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New Horizons

New Horizons67 posts

New Horizons is an interplanetary space probe that was launched in January 2006 on a NASA mission to study Pluto, its moons and the Kuiper Belt, performing flybys of Jupiter and its moons. The probe was built by Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) and the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI).

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29 Nov, 2001

Mission approved

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NASA selects the New Horizons proposal from Southwest Research Institute for a mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt System. Director of SRI space studies:

We’ll be exploring frontier worlds near the edge of the planetary system. This mission is likely to rewrite textbooks regarding the origin of the planets, the nature of the outer solar system, and even the origin of primitive materials that may have played a role in the development of life.

21 Feb, 2002

Faster arrival

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As the New Horizons team studies the mission and their launch window, they realize that they can get the probe to Pluto a year earlier than anticipated.

This [is] a great opportunity to improve our scientific return while reducing mission risks and costs. We’ll get a better look at Pluto itself, since more of the surface will be sunlit and the atmosphere will be another year away from freezing onto the planet’s surface. We’ll have more fuel for the journey into the Kuiper Belt after exploring Pluto-Charon, and the shorter cruise time reduces some of the costs associated with flight operations.

16 May, 2002

Passes first review

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The mission passes its first major review by technical experts who say that it is on track.

The Systems Requirements Review confirmed that New Horizons is making progress on spacecraft and scientific instrument design, and that we are ready to proceed toward the mission confirmation reviews that NASA is requesting.

24 Oct, 2002

Passes second review

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The team completes its second major system-level evaluation. Experts study the mission plan and spacecraft design and conclude that the project is ready to proceed. Review panel:

New Horizons has validated its preliminary design and the team can move ahead with more detailed design activities.

20 Feb, 2003

Funding approved

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After a hard political battle, President Bush signs an omnibus bill which includes $110 million in initial funding for NASA’s New Horizons mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt System. The funding allows the team to proceed with the final design of the probe.

It’s like the old days. We are going to the frontier. We’re going back to the roots of the space program.

9 Apr, 2003

Construction authorized

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After NASA’s team of experts conducted a detailed, in-depth review of every facet of the mission plans and design, they authorize the construction of the New Horizons probe and ground systems.

This is a truly historic step forward. For the first time, NASA is undertaking a mission to explore Pluto-Charon and the distant reaches of the solar system beyond Neptune. This kind of frontier exploration is one of the important ways that NASA and the American space program lead the world. Our team is proud of the authorization NASA has given us to proceed and we’re reminded by the responsibility on our shoulders to make this mission a success.

13 Jun, 2005

Probe shipped

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John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, which built the New Horizons probe, ships it to NASA Goddard Space Flight Center for its next round of pre-launch testing. APL Project manager:

Our testing program is off to a good start. We’ve shown that New Horizons is structurally ready for the ride on the launch vehicle, and now we’ll test it in the full range of conditions it would face on the voyage to Pluto, Pluto’s moon, Charon, and beyond.

19 Oct, 2005

Payload ready

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New Horizons Payload-FULLThe payload of seven science instruments completes its last major preparations for flight.

Although the hard work on the instrument development and testing is over, the work never stops. We’ll only stop worrying once we’ve achieved full mission success, but we’re thrilled that the payload is ready for flight…The New Horizons payload is a remarkably compact, but powerful suite of instruments that will revolutionize our knowledge of Pluto, its large moon Charon and bodies farther out in the Kuiper Belt.

The instruments include:

Alice, an ultraviolet imaging spectrometer that will probe the atmospheric composition and structure of Pluto.

Ralph, a visible and infrared camera that will obtain high-resolution color maps and surface composition maps of the surfaces of Pluto and Charon.

LORRI, or Long Range Reconnaissance Imager, will image Pluto’s surface at football-field sized resolution, resolving features as small approximately 50 yards across.

SWAP, or Solar Wind Around Pluto, will measure charged particles from the solar wind near Pluto to determine whether it has a magnetosphere and how fast its atmosphere is escaping.

PEPSSI, or Pluto Energetic Particle Spectrometer Science Investigation, will search for neutral atoms that escape the planet’s atmosphere and subsequently become charged by their interaction with the solar wind.

SDC, or Student Dust Counter, will count and measure the masses of dust particles along the spacecraft’s entire trajectory, covering regions of interplanetary space never before sampled.

REX, or Radio Science EXperiment, a circuit board containing sophisticated electronics that has been integrated with the spacecraft’s radio telecommunications system, will study Pluto’s atmospheric structure, surface thermal properties, and make measurements of the mass of Pluto and Charon and KBOs.

17 Jan, 2006

Launch delayed

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NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, tucked snugly atop its Atlas 5 rocket, was unable to launch on Jan. 17, 2006 due to high winds at its Cape Canaveral Air Force Station launch site.Just two minutes and 42 seconds before the booster engines are to fire, flight controllers halt the launch of the New Horizons probe due to high ground winds which may compromise the safety of the launch. NASA:

We chose not to launch today because the ground winds were just a bit too high. The wind limit at the pad is 33 knots [and] we have exceeded that limit several times today.

18 Jan, 2006

Launch delayed again

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Severe storms knock out power to the New Horizons mission control center at John Hopkins University in Maryland. Although they have backup power, the team wants to be sure they have enough backup before proceeding with critical operations like launching and early flight operations. They decide to delay the launch for the following day.

We’ve been working on this for 17 years so I don’t think a couple of days are going to hurt us.

19 Jan, 2006

Launch successful

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The Atlas V rocket with the New Horizons probe is launched successfully. After 44 minutes and 53 seconds it separates from its solid-fuel kick motor. Five minutes later mission control receives the first signals from the probe that all is well. The fastest probe ever launched is hurtling through space at 36,000 mph on its three billion journey to Pluto. NASA:

Today, NASA began an unprecedented journey of exploration to the ninth planet in the solar system. Right now, what we know about Pluto could be written on the back of a postage stamp. After this mission, we’ll be able to fill textbooks with new information.

28 Jan, 2006

Course correction

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New Horizons performs its first trajectory correction maneuver by firing its thrusters for four minutes 36 seconds to begin bringing it on a path to rendezvous with Jupiter where it will get a gravity assist to speed it on its way to Pluto.

30 Jan, 2006

Second course correction

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New Horizons fires its thrusters for twelve minutes to refine its trajectory toward Jupiter. It is 11.9 million km (7.4 million miles) from Earth.

Everything performed as planned. New Horizons has to fly through a precise aim point near Jupiter to get to Pluto on time and on target, and these maneuvers are putting us on the right path.

9 Mar, 2006

Third course correction

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The probe fires its thrusters again for 76 seconds in order to perfect its path toward Jupiter. It is 51.7 million km (32.1 million miles) from Earth traveling at 37.5 km (23.3 miles) per second.

29 Mar, 2006

Payload passes tests

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Space controllers have tested science instruments on board and confirm that all instruments survived the launch and are working properly.

The instruments are sending back a lot of housekeeping data that says they’re working the way they’re supposed to. The mission science team is just beaming to know that the entire payload survived the stresses of launch in good health.

7 Apr, 2006

Crosses Mars’ orbit

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The probe passes Mars’ orbit. It is now 93.5 million km (58.1 million miles) from Earth traveling at 21 km (13 miles) per second relative to the sun.

13 Jun, 2006

Tracks asteroid

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The two "spots" in this image are a composite of two images of asteroid 2002 JF56 taken on June 11 and June 12, 2006, with the Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC) component of the New Horizons Ralph imager. In the bottom image, taken when the asteroid was about 3.36 million kilometers (2.1 million miles) away from the spacecraft, 2002 JF56 appears like a dim star. At top, taken at a distance of about 1.34 million kilometers (833,000 miles), the object is more than a factor of six brighter. The best current, estimated diameter of the asteroid is approximately 2.5 kilometers. In order to test its tracking and imaging capabilities, the probe tracks and photographs asteroid 2002 JF56 in the asteroid belt coming to within 102,000 km. The asteroid is about 2.5 km in diameter.

The asteroid observation was a flight test, a chance for us to test the spacecraft’s ability to track a rapidly moving object and to refine our sequencing process. The objects we will observe this winter in the Jupiter system will appear to be moving across the sky much more slowly than this asteroid, so these observations were an unexpected opportunity to prepare for the even faster tracking rates we’ll experience in summer 2015, when the spacecraft zips through the Pluto system at more than 31,000 miles per hour.

The probe is now 283 million km (176 million miles) from Earth traveling at 27 km (17 miles) per second relative to the sun.

4 Sep, 2006

Jupiter images

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The Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) on NASA's New Horizons spacecraft took this photo of Jupiter on Sept. 4, 2006, from a distance of 291 million kilometers (nearly 181 million miles) away. New Horizons probe takes its first pictures of Jupiter with its Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) from 291 million km (181 million miles) away.

LORRI’s first Jupiter image is all we could have expected. We see belts, zones and large storms in Jupiter’s atmosphere. We see the Jovian moons Io and Europa, as well as the shadows they cast on Jupiter. It is most gratifying to detect these moons against the glare from Jupiter.