New Horizons Arrives At Ksc Options

[Redstone]

NASA Press Release
APL press release
Space.com Article

Coming up...
October: communications checks
November: hydrazine loading and Atlas V countdown rehearsal
December: integration with Atlas V
January: LAUNCH!

No pictures on the KSC webcams yet.

But still pictures here.


Is that the flight RTG attached to the spacecraft? Or just a dummy?

[RNeuhaus]

New update about NH. Good detail about 7 science instruments.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

http://www.spacedaily.com/news/outerplanets-05o.html

Rodolfo

[Guest_Richard Trigaux_*]

What will New Horizons do near Pluto?

Just a fly-by or satellize?

And, eventually, after, will it try to reach other objects, or will it just escape on an interstellar trajectory?

I know that satellizing around Pluto is more difficult than around Saturn, but if we accept the price it can be done.