA and New Horizons takes over nine
hours. Commands are first tested on simulator, then the New Horizons Mission
Operations Center at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab in
Laurel, Maryland sends them to NASA’s Deep Space Network, headquartered at the
Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The Jet Propulsion
Laboratory then sends instructions from one of three locations around the world
in Bartsow, California, Madrid, Spain, or Canberra, Australia.
Jupiter and its moon Io (as photographed by New Horizons) |
New Horizons
has a lofty set of goals including:
·
Mapping the
surfaces of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon
·
Discovering
the characteristics of Pluto’s atmosphere and whether Charon has one at all
·
Investigating
surface temperatures on Pluto and Charon
·
Looking for
planetary rings around Pluto
·
Exploring
other Kuiper Belt objects
The spacecraft carries two
computer systems one for command and handling of the spacecraft and the other
handles guidance. Photos from the spacecraft come from the Long Range
Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI). Starting in May 2015, LORRI has been able to
provide better images of Pluto than anything from the Hubble telescope. A
single radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) supplied by 24 pounds of
plutonium dioxide powers the entire spacecraft.
Pluto and Charon (June 29, 2015) |
In the past
weeks, New Horizons has sent back some new and revealing images of Pluto. On
July 4, the mission hit a snag. The spacecraft experienced an anomaly and
switched itself into safe mode. The project’s engineers have managed to correct
the problem within the command sequence of the spacecraft. With New Horizons
again operating normally, it should resume sending the best images of Pluto
that mankind has ever seen.
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