Tag Archives: New Horizons

Hazy Pluto

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Flowing ice and a surprising extended haze are among the newest discoveries from NASA’s New Horizons mission, which reveal distant Pluto to be an icy world of wonders. “We knew that a mission to Pluto would bring some surprises, and now — 10 days after closest approach — we can say that our expectation has been more than surpassed,” said John Grunsfeld, NASA’s associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate. “With flowing ices, exotic surface chemistry, mountain ranges, and vast haze, Pluto is showing a diversity of planetary geology that is truly thrilling.” Just seven hours after closest approach, New Horizons aimed its Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) back at Pluto, capturing sunlight streaming through the atmosphere and revealing hazes as high as 80 miles (130 kilometers) above Pluto’s surface. A preliminary analysis of the image shows two distinct layers of haze — one about 50 miles (80 kilometers) above the surface and the other at an altitude of about … Continue reading →

New Horizons Encounter With Pluto

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As the New Horizons probe passes by dwarf planet Pluto and its satellites on July 14th, it will use a host of instruments to collect data. The following is the sequence of events for the flyby: On approach, LORRI takes critical optical navigation images to confirm the spacecraft is on the right course for the flyby.  The team can use these data to adjust timing of the observation sequence as late as July 12. Final radio transmission prior to closest approach is received at ~11:15pm EDT on July 13. During the flyby on July 14, LORRI will take high-resolution B/W images, Ralph / MVIC will make color maps, and Ralph / LEISA will image the system in the infrared, all of which will help determine the geology and composition of the surface. Closest approach to Pluto is at 7:49:57 a.m. EDT on July 14. Approximately one hour after closest approach, at 8:51am EDT on July 14, the spacecraft will turn around and, with Pluto between it and the … Continue reading →

New Horizons Pluto Mission Recovered from Anomaly

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NASA’s New Horizon’s mission, scheduled to flyby dwarf planet Pluto and its moons on July 14th, suffered an anomaly on July 4th, causing a temporary loss of communications with the spacecraft. No images were scheduled to be taken during the down-time, and science data collection was only minimally affected. From a John Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory Press Release: The recovery from a July 4 anomaly that sent the New Horizons spacecraft into safe mode is proceeding according to plan, with the mission team preparing to return to normal science operations on time on July 7. Mission managers reported during a July 6 media teleconference that NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft resumed operations on its main computer overnight. The sequence of commands for the Pluto flyby have now been uplinked to the spacecraft, and full, as-planned science observations of Pluto, its moons and the solar winds will resume at 12:34 p.m. EDT July 7. The quick response to the weekend computer glitch … Continue reading →

New Horizons Returns First Color Image of Pluto and Charon

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This image of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, was taken on April 9th by the Ralph color imager aboard NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, and downloaded to Earth the following day. The image was taken from a distance of about 115 million kilometers (71 million miles) – about the distance from the Sun to Venus. This is the first color image ever taken of the Pluto-charon system by a robotic spacecraft on approach. The image is a preliminary reconstruction, to be further processed later by the New Horizons science team. Although blurry at this distance, distinct differences can be seen between the two bodies. The resolution will continue to improve as New Horizons approaches Pluto for its flyby on July 14, 2015. The data rate from New Horizons will be very low at its great distance – it will take months for all the data to be completely downloaded. Source: http://pluto.jhuapl.edu

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In Praise of Flyby Missions, Part One

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I was chatting with a friend in an online forum when the subject of Pluto came up. He is quite knowledgeable about spaceflight, but has not followed the New Horizons mission closely. My friend expressed disappointment at learning that New Horizons was a flyby, not an orbiter, and would only spend a few hours in close proximity to Pluto and its moons. I suppose that he may have in mind all the spacecraft which, in the last decade or so, have been orbiting other planets. There’s Cassini circling Saturn, Messenger circling Mercury, and whole fleets of Venus and Mars orbiters, to say nothing of the multiple rovers on the surface of Mars. We’ve also seen probes orbiting several asteroids and the Moon. Perhaps he’s accustomed to the luxury of images and other scientific results streaming constantly Earthward. At irregular intervals, scientists hold a press conference and show us another planetary wonder or two. Pluto’s different. It’s never been visited, and … Continue reading →

New Horizons Spacecraft Wakes Up for Pluto Encounter

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NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has come out of hibernation for the last time on 6 Dec. 2014. Between now and then, while the Pluto-bound probe enjoys three more weeks of electronic slumber, work on Earth is well under way to prepare the spacecraft for a six-month encounter with the dwarf planet that begins in January. “New Horizons is healthy and cruising quietly through deep space – nearly three billion miles from home – but its rest is nearly over,” says Alice Bowman, New Horizons mission operations manager at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md. “It’s time for New Horizons to wake up, get to work, and start making history.” Since launching in January 2006, New Horizons has spent 1,873 days in hibernation – about two-thirds of its flight time – spread over 18 separate hibernation periods from mid-2007 to late 2014 that ranged from 36 days to 202 days long. In hibernation mode much of … Continue reading →

New Worlds in 2015: Missions to Ceres and Pluto

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Among the spacecraft now exploring the solar system are two that, if all goes well, will give us our first close-range views of distant worlds. Having orbited Vesta for over a year, then departed, NASA’s Dawn spacecraft is presently cruising through the asteroid belt for a rendezvous with the largest asteroid, Ceres. In April, Dawn’s ion-propulsion thrusters will ease it into orbit, beginning a prolonged campaign to study Ceres. The low density of the 950-km-diameter asteroid suggests that it may contain frozen water in abundance. It may be a specimen, or at least a relative, of the kind of protoplanets that merged long ago to form the major planets. As for Vesta, previous explanations of its nature do not match the wealth of new data on its geochemical composition. Following Dawn’s extended visit, studies of Vesta and similar bodies are entering a new era. Meanwhile, the New Horizons spacecraft is nearing its own target, Pluto. Launched by the U.S. in … Continue reading →