Rosetta flyby of Asteroid Steins, 5th September 2008 Options

[peter59]

Only 78 days to Stein encounter ! I can't believe I forgot about this event.

[tasp]

I am just trying to find activities for NH when it is further out from Pluto and less busy. The earlier anything new and unexpected is found in the Pluto system, maybe we have time to reprioritize the flyby. (not that Alan Stern needs more work )

Nix and Hydra are so faint, tying up HST for light curve data seems not a good use of assets, especially if NH can make similar or better observations during later cruise phase.

I just don't know effective magnitude limits for NH instruments and when various objects in Pluto system become usefully visible. That other craft in solar system are making (to me) surprising studies from great distances (159 million kilometers!!) seems to suggest useful info might be possible from other missions too, and at surprising distances. When do the orbits of Nix and Hydra subtend more than, let's say, 10 arcseconds, as seen from NH?

(Thanx for the Tempel 1 info, I didn't know they had the rotation period accurate enough to know now which hemisphere would be visible during next flyby)