![New Horizons on work stand](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/New_Horizons_on_work_stand.jpg)
''New Horizons'' is an
interplanetary space probe that was launched as a part of
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...
's
New Frontiers program
The New Frontiers program is a series of space exploration missions being conducted by NASA with the purpose of furthering the understanding of the Solar System. The program selects medium-class missions which can provide high science returns.
...
.
Engineered by the Johns Hopkins University
Applied Physics Laboratory
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (Applied Physics Laboratory, or APL) is a not-for-profit university-affiliated research center (UARC) in Howard County, Maryland. It is affiliated with Johns Hopkins University and emplo ...
(APL) and the
Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), with a team led by
Alan Stern
Sol Alan Stern (born November 22, 1957) is an American engineer and planetary scientist. He is the principal investigator of the ''New Horizons'' mission to Pluto and the Chief Scientist at Moon Express.
Stern has been involved in 24 suborbita ...
,
the spacecraft was launched in 2006 with the primary mission to perform a
flyby study of the
Pluto
Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the Sun. It is the largest ...
system in 2015, and a secondary mission to fly by and study one or more other
Kuiper belt objects (KBOs) in the decade to follow, which became a mission to
486958 Arrokoth
Arrokoth (minor-planet designation 486958 Arrokoth; provisional designation ), formerly nicknamed Ultima Thule, is a trans-Neptunian object located in the Kuiper belt. Arrokoth became the farthest and most primitive object in the Solar System ...
. It is the
fifth space probe to achieve the
escape velocity
In celestial mechanics, escape velocity or escape speed is the minimum speed needed for a free, non- propelled object to escape from the gravitational influence of a primary body, thus reaching an infinite distance from it. It is typically ...
needed to leave the
Solar System
The Solar System Capitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar ...
.
On January 19, 2006, ''New Horizons'' was launched from
Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) is an installation of the United States Space Force's Space Launch Delta 45, located on Cape Canaveral in Brevard County, Florida.
Headquartered at the nearby Patrick Space Force Base, the statio ...
by an
Atlas V
Atlas V is an expendable launch system and the fifth major version in the Atlas launch vehicle family. It was originally designed by Lockheed Martin, now being operated by United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture between Lockheed Mart ...
rocket
A rocket (from it, rocchetto, , bobbin/spool) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using the surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely fr ...
directly into an Earth-and-solar
escape trajectory with a speed of about . It was the fastest (average speed with respect to Earth) man-made object ever launched from Earth.
It is not the fastest speed recorded for a spacecraft, which as of 2021 is that of the
Parker Solar Probe
The Parker Solar Probe (PSP; previously Solar Probe, Solar Probe Plus or Solar Probe+) is a NASA space probe launched in 2018 with the mission of making observations of the outer corona of the Sun. It will approach to within 9.86 solar radii ...
. After a brief encounter with
asteroid 132524 APL, ''New Horizons'' proceeded to
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but slightly less than one-thousandth t ...
, making its closest approach on February 28, 2007, at a distance of . The Jupiter flyby provided a
gravity assist
In orbital mechanics and aerospace engineering, a gravitational slingshot, gravity assist maneuver, or swing-by is the use of the relative movement (e.g. orbit around the Sun) and gravity of a planet or other astronomical object to alter the p ...
that increased ''New Horizons'' speed; the flyby also enabled a general test of ''New Horizons'' scientific capabilities, returning data about
the planet's atmosphere,
moons
A natural satellite is, in the most common usage, an astronomical body that orbits a planet, dwarf planet, or small Solar System body (or sometimes another natural satellite). Natural satellites are often colloquially referred to as ''moons'' ...
, and
magnetosphere.
Most of the post-Jupiter voyage was spent in
hibernation mode to preserve on-board systems, except for brief annual checkouts. On December 6, 2014, ''New Horizons'' was brought back online for the Pluto encounter, and instrument check-out began. On January 15, 2015, the spacecraft began its approach phase to Pluto.
On July 14, 2015, at 11:49
UTC, it flew above the surface of Pluto,
which at the time was 34 AU from the Sun, making it the first spacecraft to explore the
dwarf planet
A dwarf planet is a small planetary-mass object that is in direct orbit of the Sun, smaller than any of the eight classical planets but still a world in its own right. The prototypical dwarf planet is Pluto. The interest of dwarf planets to ...
.
In August 2016, ''New Horizons'' was reported to have traveled at speeds of more than .
On October 25, 2016, at 21:48 UTC, the last of the recorded data from the Pluto flyby was received from ''New Horizons''.
Having completed its flyby of Pluto,
''New Horizons'' then maneuvered for a flyby of Kuiper belt object
486958 Arrokoth
Arrokoth (minor-planet designation 486958 Arrokoth; provisional designation ), formerly nicknamed Ultima Thule, is a trans-Neptunian object located in the Kuiper belt. Arrokoth became the farthest and most primitive object in the Solar System ...
(then nicknamed ''Ultima Thule''),
which occurred on January 1, 2019,
when it was 43.4
AU from the
Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...
.
In August 2018, NASA cited results by ''
Alice'' on ''New Horizons'' to confirm the existence of a "
hydrogen wall" at the
outer edges of the Solar System. This "wall" was first detected in 1992 by the two
Voyager spacecraft
The Voyager program is an American scientific program that employs two robotic interstellar probes, ''Voyager 1'' and ''Voyager 2''. They were launched in 1977 to take advantage of a favorable alignment of Jupiter and Saturn, to fly near th ...
.
History
![New horizons (NASA)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/New_horizons_%28NASA%29.jpg)
In August 1992,
JPL scientist Robert Staehle called Pluto discoverer
Clyde Tombaugh
Clyde William Tombaugh (February 4, 1906 January 17, 1997) was an American astronomer. He discovered Pluto in 1930, the first object to be discovered in what would later be identified as the Kuiper belt. At the time of discovery, Pluto was cons ...
, requesting permission to visit his planet. "I told him he was welcome to it," Tombaugh later remembered, "though he's got to go one long, cold trip."
The call eventually led to a series of proposed Pluto missions, leading up to ''New Horizons''.
Stamatios "Tom" Krimigis, head of the
Applied Physics Laboratory
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (Applied Physics Laboratory, or APL) is a not-for-profit university-affiliated research center (UARC) in Howard County, Maryland. It is affiliated with Johns Hopkins University and emplo ...
's space division, one of many entrants in the New Frontiers Program competition, formed the ''New Horizons'' team with Alan Stern in December 2000. Appointed as the project's
principal investigator
In many countries, the term principal investigator (PI) refers to the holder of an independent grant and the lead researcher for the grant project, usually in the sciences, such as a laboratory study or a clinical trial. The phrase is also often us ...
, Stern was described by Krimigis as "the personification of the Pluto mission".
''New Horizons'' was based largely on Stern's work since ''Pluto 350'' and involved most of the team from ''Pluto Kuiper Express''.
[ Stern, Alan; ]
The ''New Horizons'' proposal was one of five that were officially submitted to NASA. It was later selected as one of two finalists to be subject to a three-month concept study, in June 2001. The other finalist, POSSE (Pluto and Outer Solar System Explorer), was a separate, but similar Pluto mission concept by the
University of Colorado Boulder
The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado sy ...
, led by principal investigator
Larry W. Esposito, and supported by the JPL,
Lockheed Martin and the
University of California
The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Franci ...
.
However, the APL, in addition to being supported by ''Pluto Kuiper Express'' developers at the Goddard Space Flight Center and
Stanford University,
were at an advantage; they had recently developed ''
NEAR Shoemaker
''Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous – Shoemaker'' (''NEAR Shoemaker''), renamed after its 1996 launch in honor of planetary scientist Eugene Shoemaker, was a robotic space probe designed by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Labora ...
'' for NASA, which had successfully entered orbit around
433 Eros earlier that year, and would later land on the asteroid to scientific and engineering fanfare.
In November 2001, ''New Horizons'' was officially selected for funding as part of the New Frontiers program. However, the new NASA Administrator appointed by the
Bush Administration,
Sean O'Keefe
Sean Charles O'Keefe (born January 27, 1956) is a university professor at Syracuse University Maxwell School, former chairman of Airbus Group, Inc., former Secretary of the Navy, former Administrator of NASA, and former chancellor of Louisiana ...
, was not supportive of ''New Horizons'', and effectively cancelled it by not including it in NASA's budget for 2003. NASA's Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate
Ed Weiler prompted Stern to lobby for the funding of ''New Horizons'' in hopes of the mission appearing in the
Planetary Science Decadal Survey
The Planetary Science Decadal Survey is a publication of the United States National Research Council produced for NASA and other United States Government Agencies such as the National Science Foundation.National Academy of Sciences, National Acade ...
; a prioritized "wish list", compiled by the
United States National Research Council
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (also known as NASEM or the National Academies) are the collective scientific national academy of the United States. The name is used interchangeably in two senses: (1) as an umbrel ...
, that reflects the opinions of the scientific community.
After an intense campaign to gain support for ''New Horizons'', the Planetary Science Decadal Survey of 2003–2013 was published in the summer of 2002. ''New Horizons'' topped the list of projects considered the highest priority among the scientific community in the medium-size category; ahead of missions to the Moon, and even Jupiter. Weiler stated that it was a result that "
isadministration was not going to fight".
Funding for the mission was finally secured following the publication of the report. Stern's team was finally able to start building the spacecraft and its instruments, with a planned launch in January 2006 and arrival at Pluto in 2015.
Alice Bowman became Mission Operations Manager (MOM).
Mission profile
![15-011a-NewHorizons-PlutoFlyby-ArtistConcept-14July2015-20150115](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/15-011a-NewHorizons-PlutoFlyby-ArtistConcept-14July2015-20150115.jpg)
''New Horizons'' is the first mission in NASA's New Frontiers mission category, larger and more expensive than the Discovery missions but smaller than the missions of the Flagship Program. The cost of the mission, including spacecraft and instrument development, launch vehicle, mission operations, data analysis, and education/public outreach, is approximately $700 million over 15 years (2001–2016). The spacecraft was built primarily by
Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) and the
Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. The mission's principal investigator is
Alan Stern
Sol Alan Stern (born November 22, 1957) is an American engineer and planetary scientist. He is the principal investigator of the ''New Horizons'' mission to Pluto and the Chief Scientist at Moon Express.
Stern has been involved in 24 suborbita ...
of the Southwest Research Institute (formerly NASA Associate Administrator).
After separation from the launch vehicle, overall control was taken by Mission Operations Center (MOC) at the Applied Physics Laboratory in
Howard County, Maryland. The science instruments are operated at Clyde Tombaugh Science Operations Center (T-SOC) in
Boulder, Colorado.
Navigation is performed at various contractor facilities, whereas the navigational positional data and related celestial reference frames are provided by the
Naval Observatory Flagstaff Station through Headquarters NASA and
JPL.
KinetX is the lead on the ''New Horizons'' navigation team and is responsible for planning trajectory adjustments as the spacecraft speeds toward
the outer Solar System. Coincidentally the Naval Observatory Flagstaff Station was where the photographic plates were taken for the discovery of Pluto's moon
Charon. The Naval Observatory itself is not far from the
Lowell Observatory where Pluto was discovered.
''New Horizons'' was originally planned as a voyage to the only unexplored planet in the SolarSystem. When the spacecraft was launched, Pluto was still classified as a
planet
A planet is a large, rounded astronomical body that is neither a star nor its remnant. The best available theory of planet formation is the nebular hypothesis, which posits that an interstellar cloud collapses out of a nebula to create a you ...
, later to be
reclassified
''Reclassified'' is the reissue of Australians, Australian rapper Iggy Azalea's debut studio album, ''The New Classic'' (2014). It was released internationally on 21 November 2014 by Virgin EMI Records, and in the United States on 24 November ...
as a dwarf planet by the
International Astronomical Union
The International Astronomical Union (IAU; french: link=yes, Union astronomique internationale, UAI) is a nongovernmental organisation with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreac ...
(IAU). Some members of the ''New Horizons'' team, including Alan Stern, disagree with the IAU definition and still describe Pluto as the ninth planet. Pluto's satellites
Nix and
Hydra also have a connection with the spacecraft: the first letters of their names (N and H) are the initials of ''New Horizons''. The moons' discoverers chose these names for this reason, plus Nix and Hydra's relationship to the mythological
Pluto
Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the Sun. It is the largest ...
.
In addition to the science equipment, there are several cultural artifacts traveling with the spacecraft. These include a collection of 434,738 names stored on a compact disc, a piece of
Scaled Composites
Scaled Composites (often called simply Scaled) is an American aerospace company founded by Burt Rutan and currently owned by Northrop Grumman. It is located at the Mojave Air and Space Port in Mojave, California, United States. Founded to deve ...
's ''
SpaceShipOne
SpaceShipOne is an experimental air-launched rocket-powered aircraft with sub-orbital spaceflight capability at speeds of up to 3,000 ft/s (900 m/s, 3240 km/h), using a hybrid rocket motor. The design features a unique " feathering ...
'', a "Not Yet Explored" USPS stamp,
and a
Flag of the United States, along with other mementos.
About of Clyde Tombaugh's ashes are aboard the spacecraft, to commemorate his discovery of Pluto in 1930. A Florida-
state quarter coin, whose design commemorates human exploration, is included, officially as a trim weight. One of the science packages (a dust counter) is named after
Venetia Burney, who, as a child, suggested the name "Pluto" after its discovery.
Goal
![15-150-NasaTeam-NewHorizonsCallsHomeAfterPlutoFlyby-20150714](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/15-150-NasaTeam-NewHorizonsCallsHomeAfterPlutoFlyby-20150714.jpg)
The goal of the mission is to understand the formation of the Plutonian system, the Kuiper belt, and the transformation of the early Solar System. The spacecraft collected data on the atmospheres, surfaces, interiors, and environments of Pluto and its moons. It will also study other objects in the Kuiper belt. "By way of comparison, ''New Horizons'' gathered 5,000 times as much data at Pluto as
Mariner
A sailor, seaman, mariner, or seafarer is a person who works aboard a watercraft as part of its crew, and may work in any one of a number of different fields that are related to the operation and maintenance of a ship.
The profession of the ...
did at the
Red Planet."
Some of the questions the mission attempts to answer are: What is Pluto's atmosphere made of and how does it behave? What does its surface look like? Are there large geological structures? How do
solar wind
The solar wind is a stream of charged particles released from the upper atmosphere of the Sun, called the corona. This plasma mostly consists of electrons, protons and alpha particles with kinetic energy between . The composition of the sol ...
particles interact with Pluto's atmosphere?
Specifically, the mission's science objectives are to:
*Map the surface compositions of Pluto and
Charon
*Characterize the geologies and morphologies of Pluto and Charon
*Characterize the neutral
atmosphere of Pluto
The atmosphere of Pluto is the tenuous layer of gases surrounding Pluto. It consists mainly of nitrogen (N2), with minor amounts of methane (CH4) and carbon monoxide (CO), all of which are vaporized from their ices on Pluto's surface. It contain ...
and its escape rate
*Search for an atmosphere around Charon
*Map surface temperatures on Pluto and Charon
*Search for rings and additional satellites around Pluto
*Conduct similar investigations of one or more
Kuiper belt objects
Design and construction
Spacecraft subsystems
![New Horizons 1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/46/New_Horizons_1.jpg)
The spacecraft is comparable in size and general shape to a
grand piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...
and has been compared to a piano glued to a cocktail bar-sized satellite dish.
As a point of departure, the team took inspiration from the
Ulysses spacecraft, which also carried a
radioisotope thermoelectric generator
A radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG, RITEG), sometimes referred to as a radioisotope power system (RPS), is a type of nuclear battery that uses an array of thermocouples to convert the heat released by the decay of a suitable radioacti ...
(RTG) and dish on a box-in-box structure through the outer Solar System. Many subsystems and components have flight heritage from APL's
CONTOUR
Contour may refer to:
* Contour (linguistics), a phonetic sound
* Pitch contour
* Contour (camera system), a 3D digital camera system
* Contour, the KDE Plasma 4 interface for tablet devices
* Contour line, a curve along which the function ha ...
spacecraft, which in turn had heritage from APL's
TIMED
timed (time daemon) is an operating system program that maintains the system time in synchronization with time servers using the Time Synchronization Protocol (TSP) developed by Riccardo Gusella and Stefano Zatti. Gusella and Zatti had done e ...
spacecraft.
''New Horizons'' body forms a triangle, almost thick. (The ''Pioneers'' have
hexagon
In geometry, a hexagon (from Greek , , meaning "six", and , , meaning "corner, angle") is a six-sided polygon. The total of the internal angles of any simple (non-self-intersecting) hexagon is 720°.
Regular hexagon
A '' regular hexagon'' has ...
al bodies, whereas the
''Voyagers'', ''Galileo'', and ''
Cassini–Huygens'' have
decagon
In geometry, a decagon (from the Greek δέκα ''déka'' and γωνία ''gonía,'' "ten angles") is a ten-sided polygon or 10-gon.. The total sum of the interior angles of a simple decagon is 1440°.
A self-intersecting ''regular decagon'' i ...
al, hollow bodies.) A
7075 aluminium alloy
7075 aluminium alloy (AA7075) is an aluminium alloy with zinc as the primary alloying element. It has excellent mechanical properties and exhibits good ductility, high strength, toughness, and good resistance to fatigue. It is more susceptible to ...
tube forms the main structural column, between the launch vehicle adapter ring at the "rear", and the radio
dish antenna
A parabolic antenna is an antenna that uses a parabolic reflector, a curved surface with the cross-sectional shape of a parabola, to direct the radio waves. The most common form is shaped like a dish and is popularly called a dish antenna or p ...
affixed to the "front" flat side. The
titanium
Titanium is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ti and atomic number 22. Found in nature only as an oxide, it can be reduced to produce a lustrous transition metal with a silver color, low density, and high strength, resista ...
fuel tank is in this tube. The RTG attaches with a 4-sided titanium mount resembling a gray pyramid or stepstool.
Titanium provides strength and thermal isolation. The rest of the triangle is primarily sandwich panels of thin aluminum face sheet (less than ) bonded to aluminum honeycomb core. The structure is larger than strictly necessary, with empty space inside. The structure is designed to act as
shielding, reducing electronics
errors caused by radiation from the RTG. Also, the mass distribution required for a spinning spacecraft demands a wider triangle.
The interior structure is painted black to equalize temperature by
radiative heat transfer. Overall, the spacecraft is thoroughly blanketed to retain heat. Unlike the ''Pioneers'' and ''Voyagers'', the radio dish is also enclosed in blankets that extend to the body. The heat from the RTG adds warmth to the spacecraft while it is in the outer Solar System. While in the inner Solar System, the spacecraft must prevent overheating, hence electronic activity is limited, power is diverted to
shunts with attached radiators, and
louver
A louver (American English) or louvre (British English; see spelling differences) is a window blind or shutter with horizontal slats that are angled to admit light and air, but to keep out rain and direct sunshine. The angle of the sla ...
s are opened to radiate excess heat. While the spacecraft is cruising inactively in the cold outer Solar System, the louvers are closed, and the shunt regulator reroutes power to electric
heaters
A heater is an appliance whose purpose is to generate heat for a building.
Heater or Heaters may also refer to:
Science, technology and engineering
* Central heating, a system used to heat an entire building
Devices
* Aquarium heater, in fishke ...
.
Propulsion and attitude control
''New Horizons'' has both spin-stabilized (cruise) and three-axis stabilized (science) modes controlled entirely with
hydrazine monopropellant
Monopropellants are propellants consisting of chemicals that release energy through exothermic chemical decomposition. The molecular bond energy of the monopropellant is released usually through use of a catalyst. This can be contrasted with bipro ...
. Additional post launch
delta-''v'' of over is provided by a internal tank. Helium is used as a pressurant, with an
elastomeric diaphragm assisting expulsion. The spacecraft's on-orbit mass including fuel is over on the Jupiter flyby trajectory, but would have been only for the backup direct flight option to Pluto. Significantly, had the backup option been taken, this would have meant less fuel for later Kuiper belt operations.
There are 16
thrusters on ''New Horizons'': four and twelve plumbed into redundant branches. The larger thrusters are used primarily for trajectory corrections, and the small ones (previously used on ''Cassini'' and the ''Voyager'' spacecraft) are used primarily for
attitude control
Attitude control is the process of controlling the orientation of an aerospace vehicle with respect to an inertial frame of reference or another entity such as the celestial sphere, certain fields, and nearby objects, etc.
Controlling vehicle ...
and spinup/spindown maneuvers. Two star cameras are used to measure the spacecraft attitude. They are mounted on the face of the spacecraft and provide attitude information while in spin-stabilized or 3-axis mode. In between the time of star camera readings, spacecraft orientation is provided by dual redundant
miniature inertial measurement units. Each unit contains three solid-state
gyroscopes and three
accelerometer
An accelerometer is a tool that measures proper acceleration. Proper acceleration is the acceleration (the rate of change of velocity) of a body in its own instantaneous rest frame; this is different from coordinate acceleration, which is acc ...
s. Two Adcole
Sun sensor
A sun sensor is a navigational instrument used by spacecraft to detect the position of the sun. Sun sensors are used for attitude control, solar array pointing, gyro updating, and fail-safe recovery.
In addition to spacecraft, sun sensors fin ...
s provide attitude determination. One detects the angle to the Sun, whereas the other measures spin rate and clocking.
Power
![RTG and New Horizons in background](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/RTG_and_New_Horizons_in_background.jpg)
A cylindrical
radioisotope thermoelectric generator
A radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG, RITEG), sometimes referred to as a radioisotope power system (RPS), is a type of nuclear battery that uses an array of thermocouples to convert the heat released by the decay of a suitable radioacti ...
(RTG) protrudes in the plane of the triangle from one vertex of the triangle. The RTG provided of power at launch, and was predicted to drop approximately every year, decaying to by the time of its encounter with the
Plutonian system
The dwarf planet Pluto has five natural satellites. In order of distance from Pluto, they are Charon, Styx, Nix, Kerberos, and Hydra. Charon, the largest, is mutually tidally locked with Pluto, and is massive enough that Pluto–Charon is some ...
in 2015 and will decay too far to power the transmitters in the 2030s.
There are no onboard batteries since RTG output is predictable, and load transients are handled by a capacitor bank and fast circuit breakers. As of January 2019, the power output of the RTG is about .
The RTG, model "
GPHS-RTG
GPHS-RTG or general-purpose heat source — radioisotope thermoelectric generator, is a specific design of the radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) used on US space missions. The GPHS-RTG was used on ''Ulysses'' (1), ''Galileo'' (2), ' ...
", was originally a spare from the ''Cassini'' mission. The RTG contains of
plutonium-238
Plutonium-238 (238Pu or Pu-238) is a fissile, radioactive isotope of plutonium that has a half-life of 87.7 years.
Plutonium-238 is a very powerful alpha emitter; as alpha particles are easily blocked, this makes the plutonium-238 isotope suita ...
oxide pellets.
Each pellet is clad in
iridium
Iridium is a chemical element with the symbol Ir and atomic number 77. A very hard, brittle, silvery-white transition metal of the platinum group, it is considered the second-densest naturally occurring metal (after osmium) with a density of ...
, then encased in a graphite shell. It was developed by the U.S.
Department of Energy A Ministry of Energy or Department of Energy is a government department in some countries that typically oversees the production of fuel and electricity; in the United States, however, it manages nuclear weapons development and conducts energy-re ...
at the Materials and Fuels Complex, a part of the
Idaho National Laboratory.
The original RTG design called for of plutonium, but a unit less powerful than the original design goal was produced because of delays at the United States Department of Energy, including security activities, that delayed plutonium production.
The mission parameters and observation sequence had to be modified for the reduced wattage; still, not all instruments can operate simultaneously. The Department of Energy transferred the space battery program from Ohio to Argonne in 2002 because of security concerns.
The amount of radioactive plutonium in the RTG is about one-third the amount on board the Cassini–Huygens probe when it launched in 1997. The Cassini launch had been protested by multiple organizations, due to the risk of such a large amount of plutonium being released into the atmosphere in case of an accident. The United States Department of Energy estimated the chances of a launch accident that would release radiation into the atmosphere at 1 in 350, and monitored the launch because of the inclusion of an RTG on board. It was estimated that a worst-case scenario of total dispersal of on-board plutonium would spread the equivalent radiation of 80% the average annual dosage in North America from background radiation over an area with a radius of .
Flight computer
The spacecraft carries two
computer systems: the Command and Data Handling system and the Guidance and Control processor. Each of the two systems is duplicated for
redundancy, for a total of four computers. The processor used for its flight computers is the
Mongoose-V The Mongoose-V 32-bit microprocessor for spacecraft onboard computer applications is a radiation-hardened and expanded 10–15 MHz version of the MIPS R3000 CPU. Mongoose-V was developed by Synova of Melbourne, Florida, USA, with support from ...
, a 12
MHz
The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that one he ...
radiation-hardened version of the
MIPS R3000 CPU. Multiple redundant clocks and timing routines are implemented in hardware and software to help prevent faults and downtime. To conserve heat and mass, spacecraft and instrument electronics are housed together in IEMs (integrated electronics modules). There are two redundant IEMs. Including other functions such as instrument and radio electronics, each IEM contains 9boards. The software of the probe runs on
Nucleus RTOS
Nucleus RTOS is a real-time operating system (RTOS) produced by the Embedded Software Division of Mentor Graphics, a Siemens Business, supporting 32- and 64-bit embedded system platforms. The operating system (OS) is designed for real-time embedd ...
operating system.
There have been two "safing" events, that sent the spacecraft into
safe mode:
* On March 19, 2007, the Command and Data Handling computer experienced an uncorrectable memory error and rebooted itself, causing the spacecraft to go into safe mode. The craft fully recovered within two days, with some data loss on Jupiter's
magnetotail
In astronomy and planetary science, a magnetosphere is a region of space surrounding an astronomical object in which charged particles are affected by that object's magnetic field. It is created by a celestial body
An astronomical object, c ...
. No impact on the subsequent mission was expected.
* On July 4, 2015, there was a CPU safing event triggered by an over-assignment of commanded science operations on the craft's approach to Pluto. Fortunately, the craft was able to recover within two days without major impacts on its mission. NASA scientists therefore reduced the number of scientific operations on the craft to prevent future events, which could happen during the approach with Pluto.
Telecommunications and data handling
![New Horizons - REX](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/New_Horizons_-_REX.jpeg)
Communication with the spacecraft is via
X band. The craft had a communication rate of at Jupiter; at Pluto's distance, a rate of approximately per transmitter was expected. Besides the low data rate, Pluto's distance also causes a
latency of about 4.5 hours (one-way). The
NASA Deep Space Network
The NASA Deep Space Network (DSN) is a worldwide network of American spacecraft communication ground segment facilities, located in the United States (California), Spain (Madrid), and Australia (Canberra), that supports NASA's interplanetary ...
(DSN) dishes are used to relay commands once the spacecraft is beyond Jupiter. The spacecraft uses
dual modular redundancy
In reliability engineering, dual modular redundancy (DMR) is when components of a system are duplicated, providing redundancy in case one should fail. It is particularly applied to systems where the duplicated components work in parallel, particu ...
transmitters and receivers, and either right- or left-hand
circular polarization
In electrodynamics, circular polarization of an electromagnetic wave is a polarization state in which, at each point, the electromagnetic field of the wave has a constant magnitude and is rotating at a constant rate in a plane perpendicular to ...
.
The downlink signal is amplified by dual redundant 12-watt
traveling-wave tube
A traveling-wave tube (TWT, pronounced "twit") or traveling-wave tube amplifier (TWTA, pronounced "tweeta") is a specialized vacuum tube that is used in electronics to amplify radio frequency (RF) signals in the microwave range. The TWT belongs t ...
amplifiers (TWTAs) mounted on the body under the dish. The receivers are new, low-power designs. The system can be controlled to power both TWTAs at the same time, and transmit a dual-polarized downlink signal to the DSN that nearly doubles the downlink rate. DSN tests early in the mission with this dual polarization combining technique were successful, and the capability is now considered operational (when the spacecraft power budget permits both TWTAs to be powered).
In addition to the
high-gain antenna
A directional antenna or beam antenna is an antenna which radiates or receives greater power in specific directions allowing increased performance and reduced interference from unwanted sources. Directional antennas provide increased performanc ...
, there are two backup low-gain antennas and a medium-gain dish. The high-gain dish has a
Cassegrain reflector layout, composite construction, of diameter providing over of gain and a half-power beam width of about a degree. The prime-focus medium-gain antenna, with a aperture and 10° half-power beam width, is mounted to the back of the high-gain antenna's secondary reflector. The forward low-gain antenna is stacked atop the feed of the medium-gain antenna. The aft low-gain antenna is mounted within the launch adapter at the rear of the spacecraft. This antenna was used only for early mission phases near Earth, just after launch and for emergencies if the spacecraft had lost attitude control.
''New Horizons'' recorded scientific instrument data to its solid-state memory buffer at each encounter, then transmitted the data to Earth. Data storage is done on two low-power
solid-state recorders (one primary, one backup) holding up to s each. Because of the extreme distance from Pluto and the Kuiper belt, only one buffer load at those encounters can be saved. This is because ''New Horizons'' would require approximately 16 months after leaving the vicinity of Pluto to transmit the buffer load back to Earth.
At Pluto's distance, radio signals from the space probe back to Earth took four hours and 25 minutes to traverse 4.7 billion km of space.
Part of the reason for the delay between the gathering of and transmission of data is that all of the ''New Horizons'' instrumentation is body-mounted. In order for the cameras to record data, the entire probe must turn, and the one-degree-wide beam of the high-gain antenna was not pointing toward Earth. Previous spacecraft, such as the ''Voyager'' program probes, had a rotatable instrumentation platform (a "scan platform") that could take measurements from virtually any angle without losing radio contact with Earth. ''New Horizons'' was mechanically simplified to save weight, shorten the schedule, and improve reliability during its 15-year lifetime.
The ''
Voyager 2
''Voyager 2'' is a space probe launched by NASA on August 20, 1977, to study the outer planets and interstellar space beyond the Sun's heliosphere. As a part of the Voyager program, it was launched 16 days before its twin, '' Voyager 1'', o ...
'' scan platform jammed at Saturn, and the demands of long time exposures at outer planets led to a change of plans such that the entire probe was rotated to make photos at Uranus and Neptune, similar to how ''New Horizons'' rotated.
Science payload
''New Horizons'' carries seven instruments: three optical instruments, two plasma instruments, a dust sensor and a radio science receiver/radiometer. The instruments are to be used to investigate the global geology, surface composition, surface temperature, atmospheric pressure, atmospheric temperature and escape rate of Pluto and its moons. The rated power is , though not all instruments operate simultaneously. In addition, ''New Horizons'' has an Ultrastable Oscillator subsystem, which may be used to study and test the
Pioneer anomaly
The Pioneer anomaly, or Pioneer effect, was the observed deviation from predicted accelerations of the ''Pioneer 10'' and ''Pioneer 11'' spacecraft after they passed about on their trajectories out of the Solar System. The apparent anomaly was ...
towards the end of the spacecraft's life.
Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI)
![New Horizons LORRI](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/New_Horizons_LORRI.jpg)
The Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) is a long-focal-length imager designed for high resolution and responsivity at visible wavelengths. The instrument is equipped with a 1024×1024 pixel by 12-bits-per-pixel monochromatic
CCD imager giving a resolution of 5
μrad (~1
arcsec).
The CCD is chilled far below freezing by a passive radiator on the antisolar face of the spacecraft. This temperature differential requires insulation and isolation from the rest of the structure. The aperture
Ritchey–Chretien mirrors and metering structure are made of
silicon carbide
Silicon carbide (SiC), also known as carborundum (), is a hard chemical compound containing silicon and carbon. A semiconductor, it occurs in nature as the extremely rare mineral moissanite, but has been mass-produced as a powder and crystal s ...
to boost stiffness, reduce weight and prevent warping at low temperatures. The optical elements sit in a composite light shield and mount with titanium and fiberglass for thermal isolation. Overall mass is , with the optical tube assembly (OTA) weighing about , for one of the largest silicon-carbide telescopes flown at the time (now surpassed by
Herschel). For viewing on public web sites the 12-bit per pixel LORRI images are converted to 8-bit per pixel
JPEG images.
[ These public images do not contain the full ]dynamic range
Dynamic range (abbreviated DR, DNR, or DYR) is the ratio between the largest and smallest values that a certain quantity can assume. It is often used in the context of Signal (electrical engineering), signals, like sound and light. It is measured ...
of brightness information available from the raw LORRI images files.[
:,
]
Solar Wind Around Pluto (SWAP)
Solar Wind Around Pluto (SWAP) is a toroidal electrostatic analyzer An electrostatic analyzer or ESA is an instrument used in ion optics that employs an electric field to allow the passage of only those ions or electrons that have a given specific energy. It usually also focuses these particles (concentrates the ...
and retarding potential analyzer (RPA), that makes up one of the two instruments comprising ''New Horizons'' Plasma and high-energy particle spectrometer suite (PAM), the other being PEPSSI. SWAP measures particles of up to 6.5keV and, because of the tenuous solar wind at Pluto's distance, the instrument is designed with the largest aperture
In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture and focal length of an optical system determine the cone angle of a bundle of rays that come to a focus in the image plane.
An ...
of any such instrument ever flown.
:
Pluto Energetic Particle Spectrometer Science Investigation (PEPSSI)
Pluto Energetic Particle Spectrometer Science Investigation (PEPSSI) is a time of flight
Time of flight (ToF) is the measurement of the time taken by an object, particle or wave (be it acoustic, electromagnetic, etc.) to travel a distance through a medium. This information can then be used to measure velocity or path length, or as a w ...
ion
An ion () is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge.
The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by conve ...
and electron
The electron ( or ) is a subatomic particle with a negative one elementary electric charge. Electrons belong to the first generation of the lepton particle family,
and are generally thought to be elementary particles because they have no ...
sensor that makes up one of the two instruments comprising ''New Horizons'' plasma and high-energy particle spectrometer suite (PAM), the other being SWAP. Unlike SWAP, which measures particles of up to 6.5keV, PEPSSI goes up to 1MeV. The PEPSSI sensor has been designed to measure the mass, energy and distribution of charged particles around Pluto, and is also able to differentiate between protons, electron
The electron ( or ) is a subatomic particle with a negative one elementary electric charge. Electrons belong to the first generation of the lepton particle family,
and are generally thought to be elementary particles because they have no ...
s, and other heavy ion
High-energy nuclear physics studies the behavior of nuclear matter in energy regimes typical of high-energy physics. The primary focus of this field is the study of heavy-ion collisions, as compared to lighter atoms in other particle accelerat ...
s.
:
Alice
''Alice'' is an ultraviolet
Ultraviolet (UV) is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelength from 10 nm (with a corresponding frequency around 30 PHz) to 400 nm (750 THz), shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays. UV radiation ...
imaging spectrometer
A spectrometer () is a scientific instrument used to separate and measure spectral components of a physical phenomenon. Spectrometer is a broad term often used to describe instruments that measure a continuous variable of a phenomenon where the ...
that is one of two photographic instruments comprising ''New Horizons'' Pluto Exploration Remote Sensing Investigation (PERSI); the other being the ''Ralph'' telescope. It resolves 1,024wavelength bands in the far and extreme ultraviolet (from 50–), over 32view fields. Its goal is to determine the composition of Pluto's atmosphere. This Alice instrument is derived from another Alice aboard ESA
, owners =
, headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France
, coordinates =
, spaceport = Guiana Space Centre
, seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png
, seal_size = 130px
, image = Views in the Main Control Room (120 ...
's Rosetta
Rosetta or Rashid (; ar, رشيد ' ; french: Rosette ; cop, ϯⲣⲁϣⲓⲧ ''ti-Rashit'', Ancient Greek: Βολβιτίνη ''Bolbitinē'') is a port city of the Nile Delta, east of Alexandria, in Egypt's Beheira governorate. The Ro ...
spacecraft. The instrument has a mass of 4.4 kg and draws 4.4 watts of power. Its primary role is to determine the relative concentrations of various elements and isotopes in Pluto's atmosphere.
:
In August 2018, NASA confirmed, based on results by ''Alice'' on the ''New Horizons'' spacecraft, a " hydrogen wall" at the outer edges of the Solar System
The Solar System Capitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar ...
that was first detected in 1992 by the two Voyager spacecraft
The Voyager program is an American scientific program that employs two robotic interstellar probes, ''Voyager 1'' and ''Voyager 2''. They were launched in 1977 to take advantage of a favorable alignment of Jupiter and Saturn, to fly near th ...
.
Ralph telescope
The Ralph telescope, 75 mm in aperture, is one of two photographic instruments that make up ''New Horizons'' Pluto Exploration Remote Sensing Investigation (PERSI), with the other being the Alice instrument. Ralph has two separate channels: MVIC (Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera), a visible-light CCD imager with broadband and color channels; and LEISA (Linear Etalon Imaging Spectral Array), a near-infrared
Infrared (IR), sometimes called infrared light, is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than those of visible light. It is therefore invisible to the human eye. IR is generally understood to encompass wavelengths from around ...
imaging spectrometer. LEISA is derived from a similar instrument on the Earth Observing-1
Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) is a decommissioned NASA Earth observation satellite created to develop and validate a number of instrument and spacecraft bus breakthrough technologies. It was intended to enable the development of future Earth imaging o ...
spacecraft. Ralph was named after Alice's husband on ''The Honeymooners
''The Honeymooners'' is an American television sitcom which originally aired from 1955 to 1956, created by and starring Jackie Gleason, and based on a recurring comedy sketch of the same name that had been part of Gleason's variety show. It fo ...
'', and was designed after Alice.
On June 23, 2017, NASA announced that it has renamed the LEISA instrument to the "Lisa Hardaway Infrared Mapping Spectrometer" in honor of Lisa Hardaway, the Ralph program manager at Ball Aerospace
Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. is an American manufacturer of spacecraft, components and instruments for national defense, civil space and commercial space applications. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ball Corporation (NYSE: BAL ...
, who died in January 2017 at age 50.
:
Venetia Burney Student Dust Counter (VBSDC)
The Venetia Burney Student Dust Counter
The Venetia Burney Student Dust Counter (VBSDC) is a scientific instrument aboard the unmanned '' New Horizons'' space probe that is designed to detect dust impacts in outer space. VBSDC is the first planetary science instrument to be built by st ...
(VBSDC), built by students at the University of Colorado Boulder, is operating periodically to make dust
Dust is made of fine particles of solid matter. On Earth, it generally consists of particles in the atmosphere that come from various sources such as soil lifted by wind (an aeolian process), volcanic eruptions, and pollution. Dust in ho ...
measurements. It consists of a detector panel, about , mounted on the anti-solar face of the spacecraft (the ram direction), and an electronics box within the spacecraft. The detector contains fourteen polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) panels, twelve science and two reference, which generate voltage when impacted. Effective collecting area is . No dust counter has operated past the orbit of Uranus
Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. Its name is a reference to the Greek god of the sky, Uranus ( Caelus), who, according to Greek mythology, was the great-grandfather of Ares (Mars), grandfather of Zeus (Jupiter) and father of ...
; models of dust in the outer Solar System, especially the Kuiper belt, are speculative. The VBSDC is always turned on measuring the masses of the interplanetary and interstellar dust particles (in the range of nano- and picograms) as they collide with the PVDF panels mounted on the ''New Horizons'' spacecraft. The measured data is expected to greatly contribute to the understanding of the dust spectra of the Solar System. The dust spectra can then be compared with those from observations of other stars, giving new clues as to where Earth-like planets can be found in the universe. The dust counter is named for Venetia Burney, who first suggested the name "Pluto" at the age of 11. A thirteen-minute short film about the VBSDC garnered an Emmy Award for student achievement in 2006.
:
Radio Science Experiment (REX)
The Radio Science Experiment (REX) used an ultrastable crystal oscillator
A crystal oscillator is an electronic oscillator circuit that uses a piezoelectric crystal as a frequency-selective element. The oscillator frequency is often used to keep track of time, as in quartz wristwatches, to provide a stable clock ...
(essentially a calibrated crystal in a miniature oven) and some additional electronics to conduct radio science investigations using the communications channels. These are small enough to fit on a single card. Because there are two redundant communications subsystems, there are two, identical REX circuit boards.
:
Journey to Pluto
Launch
On September 24, 2005, the spacecraft arrived at the Kennedy Space Center on board a C-17 Globemaster III
The McDonnell Douglas/Boeing C-17 Globemaster III is a large military transport aircraft that was developed for the United States Air Force (USAF) from the 1980s to the early 1990s by McDonnell Douglas. The C-17 carries forward the name of t ...
for launch preparations. The launch of ''New Horizons'' was originally scheduled for January 11, 2006, but was initially delayed until January 17, 2006, to allow for borescope inspections of the Atlas V
Atlas V is an expendable launch system and the fifth major version in the Atlas launch vehicle family. It was originally designed by Lockheed Martin, now being operated by United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture between Lockheed Mart ...
's kerosene
Kerosene, paraffin, or lamp oil is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum. It is widely used as a fuel in aviation as well as households. Its name derives from el, κηρός (''keros'') meaning "wax", and was regi ...
tank. Further delays related to low cloud ceiling conditions downrange
Downrange, or down range, is the horizontal distance traveled by a spacecraft, or the spacecraft's horizontal distance from the launch site. More often, it is used as an adverb or adjective specifying the direction of that travel being measure ...
, and high winds and technical difficulties—unrelated to the rocket itself—prevented launch for a further two days.
The probe finally lifted off from Pad 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) is an installation of the United States Space Force's Space Launch Delta 45, located on Cape Canaveral in Brevard County, Florida.
Headquartered at the nearby Patrick Space Force Base, the statio ...
, Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
, directly south of Space Shuttle
The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program ...
Launch Complex 39
Launch Complex 39 (LC-39) is a rocket launch site at the John F. Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island in Florida, United States. The site and its collection of facilities were originally built as the Apollo program's "Moonport" and later m ...
, at 19:00 UTC on January 19, 2006. The Centaur second stage ignited at 19:04:43 UTC and burned for 5 minutes 25 seconds. It reignited at 19:32 UTC and burned for 9 minutes 47 seconds. The ATK Star 48B third stage ignited at 19:42:37 UTC and burned for 1 minute 28 seconds. Combined, these burns successfully sent the probe on a solar-escape trajectory at . ''New Horizons'' took only nine hours to pass the Moon's orbit. Although there were backup launch opportunities in February 2006 and February 2007, only the first twenty-three days of the 2006 window permitted the Jupiter flyby. Any launch outside that period would have forced the spacecraft to fly a slower trajectory directly to Pluto, delaying its encounter by five to six years.
The probe was launched by a Lockheed Martin Atlas V 551 rocket, with a third stage added to increase the heliocentric (escape) speed. This was the first launch of the Atlas V 551 configuration, which uses five solid rocket boosters, and the first Atlas V with a third stage. Previous flights had used zero, two, or three solid boosters, but never five. The vehicle, AV-010, weighed at lift-off, and had earlier been slightly damaged when Hurricane Wilma
Hurricane Wilma was an extremely intense and destructive Atlantic hurricane which was the most intense storm of its kind and the second-most intense tropical cyclone recorded in the Western Hemisphere, after Hurricane Patricia in 2015. Part o ...
swept across Florida on October 24, 2005. One of the solid rocket boosters was hit by a door. The booster was replaced with an identical unit, rather than inspecting and requalifying the original.
The launch was dedicated to the memory of launch conductor Daniel Sarokon, who was described by space program officials as one of the most influential people in the history of space travel.
Inner Solar System
Trajectory corrections
On January 28 and 30, 2006, mission controllers guided the probe through its first trajectory
A trajectory or flight path is the path that an object with mass in motion follows through space as a function of time. In classical mechanics, a trajectory is defined by Hamiltonian mechanics via canonical coordinates; hence, a complete tra ...
-correction maneuver (TCM), which was divided into two parts (TCM-1A and TCM-1B). The total velocity change of these two corrections was about . TCM-1 was accurate enough to permit the cancellation of TCM-2, the second of three originally scheduled corrections. On March 9, 2006, controllers performed TCM-3, the last of three scheduled course corrections. The engines burned for 76 seconds, adjusting the spacecraft's velocity by about . Further trajectory maneuvers were not needed until September 25, 2007 (seven months after the Jupiter flyby), when the engines were fired for 15 minutes and 37 seconds, changing the spacecraft's velocity by , followed by another TCM, almost three years later on June 30, 2010, that lasted 35.6 seconds, when ''New Horizons'' had already reached the halfway point (in time traveled) to Pluto.
In-flight tests and crossing of Mars orbit
During the week of February 20, 2006, controllers conducted initial in-flight tests of three onboard science instruments, the Alice ultraviolet imaging spectrometer, the PEPSSI plasma-sensor, and the LORRI long-range visible-spectrum camera. No scientific measurements or images were taken, but instrument electronics, and in the case of Alice, some electromechanical systems were shown to be functioning correctly.
On April 7, 2006, the spacecraft passed the orbit of Mars, moving at roughly away from the Sun at a solar distance of 243 million kilometers.
Asteroid 132524 APL
Because of the need to conserve fuel for possible encounters with Kuiper belt objects subsequent to the Pluto flyby, intentional encounters with objects in the asteroid belt
The asteroid belt is a torus-shaped region in the Solar System, located roughly between the orbits of the planets Jupiter and Mars. It contains a great many solid, irregularly shaped bodies, of many sizes, but much smaller than planets, c ...
were not planned. After launch, the ''New Horizons'' team scanned the spacecraft's trajectory to determine if any asteroids would, by chance, be close enough for observation. In May 2006 it was discovered that ''New Horizons'' would pass close to the tiny asteroid 132524 APL on June 13, 2006. Closest approach occurred at 4:05 UTC at a distance of (around one quarter of the average Earth-Moon distance). The asteroid was imaged by Ralph (use of LORRI was not possible because of proximity to the Sun), which gave the team a chance to test Ralph capabilities, and make observations of the asteroid's composition as well as light and phase curves. The asteroid was estimated to be in diameter. The spacecraft successfully tracked the rapidly moving asteroid over June 10–12, 2006.
First Pluto sighting
The first images of Pluto from ''New Horizons'' were acquired September 21–24, 2006, during a test of LORRI. They were released on November 28, 2006. The images, taken from a distance of approximately , confirmed the spacecraft's ability to track distant targets, critical for maneuvering toward Pluto and other Kuiper belt objects.
Jupiter encounter
''New Horizons'' used LORRI to take its first photographs of Jupiter on September 4, 2006, from a distance of . More detailed exploration of the system began in January 2007 with an infrared image of the moon Callisto Callisto most commonly refers to:
*Callisto (mythology), a nymph
*Callisto (moon), a moon of Jupiter
Callisto may also refer to:
Art and entertainment
*''Callisto series'', a sequence of novels by Lin Carter
*''Callisto'', a novel by Torsten Kro ...
, as well as several black-and-white images of Jupiter itself. ''New Horizons'' received a gravity assist from Jupiter, with its closest approach at 05:43:40 UTC on February 28, 2007, when it was from Jupiter. The flyby increased ''New Horizons'' speed by , accelerating the probe to a velocity of relative to the Sun and shortening its voyage to Pluto by three years.
The flyby was the center of a four-month intensive observation campaign lasting from January to June. Being an ever-changing scientific target, Jupiter has been observed intermittently since the end of the '' Galileo'' mission in September 2003. Knowledge about Jupiter benefited from the fact that ''New Horizons'' instruments were built using the latest technology, especially in the area of cameras, representing a significant improvement over ''Galileo'' cameras, which were modified versions of '' Voyager'' cameras, which, in turn, were modified ''Mariner
A sailor, seaman, mariner, or seafarer is a person who works aboard a watercraft as part of its crew, and may work in any one of a number of different fields that are related to the operation and maintenance of a ship.
The profession of the ...
'' cameras. The Jupiter encounter also served as a shakedown and dress rehearsal for the Pluto encounter. Because Jupiter is much closer to Earth than Pluto, the communications link can transmit multiple loadings of the memory buffer; thus the mission returned more data from the Jovian system than it was expected to transmit from Pluto.
One of the main goals during the Jupiter encounter was observing its atmospheric conditions and analyzing the structure and composition of its clouds. Heat-induced lightning strikes in the polar regions and "waves" that indicate violent storm activity were observed and measured. The Little Red Spot, spanning up to 70% of Earth's diameter, was imaged from up close for the first time.[ Recording from different angles and illumination conditions, ''New Horizons'' took detailed images of Jupiter's faint ]ring system
A ring system is a disc or ring, orbiting an astronomical object, that is composed of solid material such as dust and moonlets, and is a common component of satellite systems around giant planets. A ring system around a planet is also known as ...
, discovering debris left over from recent collisions within the rings or from other unexplained phenomena. The search for undiscovered moons within the rings showed no results. Travelling through Jupiter's magnetosphere, ''New Horizons'' collected valuable particle readings.[ "Bubbles" of plasma that are thought to be formed from material ejected by the moon Io were noticed in the ]magnetotail
In astronomy and planetary science, a magnetosphere is a region of space surrounding an astronomical object in which charged particles are affected by that object's magnetic field. It is created by a celestial body
An astronomical object, c ...
.
Jovian moons
The four largest moons of Jupiter were in poor positions for observation; the necessary path of the gravity-assist maneuver meant that ''New Horizons'' passed millions of kilometers from any of the Galilean moons. Still, its instruments were intended for small, dim targets, so they were scientifically useful on large, distant moons. Emphasis was put on Jupiter's innermost Galilean moon, Io, whose active volcanoes shoot out tons of material into Jupiter's magnetosphere, and further. Out of eleven observed eruptions, three were seen for the first time. That of Tvashtar
Tvashtr ( sa, त्वष्टृ, Tvaṣṭṛ) is a Vedic artisan god or fashioner. He is also mentioned in later literature of Hinduism like the ''Harivamsa''. Sometimes, Tvashtr is identified with another deity named Vishvakarma. In Hindu L ...
reached an altitude of up to . The event gave scientists an unprecedented look into the structure and motion of the rising plume and its subsequent fall back to the surface. Infrared signatures of a further 36 volcanoes were noticed.[ ]Callisto Callisto most commonly refers to:
*Callisto (mythology), a nymph
*Callisto (moon), a moon of Jupiter
Callisto may also refer to:
Art and entertainment
*''Callisto series'', a sequence of novels by Lin Carter
*''Callisto'', a novel by Torsten Kro ...
's surface was analyzed with LEISA, revealing how lighting and viewing conditions affect infrared spectrum readings of its surface water ice. Minor moons such as Amalthea had their orbit solutions refined. The cameras determined their positions, acting as "reverse optical navigation".
Outer Solar System
After passing Jupiter, ''New Horizons'' spent most of its journey towards Pluto in hibernation mode. Redundant components as well as guidance and control systems were shut down to extend their life cycle, decrease operation costs and free the Deep Space Network
The NASA Deep Space Network (DSN) is a worldwide network of American spacecraft communication ground segment facilities, located in the United States (California), Spain (Madrid), and Australia (Canberra), that supports NASA's interplanetary ...
for other missions. During hibernation mode, the onboard computer monitored the probe's systems and transmitted a signal back to Earth; a "green" code if everything was functioning as expected or a "red" code if mission control's assistance was needed.[ The probe was activated for about two months a year so that the instruments could be calibrated and the systems checked. The first hibernation mode cycle started on June 28, 2007,][ the second cycle began on December 16, 2008, the third cycle on August 27, 2009, and the fourth cycle on August 29, 2014, after a 10-week test.
''New Horizons'' crossed the orbit of Saturn on June 8, 2008,] and Uranus
Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. Its name is a reference to the Greek god of the sky, Uranus ( Caelus), who, according to Greek mythology, was the great-grandfather of Ares (Mars), grandfather of Zeus (Jupiter) and father of ...
on March 18, 2011. After astronomers announced the discovery of two new moons in the Pluto system, Kerberos and Styx, mission planners started contemplating the possibility of the probe running into unseen debris and dust left over from ancient collisions between the moons. A study based on 18 months of computer simulations, Earth-based telescope observations and occultations of the Pluto system revealed that the possibility of a catastrophic collision with debris or dust was less than 0.3% on the probe's scheduled course. If the hazard increased, ''New Horizons'' could have used one of two possible contingency plans, the so-called SHBOTs (Safe Haven by Other Trajectories). Either the probe could have continued on its present trajectory with the antenna facing the incoming particles so the more vital systems would be protected, or it could have positioned its antenna to make a course correction that would take it just 3000 km from the surface of Pluto where it was expected that the atmospheric drag
In fluid dynamics, drag (sometimes called air resistance, a type of friction, or fluid resistance, another type of friction or fluid friction) is a force acting opposite to the relative motion of any object moving with respect to a surrounding flu ...
would have cleaned the surrounding space of possible debris.[
While in hibernation mode in July 2012, ''New Horizons'' started gathering scientific data with SWAP, PEPSSI and VBSDC. Although it was originally planned to activate just the VBSDC, other instruments were powered on in order to collect valuable heliospheric data. Before activating the other two instruments, ground tests were conducted to make sure that the expanded data gathering in this phase of the mission would not limit available energy, memory and fuel in the future and that all systems were functioning during the flyby.] The first set of data was transmitted in January 2013 during a three-week activation from hibernation. The command and data handling software was updated to address the problem of computer resets.
Possible Neptune trojan targets
Other possible targets were Neptune trojans. The probe's trajectory to Pluto passed near Neptune's trailing Lagrange point (""), which may host hundreds of bodies in 1:1 resonance
Resonance describes the phenomenon of increased amplitude that occurs when the frequency of an applied Periodic function, periodic force (or a Fourier analysis, Fourier component of it) is equal or close to a natural frequency of the system ...
. In late 2013, ''New Horizons'' passed within of the high-inclination L5 Neptune trojan , which was discovered shortly before by the New Horizons KBO Search
''New Horizons'' is an interplanetary space probe that was launched as a part of NASA's New Frontiers program. Engineered by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) and the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), with a t ...
task, a survey
Survey may refer to:
Statistics and human research
* Statistical survey, a method for collecting quantitative information about items in a population
* Survey (human research), including opinion polls
Spatial measurement
* Surveying, the techniq ...
to find additional distant objects for ''New Horizons'' to fly by after its 2015 encounter with Pluto. At that range, would have been bright enough to be detectable by ''New Horizons'' LORRI instrument; however, the ''New Horizons'' team eventually decided that they would not target for observations because the preparations for the Pluto approach took precedence.
Observations of Pluto and Charon 2013–14
Images from July 1 to 3, 2013, by LORRI were the first by the probe to resolve Pluto and Charon as separate objects. On July 14, 2014, mission controllers performed a sixth trajectory-correction maneuver (TCM) since its launch to enable the craft to reach Pluto. Between July 19–24, 2014, ''New Horizons'' LORRI snapped 12 images of Charon revolving around Pluto, covering almost one full rotation at distances ranging from about . In August 2014, astronomers made high-precision measurements of Pluto's location and orbit around the Sun using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA
Alma or ALMA may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Alma'' (film), a 2009 Spanish short animated film
* ''Alma'' (Oswald de Andrade novel), 1922
* ''Alma'' (Le Clézio novel), 2017
* ''Alma'' (play), a 1996 drama by Joshua Sobol about Alma ...
) (an array of radio telescopes located in Chile) to help NASA's ''New Horizons'' spacecraft accurately home in on Pluto. On December 6, 2014, mission controllers sent a signal for the craft to "wake up" from its final Pluto-approach hibernation and begin regular operations. The craft's response that it was "awake" reached Earth on December 7, 2014, at 02:30 UTC.
Pluto approach
Distant-encounter operations at Pluto began on January 4, 2015. On this date, images of the targets with the onboard LORRI imager plus the Ralph telescope were only a few pixel
In digital imaging, a pixel (abbreviated px), pel, or picture element is the smallest addressable element in a raster image, or the smallest point in an all points addressable display device.
In most digital display devices, pixels are the ...
s in width. Investigators began taking Pluto images and background starfield images to assist mission navigators in the design of course-correcting engine maneuvers that would precisely modify the trajectory of ''New Horizons'' to aim the approach.
On February 12, 2015, NASA released new images of Pluto (taken from January 25 to 31) from the approaching probe. ''New Horizons'' was more than away from Pluto when it began taking the photos, which showed Pluto and its largest moon, Charon. The exposure time was too short to see Pluto's smaller, much fainter moons.
Investigators compiled a series of images of the moons Nix and Hydra taken from January 27 through February 8, 2015, beginning at a range of . Pluto and Charon appear as a single overexposed object at the center. The right side image has been processed to remove the background starfield. The other two, even smaller moons, Kerberos and Styx were seen on photos taken on April 25. Starting May 11 a hazard search was performed, looking for unknown objects that could be a danger to the spacecraft, such as rings or hithero undiscovered moons, which could then possibly be avoided by a course change. No rings or additional moons were found.
Also in regard to the approach phase during January 2015, on August 21, 2012, the team announced that they would spend mission time attempting long-range observations of the Kuiper belt object temporarily designated VNH0004 (now designated ), when the object was at a distance from ''New Horizons'' of . The object would be too distant to resolve surface features or take spectroscopy, but it would be able to make observations that cannot be made from Earth, namely a phase curve and a search for small moons. A second object was planned to be observed in June 2015, and a third in September after the flyby; the team hoped to observe a dozen such objects through 2018. On April 15, 2015, Pluto was imaged showing a possible polar cap.
Software glitch
On July 4, 2015, ''New Horizons'' experienced a software anomaly and went into safe mode, preventing the spacecraft from performing scientific observations until engineers could resolve the problem. On July 5, NASA announced that the problem was determined to be a timing flaw in a command sequence used to prepare the spacecraft for its flyby, and the spacecraft would resume scheduled science operations on July 7. The science observations lost because of the anomaly were judged to have no impact on the mission's main objectives and minimal impact on other objectives.
The timing flaw consisted of performing two tasks simultaneously—compressing previously acquired data to release space for more data, and making a second copy of the approach command sequence—that together overloaded the spacecraft's primary computer. After the overload was detected, the spacecraft performed as designed: it switched from the primary computer to the backup computer, entered safe mode, and sent a distress call back to Earth. The distress call was received the afternoon of July 4 and alerted engineers that they needed to contact the spacecraft to get more information and resolve the issue. The resolution was that the problem happened as part of preparations for the approach, and was not expected to happen again because no similar tasks were planned for the remainder of the encounter.
Pluto system encounter
The closest approach of the ''New Horizons'' spacecraft to Pluto occurred at 11:49 UTC on July 14, 2015, at a range of from the surface and from the center of Pluto. Telemetry
Telemetry is the in situ collection of measurements or other data at remote points and their automatic transmission to receiving equipment (telecommunication) for monitoring. The word is derived from the Greek roots ''tele'', "remote", an ...
data confirming a successful flyby and a healthy spacecraft was received on Earth from the vicinity of the Pluto system on July 15, 2015, 00:52:37 UTC, after 22 hours of planned radio silence
In telecommunications, radio silence or Emissions Control (EMCON) is a status in which all fixed or mobile radio stations in an area are asked to stop transmitting for safety or security reasons.
The term "radio station" may include anything ca ...
due to the spacecraft being pointed towards the Pluto system. Mission managers estimated a one in 10,000 chance that debris could have destroyed the probe or its communication-systems during the flyby, preventing it from sending data to Earth. The first details of the encounter were received the next day, but the download of the complete data set through the 2 kbps data downlink took just over 15 months, and analysis of the data continues as of 2021.
Objectives
The mission's science objectives were grouped in three distinct priorities. The "primary objectives" were required. The "secondary objectives" were expected to be met but were not demanded. The "tertiary objectives" were desired. These objectives could have been skipped in favor of the above objectives. An objective to measure any magnetic field of Pluto was dropped, due to mass and budget issues associated with including a magnetometer on the spacecraft. Instead, SWAP and PEPSSI could indirectly detect magnetic fields around Pluto.
* Primary objectives (required)
** Characterize the global geology and morphology of Pluto and Charon
** Map chemical compositions of Pluto and Charon surfaces
** Characterize the neutral (non-ion
An ion () is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge.
The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by conve ...
ized) atmosphere of Pluto
The atmosphere of Pluto is the tenuous layer of gases surrounding Pluto. It consists mainly of nitrogen (N2), with minor amounts of methane (CH4) and carbon monoxide (CO), all of which are vaporized from their ices on Pluto's surface. It contain ...
and its escape rate
* Secondary objectives (expected)
** Characterize the time variability of Pluto's surface and atmosphere
** Image select Pluto and Charon areas in stereo
** Map the terminators (day/night border) of Pluto and Charon with high resolution
** Map the chemical compositions of select Pluto and Charon areas with high resolution
** Characterize Pluto's ionosphere (upper layer of the atmosphere) and its interaction with the solar wind
The solar wind is a stream of charged particles released from the upper atmosphere of the Sun, called the corona. This plasma mostly consists of electrons, protons and alpha particles with kinetic energy between . The composition of the sol ...
** Search for molecular neutral species such as molecular hydrogen
Hydrogen is the chemical element with the symbol H and atomic number 1. Hydrogen is the lightest element. At standard conditions hydrogen is a gas of diatomic molecules having the formula . It is colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, ...
, hydrocarbon
In organic chemistry, a hydrocarbon is an organic compound consisting entirely of hydrogen and carbon. Hydrocarbons are examples of group 14 hydrides. Hydrocarbons are generally colourless and hydrophobic, and their odors are usually weak or ...
s, hydrogen cyanide and other nitriles in the atmosphere
** Search for any Charon atmosphere
** Determine bolometric
A bolometer is a device for measuring radiant heat by means of a material having a temperature-dependent electrical resistance. It was invented in 1878 by the American astronomer Samuel Pierpont Langley.
Principle of operation
A bolometer ...
Bond albedo
The Bond albedo (or ''spheric albedo'' or ''planetary albedo'' or ''bolometric albedo''), named after the American astronomer George Phillips Bond (1825–1865), who originally proposed it, is the fraction of power in the total electromagnetic ra ...
s for Pluto and Charon
** Map surface temperatures of Pluto and Charon
** Map any additional surfaces of outermost moons: Nix, Hydra, Kerberos, and Styx
* Tertiary objectives (desired)
** Characterize the energetic particle environment at Pluto and Charon
** Refine bulk parameters (radii, masses) and orbits of Pluto and Charon
** Search for additional moons
A natural satellite is, in the most common usage, an astronomical body that orbits a planet, dwarf planet, or small Solar System body (or sometimes another natural satellite). Natural satellites are often colloquially referred to as ''moons'' ...
and any rings
Ring may refer to:
* Ring (jewellery), a round band, usually made of metal, worn as ornamental jewelry
* To make a sound with a bell, and the sound made by a bell
:(hence) to initiate a telephone connection
Arts, entertainment and media Film and ...
"The New Horizons flyby of the Pluto system was fully successful, meeting and in many cases exceeding, the Pluto objectives set out for it by NASA and the National Academy of Sciences."
Flyby details
''New Horizons'' passed within of Pluto, with this closest approach on July 14, 2015, at 11:50 UTC. ''New Horizons'' had a relative velocity of at its closest approach, and came as close as to Charon. Starting 3.2 days before the closest approach, long-range imaging included the mapping of Pluto and Charon to resolution. This is half the rotation period of the Pluto–Charon system and allowed imaging of all sides of both bodies. Close range imaging was repeated twice per day in order to search for surface changes caused by localized snow fall or surface cryovolcanism
A cryovolcano (sometimes informally called an ice volcano) is a type of volcano that erupts volatiles such as water, ammonia or methane into an extremely cold environment that is at or below their freezing point. The process of formation is know ...
. Because of Pluto's tilt, a portion of the northern hemisphere would be in shadow at all times. During the flyby, engineers expected LORRI to be able to obtain select images with resolution as high as if closest distance were around 12,500 km, and MVIC was expected to obtain four-color global dayside maps at resolution. LORRI and MVIC attempted to overlap their respective coverage areas to form stereo pairs. LEISA obtained hyperspectral near-infrared maps at globally and for selected areas.
Meanwhile, Alice characterized the atmosphere, both by emissions of atmospheric molecules (airglow
Airglow (also called nightglow) is a faint emission of light by a planetary atmosphere. In the case of Earth's atmosphere, this optical phenomenon causes the night sky never to be completely dark, even after the effects of starlight and diffu ...
), and by dimming of background stars as they pass behind Pluto (occultation
An occultation is an event that occurs when one object is hidden from the observer by another object that passes between them. The term is often used in astronomy, but can also refer to any situation in which an object in the foreground blocks ...
). During and after closest approach, SWAP and PEPSSI sampled the high atmosphere and its effects on the solar wind. VBSDC searched for dust, inferring meteoroid collision rates and any invisible rings. REX performed active and passive radio science. The communications dish on Earth measured the disappearance and reappearance of the radio occultation
Radio occultation (RO) is a remote sensing technique used for measuring the physical properties of a planetary atmosphere or ring system.
Atmospheric radio occultation
Atmospheric radio occultation relies on the detection of a change in a radio ...
signal as the probe flew by behind Pluto. The results resolved Pluto's diameter (by their timing) and atmospheric density and composition (by their weakening and strengthening pattern). (Alice can perform similar occultations, using sunlight instead of radio beacons.) Previous missions had the spacecraft transmit through the atmosphere, to Earth ("downlink"). Pluto's mass and mass distribution were evaluated by the gravitational tug on the spacecraft. As the spacecraft speeds up and slows down, the radio signal exhibited a Doppler shift. The Doppler shift was measured by comparison with the ultrastable oscillator in the communications electronics.
Reflected sunlight from Charon allowed some imaging observations of the nightside. Backlighting by the Sun gave an opportunity to highlight any rings or atmospheric hazes. REX performed radiometry of the nightside.
Satellite observations
''New Horizons'' best spatial resolution of the small satellites is at Nix, at Hydra, and approximately at Kerberos and Styx. Estimates for the dimensions of these bodies are: Nix at ; Hydra at ; Kerberos at ; and Styx at .
Initial predictions envisioned Kerberos as a relatively large and massive object whose dark surface led to it having a faint reflection. This proved to be wrong as images obtained by ''New Horizons'' on July 14 and sent back to Earth in October 2015 revealed that Kerberos was smaller in size, across with a highly reflective surface suggesting the presence of relatively clean water ice similarly to the rest of Pluto's smaller moons.
Post-Pluto events
Soon after the Pluto flyby, in July 2015, ''New Horizons'' reported that the spacecraft was healthy, its flight path was within the margins, and science data of the Pluto–Charon system had been recorded. The spacecraft's immediate task was to begin returning the 6.25 gigabytes of information collected. The free-space path loss
In telecommunication, the free-space path loss (FSPL) (also known as Free Space Loss, FSL) is the attenuation of radio energy between the feedpoints of two antennas that results from the combination of the receiving antenna's capture area plus the ...
at its distance of 4.5 light-hours (3,000,000,000 km) is approximately 303 dB at 7 GHz. Using the high gain antenna
A directional antenna or beam antenna is an antenna which radiates or receives greater power in specific directions allowing increased performance and reduced interference from unwanted sources. Directional antennas provide increased performanc ...
and transmitting at full power, the signal from EIRP
Effective radiated power (ERP), synonymous with equivalent radiated power, is an IEEE standardized definition of directional radio frequency (RF) power, such as that emitted by a radio transmitter. It is the total power in watts that would hav ...
is +83 dBm, and at this distance the signal reaching Earth is −220 dBm. The received signal level (RSL) using one, un-arrayed Deep Space Network
The NASA Deep Space Network (DSN) is a worldwide network of American spacecraft communication ground segment facilities, located in the United States (California), Spain (Madrid), and Australia (Canberra), that supports NASA's interplanetary ...
antenna with 72 dBi of forward gain equals −148 dBm. Because of the extremely low RSL, it could only transmit data at 1 to 2 kilobits per second
In telecommunications, data-transfer rate is the average number of bits (bitrate), characters or symbols (baudrate), or data blocks per unit time passing through a communication link in a data-transmission system. Common data rate units are multi ...
.
By March 30, 2016, about nine months after the flyby, ''New Horizons'' reached the halfway point of transmitting this data. The transfer was completed on October 25, 2016, at 21:48 UTC, when the last piece of data—part of a Pluto–Charon observation sequence by the Ralph/LEISA imager—was received by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (Applied Physics Laboratory, or APL) is a not-for-profit university-affiliated research center (UARC) in Howard County, Maryland. It is affiliated with Johns Hopkins University and emplo ...
.
As of November 2018, at a distance of from the Sun and from 486958 Arrokoth, ''New Horizons'' was heading in the direction of the constellation Sagittarius at relative to the Sun. The brightness of the Sun from the spacecraft was magnitude
Magnitude may refer to:
Mathematics
*Euclidean vector, a quantity defined by both its magnitude and its direction
*Magnitude (mathematics), the relative size of an object
*Norm (mathematics), a term for the size or length of a vector
*Order of ...
−18.5.
On 17 April 2021, ''New Horizons'' reached a distance of 50 astronomical units
The astronomical unit (symbol: au, or or AU) is a unit of length, roughly the distance from Earth to the Sun and approximately equal to or 8.3 light-minutes. The actual distance from Earth to the Sun varies by about 3% as Earth orbits ...
(AU) from the Sun, while remaining fully operational.
Mission extension
The ''New Horizons'' team requested, and received, a mission extension through 2021 to explore additional Kuiper belt objects (KBOs). Funding was secured on July 1, 2016. During this Kuiper Belt Extended Mission (KEM) the spacecraft performed a close fly-by of 486958 Arrokoth
Arrokoth (minor-planet designation 486958 Arrokoth; provisional designation ), formerly nicknamed Ultima Thule, is a trans-Neptunian object located in the Kuiper belt. Arrokoth became the farthest and most primitive object in the Solar System ...
and will conduct more distant observations of an additional two dozen objects, and possibly make a fly-by of another KBO.
Kuiper belt object mission
Target background
Mission planners searched for one or more additional Kuiper belt objects (KBOs) of the order of in diameter as targets for flybys similar to the spacecraft's Plutonian encounter. However, despite the large population of KBOs, many factors limited the number of possible targets. Because the flight path was determined by the Pluto flyby, and the probe only had 33 kilograms of hydrazine propellant remaining, the object to be visited needed to be within a cone of less than a degree's width extending from Pluto. The target also needed to be within 55AU, because beyond 55AU, the communications link becomes too weak, and the RTG power output decays significantly enough to hinder observations. Desirable KBOs are well over in diameter, neutral in color (to contrast with the reddish Pluto), and, if possible, have a moon that imparts a wobble.
KBO Search
In 2011, mission scientists started the New Horizons KBO Search, a dedicated survey
Survey may refer to:
Statistics and human research
* Statistical survey, a method for collecting quantitative information about items in a population
* Survey (human research), including opinion polls
Spatial measurement
* Surveying, the techniq ...
for suitable KBOs using ground telescopes. Large ground telescopes with wide-field cameras, notably the twin 6.5-meter Magellan Telescopes
The Magellan Telescopes are a pair of optical telescopes located at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. The two telescopes are named after the astronomer Walter Baade and the philanthropist Landon T. Clay. First light for the telescopes was on ...
in Chile, the 8.2-meter Subaru Observatory in Hawaii and the Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope
The Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) is located near the summit of Mauna Kea mountain on Hawaii's Big Island at an altitude of 4,204 meters (13,793 feet), part of the Mauna Kea Observatory. Operational since 1979, the telescope is a Pri ...
[Pluto-bound probe faces crisis](_blank)
(nature.com May 20, 2014) were used to search for potential targets. By participating in a citizen-science
Citizen science (CS) (similar to community science, crowd science, crowd-sourced science, civic science, participatory monitoring, or volunteer monitoring) is scientific research conducted with participation from the public (who are sometimes re ...
project called Ice Hunters the public helped to scan telescopic images for possible suitable mission candidates. The ground-based search resulted in the discovery of about 143 KBOs of potential interest, but none of these were close enough to the flight path of ''New Horizons''. Only the Hubble Space Telescope
The Hubble Space Telescope (often referred to as HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most vers ...
was deemed likely to find a suitable target in time for a successful KBO mission. On June 16, 2014, time on Hubble was granted for a search. Hubble has a much greater ability to find suitable KBOs than ground telescopes. The probability that a target for ''New Horizons'' would be found was estimated beforehand at about 95%.
Suitable KBOs
On October 15, 2014, it was revealed that Hubble's search had uncovered three potential targets, temporarily designated PT1 ("potential target 1"), PT2 and PT3 by the ''New Horizons'' team. PT1 was eventually chosen as the target and would be named 486958 Arrokoth
Arrokoth (minor-planet designation 486958 Arrokoth; provisional designation ), formerly nicknamed Ultima Thule, is a trans-Neptunian object located in the Kuiper belt. Arrokoth became the farthest and most primitive object in the Solar System ...
.
All objects had estimated diameters in the range and were too small to be seen by ground telescopes. The targets were at distances from the Sun ranging from 43 to 44 AU, which would put the encounters in the 2018–2019 period. The initial estimated probabilities that these objects were reachable within ''New Horizons'' fuel budget were 100%, 7%, and 97%, respectively. All were members of the "cold" (low-inclination
Orbital inclination measures the tilt of an object's orbit around a celestial body. It is expressed as the angle between a reference plane and the orbital plane or axis of direction of the orbiting object.
For a satellite orbiting the Eart ...
, low-eccentricity
Eccentricity or eccentric may refer to:
* Eccentricity (behavior), odd behavior on the part of a person, as opposed to being "normal"
Mathematics, science and technology Mathematics
* Off-Centre (geometry), center, in geometry
* Eccentricity (g ...
) classical Kuiper belt objects, and thus were very different from Pluto.
PT1 (given the temporary designation "1110113Y" on the HST web site), the most favorably situated object, had a magnitude of 26.8, is in diameter, and was encountered in January 2019. A course change to reach it required about 35% of ''New Horizons'' available trajectory-adjustment fuel supply. A mission to PT3 was in some ways preferable, in that it is brighter and therefore probably larger than PT1, but the greater fuel requirements to reach it would have left less for maneuvering and unforeseen events.
Once sufficient orbital information was provided, the Minor Planet Center gave provisional designations to the three target KBOs: (later 486958 Arrokoth) (PT1), (PT2), and (PT3). By the fall of 2014, a possible fourth target, , had been eliminated by follow-up observations. PT2 was out of the running before the Pluto flyby.
KBO selection
On August 28, 2015, 486958 Arrokoth (then known as and nicknamed ''Ultima Thule'') (PT1) was chosen as the flyby target. The necessary course adjustment was performed with four engine firings between October 22 and November 4, 2015. The flyby occurred on January 1, 2019, at 00:33 UTC.
Observations of other KBOs
Aside from its flyby of 486958 Arrokoth, the extended mission for ''New Horizons'' calls for the spacecraft to conduct observations of, and look for ring systems around, between 25 and 35 different KBOs. In addition, it will continue to study the gas, dust and plasma composition of the Kuiper belt before the mission extension ends in 2021.
On November 2, 2015, ''New Horizons'' imaged KBO 15810 Arawn
15810 Arawn, provisional designation , is a trans-Neptunian object (TNO) from the inner regions of the Kuiper belt, approximately in diameter. It belongs to the plutinos, the largest class of resonant TNOs. It was named after Arawn, the ruler of ...
with the LORRI instrument from . This KBO was again imaged by the LORRI instrument on April 7–8, 2016, from a distance of . The new images allowed the science team to further refine the location of 15810 Arawn to within and to determine its rotational period of 5.47 hours.
In July 2016, the LORRI camera captured some distant images of Quaoar
Quaoar (50000 Quaoar), provisional designation , is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a region of icy planetesimals beyond Neptune. A non-resonant object (cubewano), it measures approximately in diameter, about half the diameter of Pluto. T ...
from ; the oblique view will complement Earth-based observations to study the object's light-scattering properties.
On December 5, 2017, when ''New Horizons'' was 40.9 AU from Earth, a calibration image of the Wishing Well cluster marked the most distant image ever taken by a spacecraft (breaking the 27-year record set by ''Voyager 1
''Voyager 1'' is a space probe launched by NASA on September 5, 1977, as part of the Voyager program to study the outer Solar System and interstellar space beyond the Sun's heliosphere. Launched 16 days after its twin ''Voyager 2'', ''Voya ...
''s famous ''Pale Blue Dot
''Pale Blue Dot'' is a photograph of planet Earth taken on February 14, 1990, by the ''Voyager 1'' space probe from a record distance of about kilometers ( miles, 40.5 AU), as part of that day's ''Family Portrait'' series of images of the ...
''). Two hours later, ''New Horizons'' surpassed its own record, imaging the Kuiper belt objects and from a distance of 0.50 and 0.34 AU, respectively. These were the closest images taken of a Kuiper belt object besides Pluto and Arrokoth .
The dwarf planet Haumea
, discoverer =
, discovered =
, earliest_precovery_date = March 22, 1955
, mpc_name = (136108) Haumea
, pronounced =
, adjectives = Haumean
, note = yes
, alt_names =
, named_after = Haumea
, mp_category =
, orbit_ref =
, epoc ...
was observed from afar by the ''New Horizons'' spacecraft in October 2007, January 2017, and May 2020, from distances of 49 AU, 59 AU, and 63 AU, respectively. ''New Horizons'' has observed the dwarf planets Eris (2020), Haumea (2007, 2017, 2020), Makemake (2007, 2017), and Quaoar (2016, 2017, 2019), as well as the large KBOs Ixion
In Greek mythology, Ixion ( ; el, Ἰξίων, ''gen''.: Ἰξίονος means 'strong native') was king of the Lapiths, the most ancient tribe of Thessaly.
Family
Ixion was the son of Ares, or Leonteus, or Antion and Perimele, or the not ...
(2016), (2016, 2017, 2019), and (2017, 2018). It also observed Neptune's largest moon Triton
Triton commonly refers to:
* Triton (mythology), a Greek god
* Triton (moon), a satellite of Neptune
Triton may also refer to:
Biology
* Triton cockatoo, a parrot
* Triton (gastropod), a group of sea snails
* ''Triton'', a synonym of ''Triturus' ...
(a captured KBO) in 2019.
Encounter with Arrokoth
Objectives
Science objectives of the flyby included characterizing the geology and morphology of Arrokoth and mapping the surface composition (by searching for ammonia, carbon monoxide, methane, and water ice). Searches will be conducted for orbiting moonlets, a coma, rings and the surrounding environment. Additional objectives include:
*Mapping the surface geology to learn how it formed and evolved
*Measuring the surface temperature
*Mapping the 3-D surface topography and surface composition to learn how it is similar to and different from comets such as 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko
67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko (abbreviated as 67P or 67P/C–G) is a Jupiter-family comet, originally from the Kuiper belt, with a current orbital period of 6.45 years, a rotation period of approximately 12.4 hours and a maximum velocity of . Chu ...
and dwarf planets such as Pluto
*Searching for any signs of activity, such as a cloud-like coma
*Searching for and studying any satellites or rings
*Measuring or constraining the mass
Targeting maneuvers
Arrokoth is the first object to be targeted for a flyby that was discovered after the spacecraft was launched. ''New Horizons'' was planned to come within of Arrokoth, three times closer than the spacecraft's earlier encounter with Pluto. Images with a resolution of up to per pixel were expected.
The new mission began on October 22, 2015, when ''New Horizons'' carried out the first in a series of four initial targeting maneuvers designed to send it towards Arrokoth. The maneuver, which started at approximately 19:50 UTC and used two of the spacecraft's small hydrazine-fueled thrusters, lasted approximately 16 minutes and changed the spacecraft's trajectory by about . The remaining three targeting maneuvers took place on October 25, October 28, and November 4, 2015.
Approach phase
The craft was brought out of its hibernation at approximately 00:33 UTC on June 5, 2018 (06:12 UTC ERT, Earth-Received Time), in order to prepare for the approach phase. After verifying its health status, the spacecraft transitioned from a spin-stabilized mode to a three-axis-stabilized mode on August 13, 2018. The official approach phase began on August 16, 2018, and continued through December 24, 2018.
''New Horizons'' made its first detection of Arrokoth on August 16, 2018, from a distance of . At that time, Arrokoth was visible at magnitude 20 against a crowded stellar background in the direction of the constellation Sagittarius.
Flyby
The Core phase began a week before the encounter and continued for two days after the encounter. The spacecraft flew by the object at a speed of and within . The majority of the science data was collected within 48 hours of the closest approach in a phase called the Inner Core. Closest approach occurred January 1, 2019, at 05:33 UTC SCET at which point the probe was from the Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...
. At this distance, the one-way transit time for radio signals between Earth and ''New Horizons'' was six hours. Confirmation that the craft had succeeded in filling its digital recorders occurred when data arrived on Earth ten hours later, at 15:29 UTC.
Data download
After the encounter, preliminary, high-priority data was sent to Earth on January 1 and 2, 2019. On January 9, ''New Horizons'' returned to a spin-stabilized mode to prepare sending the remainder of its data back to Earth. This download was expected to take 20 months at a data rate of 1–2 kilobits per second
In telecommunications, data-transfer rate is the average number of bits (bitrate), characters or symbols (baudrate), or data blocks per unit time passing through a communication link in a data-transmission system. Common data rate units are multi ...
.
As of July 2022, approximately 10% of the data was still left to be received.
Post Arrokoth events
In April 2020, ''New Horizons'' was used in conjunction with telescopes on Earth to take pictures of nearby stars Proxima Centauri and Wolf 359
Wolf 359 is a red dwarf star located in the constellation Leo, near the ecliptic. At a distance of approximately 7.9 light years from Earth, it has an apparent magnitude of 13.54 and can only be seen with a large telescope. Wolf 359 i ...
; the images from each vantage point – over 4 billion miles (6.4 billion km) apart – were compared to produce "the first demonstration of an easily observable stellar parallax."
Images taken by the LORRI camera while ''New Horizons'' was 42 to 45 AU from the Sun were used to measure the cosmic optical background, the visible light analog of the cosmic microwave background
In Big Bang cosmology the cosmic microwave background (CMB, CMBR) is electromagnetic radiation that is a remnant from an early stage of the universe, also known as "relic radiation". The CMB is faint cosmic background radiation filling all spac ...
, in seven high galactic latitude fields. At that distance ''New Horizons'' saw a sky ten times darker than the sky seen by the Hubble Space Telescope
The Hubble Space Telescope (often referred to as HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most vers ...
because of the absence of diffuse background sky brightness from the zodiacal light
The zodiacal light (also called false dawn when seen before sunrise) is a faint glow of diffuse sunlight scattered by interplanetary dust. Brighter around the Sun, it appears in a particularly dark night sky to extend from the Sun's direction ...
in the inner solar system. These measurements indicate that the total amount of light emitted by all galaxies at ultraviolet and visible wavelengths may be lower than previously thought.
The spacecraft reached a distance of 50 AUs from the Sun, almost 7.5 billion kilometers (5 billion miles) away, on 17 April 2021 at 12:42 UTC, a feat performed only four times before, by Pioneer 10
''Pioneer 10'' (originally designated Pioneer F) is an American space probe, launched in 1972 and weighing , that completed the first mission to the planet Jupiter. Thereafter, ''Pioneer 10'' became the first of five artificial objects to ach ...
, Pioneer 11
''Pioneer 11'' (also known as ''Pioneer G'') is a robotic space probe launched by NASA on April 5, 1973, to study the asteroid belt, the environment around Jupiter and Saturn, solar winds, and cosmic rays. It was the first probe to encounter ...
, Voyager 1
''Voyager 1'' is a space probe launched by NASA on September 5, 1977, as part of the Voyager program to study the outer Solar System and interstellar space beyond the Sun's heliosphere. Launched 16 days after its twin ''Voyager 2'', ''Voya ...
, and Voyager 2
''Voyager 2'' is a space probe launched by NASA on August 20, 1977, to study the outer planets and interstellar space beyond the Sun's heliosphere. As a part of the Voyager program, it was launched 16 days before its twin, '' Voyager 1'', o ...
. Voyager 1 is the farthest spacecraft from the Sun, more than 152 AUs away when New Horizons reached its landmark in 2021. The support team continued to use the spacecraft in 2021 to study the heliospheric environment (plasma, dust and gas) and to study other Kuiper Belt objects.
Plans
After the spacecraft passed Arrokoth, the instruments continue to have enough power to be operational until the 2030s.
Team leader Alan Stern stated there is potential for a third flyby in the 2020s at the outer edges of the Kuiper belt. This depends on a suitable Kuiper belt object being found or confirmed close enough to the spacecraft's current trajectory. Since May 2020, the New Horizons team has been using time on the Subaru Telescope to look for suitable candidates within the spacecraft's proximity. As of November 2020, none have been found close enough to the trajectory of New Horizons for it to be able to make a close flyby with its remaining fuel.
''New Horizons'' may also take a picture of Earth from its distance in the Kuiper belt, but only after completing all planned KBO flybys. This is because pointing a camera towards Earth could cause the camera to be damaged by sunlight, as none of ''New Horizons cameras have an active shutter mechanism.
Speed
''New Horizons'' has been called "the fastest spacecraft ever launched" because it left Earth at . It is also the first spacecraft launched directly into a solar escape trajectory, which requires an approximate speed while near Earth of ,[To escape the Sun the spacecraft needs a speed relative to the Sun of the square root of 2 times the speed of the Earth (29.78 km/s), or 42.1 km/s. Relative to the Earth this is just 12.3 km/s. But the kinetic energy when near the surface of the Earth must include the energy to exit the gravity well of the Earth, which requires a speed of about 11 km/s. The total speed needed is the square root of the sum of the squares of these two speeds.] plus additional delta-''v'' to cover air
The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases, known collectively as air, retained by Earth's gravity that surrounds the planet and forms its planetary atmosphere. The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by creating pressure allowing f ...
and gravity drag
In astrodynamics and rocketry, gravity loss is a measure of the loss in the net performance of a rocket while it is thrusting in a gravitational field. In other words, it is the cost of having to hold the rocket up in a gravity field.
Gravity lo ...
, all to be provided by the launch vehicle.
However, it is not the fastest spacecraft to leave the Solar System. , this record is held by ''Voyager 1'', traveling at relative to the Sun. ''Voyager 1'' attained greater hyperbolic excess velocity
In astrodynamics or celestial mechanics, a hyperbolic trajectory or hyperbolic orbit is the trajectory of any object around a central body with more than enough speed to escape the central object's gravitational pull. The name derives from the f ...
than ''New Horizons'' due to gravity assist
In orbital mechanics and aerospace engineering, a gravitational slingshot, gravity assist maneuver, or swing-by is the use of the relative movement (e.g. orbit around the Sun) and gravity of a planet or other astronomical object to alter the p ...
s by Jupiter and Saturn. When ''New Horizons'' reaches the distance of , it will be travelling at about , around slower than ''Voyager 1'' at that distance. The Parker Solar Probe
The Parker Solar Probe (PSP; previously Solar Probe, Solar Probe Plus or Solar Probe+) is a NASA space probe launched in 2018 with the mission of making observations of the outer corona of the Sun. It will approach to within 9.86 solar radii ...
can also be measured as the fastest object, because of its orbital speed
In gravitationally bound systems, the orbital speed of an astronomical body or object (e.g. planet, moon, artificial satellite, spacecraft, or star) is the speed at which it orbits around either the barycenter or, if one body is much more mas ...
relative to the Sun at perihelion
An apsis (; ) is the farthest or nearest point in the orbit of a planetary body about its primary body. For example, the apsides of the Earth are called the aphelion and perihelion.
General description
There are two apsides in any elli ...
: . Because it remains in solar orbit, its specific orbital energy
In the gravitational two-body problem, the specific orbital energy \varepsilon (or vis-viva energy) of two orbiting bodies is the constant sum of their mutual potential energy (\varepsilon_p) and their total kinetic energy (\varepsilon_k), divide ...
relative to the Sun is lower than ''New Horizons'' and other artificial objects escaping the Solar System.
''New Horizons'' Star 48B
The Star 48 is the largest of a family of solid rocket motors used by many space propulsion and launch vehicle stages. It is used almost exclusively as an upper stage. It was developed primarily by Thiokol Propulsion and is now, after several m ...
third stage is also on a hyperbolic escape trajectory from the Solar System, and reached Jupiter before the ''New Horizons'' spacecraft; it was expected to cross Pluto's orbit on October 15, 2015. Because it was not in controlled flight, it did not receive the correct gravity assist, and passed within of Pluto. The Centaur second stage did not achieve solar escape velocity, and remains in a heliocentric orbit.
Gallery
Images of the launch
Videos
Timeline
Preparation phase
* January 8, 2001: Proposal team meets face-to-face for the first time at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.
* February 5, 2001: ''New Horizons'' name chosen.
* April 6, 2001: ''New Horizons'' proposal submitted to NASA. It was one of five proposals submitted, which were later narrowed to two for Phase A study: POSSE (Pluto and Outer Solar System Explorer) and ''New Horizons''.
* November 29, 2001: ''New Horizons'' proposal selected by NASA. Started Phase B study.
* March 2002: Budget zeroed by Bush administration, later overridden.
* June 13, 2005: Spacecraft departed Applied Physics Laboratory
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (Applied Physics Laboratory, or APL) is a not-for-profit university-affiliated research center (UARC) in Howard County, Maryland. It is affiliated with Johns Hopkins University and emplo ...
for final testing. It undergoes final testing at Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC).
* September 24, 2005: Spacecraft shipped to Cape Canaveral. It was moved through Andrews Air Force Base aboard a C-17 Globemaster III
The McDonnell Douglas/Boeing C-17 Globemaster III is a large military transport aircraft that was developed for the United States Air Force (USAF) from the 1980s to the early 1990s by McDonnell Douglas. The C-17 carries forward the name of t ...
cargo aircraft
A cargo aircraft (also known as freight aircraft, freighter, airlifter or cargo jet) is a fixed-wing aircraft that is designed or converted for the carriage of cargo rather than passengers. Such aircraft usually do not incorporate passenger ...
.
* December 17, 2005: Spacecraft ready for in rocket positioning. Transported from Hazardous Servicing Facility to Vertical Integration Facility at Space Launch Complex 41.
* January 11, 2006: Primary launch window opened. The launch was delayed for further testing.
* January 16, 2006: Rocket moved onto launch pad. Atlas V
Atlas V is an expendable launch system and the fifth major version in the Atlas launch vehicle family. It was originally designed by Lockheed Martin, now being operated by United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture between Lockheed Mart ...
launcher, serial number AV-010, rolled out onto pad.
* January 17, 2006: Launch delayed. First day launch attempts scrubbed because of unacceptable weather conditions (high winds).
* January 18, 2006: Launch delayed again. Second launch attempt scrubbed because of morning power outage at the Applied Physics Laboratory
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (Applied Physics Laboratory, or APL) is a not-for-profit university-affiliated research center (UARC) in Howard County, Maryland. It is affiliated with Johns Hopkins University and emplo ...
.
Launch phase
* January 19, 2006: Successful launch at 19:00 UTC after a brief delay due to cloud cover.
Jupiter pre-encounter phase
* April 7, 2006: The probe passed Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...
' orbit 1.5 AU from Earth.
* June 13, 2006: Flyby of asteroid 132524 APL. The probe passed closest to the asteroid 132524 APL in the Asteroid Belt at about 101,867 km at 04:05 UTC. Pictures were taken.
* November 28, 2006: First image of Pluto. The image of Pluto was taken from a great distance.
Jupiter encounter phase
* January 10, 2007: Navigation exercise near Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but slightly less than one-thousandth t ...
. Long-distance observations of Jupiter's outer moon Callirrhoe Callirrhoe (, grc, Καλλιρρόη; also Callirhoe) may refer to:
* Callirhoe (mythology), several figures in Greek mythology, including:
** Callirrhoe (Oceanid), daughter of Oceanus and Tethys
** Callirrhoe (daughter of Achelous)
* Callirrhoe ...
as a navigation exercise.
* February 28, 2007: Jupiter flyby. Closest approach occurred at 05:43:40 UTC at 2.305 million km, 21.219 km/s.
Pluto pre-encounter phase
* June 8, 2008: The probe passed Saturn's orbit 9.5 AU from Earth.
* December 29, 2009: The probe becomes closer to Pluto than to Earth. Pluto was then 32.7 AU from Earth, and the probe was 16.4 AU from Earth.
* February 25, 2010: New Horizons completed , half the total travel distance of .
* March 18, 2011: The probe passes Uranus
Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. Its name is a reference to the Greek god of the sky, Uranus ( Caelus), who, according to Greek mythology, was the great-grandfather of Ares (Mars), grandfather of Zeus (Jupiter) and father of ...
' orbit. This is the fourth planetary orbit the spacecraft crossed since its start. ''New Horizons'' reached Uranus's orbit at 22:00 UTC.
* December 2, 2011: ''New Horizons'' draws closer to Pluto than any other spacecraft has ever been. Previously, ''Voyager 1
''Voyager 1'' is a space probe launched by NASA on September 5, 1977, as part of the Voyager program to study the outer Solar System and interstellar space beyond the Sun's heliosphere. Launched 16 days after its twin ''Voyager 2'', ''Voya ...
'' held the record for the closest approach. (~10.58 AU)
* February 11, 2012: ''New Horizons'' reaches the distance of 10 AU from the Pluto system, at around 4:55 UTC.
* July 1, 2013: ''New Horizons'' captures its first image of Charon. Charon is clearly separated from Pluto using the Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI).
* October 25, 2013: ''New Horizons'' reaches the distance of 5 AU from the Pluto system.
* July 10, 2014: Photos of Neptune and Triton
Triton commonly refers to:
* Triton (mythology), a Greek god
* Triton (moon), a satellite of Neptune
Triton may also refer to:
Biology
* Triton cockatoo, a parrot
* Triton (gastropod), a group of sea snails
* ''Triton'', a synonym of ''Triturus' ...
from about 4 billion km away.
* July 20, 2014: Photos of Pluto and Charon. Images obtained showing both bodies orbiting each other, distance 2.8 AU.
* August 25, 2014: The probe passes Neptune's orbit. This was the fifth planetary orbit crossed.
* December 7, 2014: ''New Horizons'' awakes from hibernation. NASA's Deep Sky Network station at Tidbinbilla, Australia received a signal confirming that it successfully awoke from hibernation.
* January 2015: Observation of Kuiper belt object . Distant observations from a distance of roughly 75 million km (~0.5 AU)[ ]
* January 15, 2015: Start of Pluto observations. ''New Horizons'' is now close enough to Pluto and begins observing the system.
* March 10–11, 2015: ''New Horizons'' reaches a distance of 1 AU from the Pluto system.
* March 20, 2015: NASA invites the general public to suggest names for surface features that may be discovered on Pluto and Charon.
* May 15, 2015: Images exceed best Hubble Space Telescope
The Hubble Space Telescope (often referred to as HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most vers ...
resolution.
Pluto science phase
* July 14, 2015: Flyby of the Pluto system: Pluto
Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the Sun. It is the largest ...
, Charon, Hydra, Nix, Kerberos and Styx.
Flyby of Pluto around 11:49:57 UTC at 12,500 km, 13.78 km/s.
Pluto is 32.9 AU from Sun.
Flyby of Charon around 12:03:50 UTC at 28,858 km, 13.87 km/s.
* July 14, 2015 to October 25, 2016: Transmission of collected data sent back to Earth, and ongoing science discovery based on the observations. The bit rate of the downlink
In a telecommunications network, a link is a communication channel that connects two or more devices for the purpose of data transmission. The link may be a dedicated physical link or a virtual circuit that uses one or more physical links or shar ...
is limited to 1–2 kb/s
In telecommunications, data-transfer rate is the average number of bits ( bitrate), characters or symbols ( baudrate), or data blocks per unit time passing through a communication link in a data-transmission system. Common data rate units are mu ...
, so it took until October 25, 2016, to transmit all the data.
Arrokoth pre-encounter phase
* October 22 – November 4, 2015: Trajectory correction maneuver. A course adjustment for the January 2019 flyby of Arrokoth was performed in a series of four thruster firings of 22 minutes each.
* November 2, 2015: Observation of KBO 15810 Arawn
15810 Arawn, provisional designation , is a trans-Neptunian object (TNO) from the inner regions of the Kuiper belt, approximately in diameter. It belongs to the plutinos, the largest class of resonant TNOs. It was named after Arawn, the ruler of ...
. Long-range observations from a distance of , the closest ever for any Trans-Neptunian Object other than Pluto and 486958 Arrokoth. More images were taken on April 7–8, 2016, at a range of as well.
* July 13–14, 2016: Observation of KBO 50000 Quaoar
Quaoar (50000 Quaoar), provisional designation , is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a region of icy planetesimals beyond Neptune. A non-resonant object (cubewano), it measures approximately in diameter, about half the diameter of Pluto. T ...
. Long-range observations from a distance of gives mission scientists a different perspective in order to study the light-scattering properties of Quaoar's surface.
* February 1, 2017: Trajectory correction maneuver. A small course adjustment towards the January 2019 flyby of Arrokoth was performed with a 44-second thruster firing.
* March 12, 2017: Arrokoth's orbit is deemed to be sufficiently well-resolved that it is formally catalogued as minor planet #486,958 and announced as such via Minor Planet Circular 103886. From now until its naming in November 2019, the object's official designation is to be .
* 2017–2020: Observations of Kuiper belt objects (KBOs). The probe will have opportunities to perform observations of 10 to 20 KBOs visible from the spacecraft's trajectory after the Pluto system flyby. Heliosphere data collection is expected to begin.
* December 9, 2017: Trajectory correction maneuver. This delays the arrival at Arrokoth by a few hours, optimizing coverage by ground-based radio telescopes.
* December 23, 2017 – June 4, 2018: Final hibernation period before the (KBO) Arrokoth encounter.
* August 2018 – March 2019: Distant observations of at least a dozen distant KBOs. Recovered by Subaru Telescope in 2014–2017, enabling ''New Horizons'' observations
* August 13, 2018: Switch from spin stabilization
Spin stabilization is the method of stabilizing a satellite or launch vehicle by means of spin, i.e. rotation along the longitudinal axis. The concept originates from ballistics, where the spin is commonly obtain by means of rifling. For most sate ...
to 3-axis stabilization.
* August 16, 2018 – December 24, 2018: Approach phase. Optical navigation, search for hazardous material around Arrokoth
* August 16, 2018: First detection of Kuiper belt object Arrokoth
* October 4, 2018 – December 2, 2018: Opportunities for trajectory correction maneuvers. Maneuvers scheduled for October 4 and November 20, with backups on October 23 and December 2, respectively
Arrokoth science phase and beyond
* January 1, 2019: Flyby of Arrokoth, then nicknamed Ultima Thule. The flyby occurred at 05:33 UTC, and is the outermost close encounter of any Solar System object.
* January 9, 2019: Switch from 3-axis stabilization to spin stabilization
Spin stabilization is the method of stabilizing a satellite or launch vehicle by means of spin, i.e. rotation along the longitudinal axis. The concept originates from ballistics, where the spin is commonly obtain by means of rifling. For most sate ...
. This ended the Arrokoth flyby, marking the beginning of the downlink phase.
* 2019–2020: Downlink of data from the Arrokoth flyby. Predicted to take approximately 20 months.
* November 12, 2019: The object previously known by the provisional designation
Provisional designation in astronomy is the naming convention applied to astronomical objects immediately following their discovery. The provisional designation is usually superseded by a permanent designation once a reliable orbit has been cal ...
of (later numbered 486958 and nicknamed Ultima Thule) was officially named Arrokoth.
* April 22–23, 2020: Stellar distance measurements to both Proxima Centauri, and Wolf 359
Wolf 359 is a red dwarf star located in the constellation Leo, near the ecliptic. At a distance of approximately 7.9 light years from Earth, it has an apparent magnitude of 13.54 and can only be seen with a large telescope. Wolf 359 i ...
using stereoscopic images from New Horizons and Earth-based telescopes for usable parallax observation.['']Nature
Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are ...
'
Davide Castelvecchi (11 June 2020) Pluto probe offers eye-popping view of neighbouring star Proxima Centauri
doi: 10.1038/d41586-020-01699-6
* April 15, 2021: New Horizons reaches 50 AU from the Sun, becoming the fifth spacecraft to reach the milestone.
* April 30, 2021: End of the first extended mission.
* May 26, 2022: "NASA’s New Horizons mission’s second extended mission proposal was approved." This two-year mission "will make distant observations of Uranus and Neptune map the very faint 'cosmic background' in visible and ultraviolet (UV) light nd useits instruments to understand the motions of charged particles as they interact with the solar wind, and to understand our heliosphere's large-scale structure."
* 2020s: The probe may be able to fly by a third KBO. The probe approached Arrokoth along its rotational axis, which simplified trajectory correction maneuvers, saving fuel that could be used to target another KBO. After the flyby, the spacecraft was left with of fuel.
* Mid to late 2030s: Expected end of the mission, based on RTG decay. Heliosphere data collection expected to be intermittent if instrument power sharing is required.
Post-mission phase
* 2038: ''New Horizons'' will be 100 AU from the Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...
. If still functioning, the probe will explore the outer heliosphere
The heliosphere is the magnetosphere, astrosphere and outermost atmospheric layer of the Sun. It takes the shape of a vast, bubble-like region of space. In plasma physics terms, it is the cavity formed by the Sun in the surrounding interstell ...
and interstellar space along with the Voyager spacecraft
The Voyager program is an American scientific program that employs two robotic interstellar probes, ''Voyager 1'' and ''Voyager 2''. They were launched in 1977 to take advantage of a favorable alignment of Jupiter and Saturn, to fly near th ...
.
See also
* 2006 in spaceflight
This article outlines notable events occurring in 2006 in spaceflight, including major launches and EVAs. 2006 saw Brazil, Iran, and Sweden all get a national into space for the first time.
Launches
, colspan=8,
January
, -
, colsp ...
* Exploration of Pluto
* List of artificial objects leaving the Solar System
The artificial objects leaving the Solar System are all space probes and the upper stages of their launch vehicles, all launched by NASA. Three of the probes, ''Voyager 1'', ''Voyager 2'', and '' New Horizons'' are still functioning and are reg ...
* List of missions to the outer planets
* List of ''New Horizons'' topics
* Mariner Mark II
Mariner Mark II was NASA's planned family of unmanned spacecraft for the exploration of the outer Solar System that were to be developed and operated by JPL between 1980 through the year 2010.
Summary
After the "flagship" multibillion-dollar ...
, a planned family of NASA spacecraft including a Pluto mission
* ''New Horizons 2
''New Horizons 2'' (also ''New Horizons II'', NHII, or NH2) was a proposed mission to the trans-Neptunian objects by NASA. It was conceived as a planetary flyby mission in 2002, based on the ''New Horizons'' spacecraft, which was in development ...
'', a proposed trans-Neptunian object flyby mission
* ''Pioneer 10
''Pioneer 10'' (originally designated Pioneer F) is an American space probe, launched in 1972 and weighing , that completed the first mission to the planet Jupiter. Thereafter, ''Pioneer 10'' became the first of five artificial objects to ach ...
''
* ''Pioneer 11
''Pioneer 11'' (also known as ''Pioneer G'') is a robotic space probe launched by NASA on April 5, 1973, to study the asteroid belt, the environment around Jupiter and Saturn, solar winds, and cosmic rays. It was the first probe to encounter ...
''
* ''Pluto Kuiper Express
''Pluto Kuiper Express'' was an interplanetary space probe that was proposed by Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) scientists and engineers and under development by NASA. The spacecraft was intended to be launched to study Pluto and its moon Charo ...
'', a cancelled NASA Pluto flyby mission
* ''TAU
Tau (uppercase Τ, lowercase τ, or \boldsymbol\tau; el, ταυ ) is the 19th letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the voiceless dental or alveolar plosive . In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 300.
The name in English ...
'', a proposed mission to fly by Pluto
* Timeline of Solar System exploration
This is a timeline of Solar System exploration ordered by date of spacecraft launch. It includes:
*All spacecraft that have left Earth orbit for the purposes of Solar System exploration (or were launched with that intention but failed), includ ...
* ''Voyager 1
''Voyager 1'' is a space probe launched by NASA on September 5, 1977, as part of the Voyager program to study the outer Solar System and interstellar space beyond the Sun's heliosphere. Launched 16 days after its twin ''Voyager 2'', ''Voya ...
''
* ''Voyager 2
''Voyager 2'' is a space probe launched by NASA on August 20, 1977, to study the outer planets and interstellar space beyond the Sun's heliosphere. As a part of the Voyager program, it was launched 16 days before its twin, '' Voyager 1'', o ...
''
Notes
References
Further reading
*
*
*
*
External links
''New Horizons'' website
by NASA
''New Horizons'' website
by the Applied Physics Laboratory
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (Applied Physics Laboratory, or APL) is a not-for-profit university-affiliated research center (UARC) in Howard County, Maryland. It is affiliated with Johns Hopkins University and emplo ...
''New Horizons'' profile
by NASA's Planetary Science Division
''New Horizons'' profile
by the National Space Science Data Center The NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive (NSSDCA) serves as the permanent archive for NASA space science mission data. "Space science" includes astronomy and astrophysics, solar and space plasma physics, and planetary and lunar science. A ...
''New Horizons'' Flyby
of ''Ultima Thule'' – Best Places to Follow Future News.
''New Horizons'' Flyby
– Musical Tribute by astrophysicist Brian May
Brian Harold May (born 19 July 1947) is an English guitarist, singer, songwriter, and astrophysicist, who achieved worldwide fame as the lead guitarist of the rock band Queen. May was a co-founder of Queen with lead singer Freddie Mercury and ...
(who consulted on the project[NASA Gets Some Help From Guitarist Brian May On Its New Horizons Probe]
, NPR, aired January 2, 2019.) and the band Queen
Queen or QUEEN may refer to:
Monarchy
* Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom
** List of queens regnant
* Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king
* Queen dowager, the widow of a king
* Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...
.
''New Horizons'' Mission Archive
at the NASA Planetary Data System, Small Bodies Node
''New Horizons: Kuiper Belt Extended Mission (KEM)'' Mission Archive
at the NASA Planetary Data System, Small Bodies Node
{{Authority control
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Radio frequency propagation
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Space probes launched in 2006
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