New Horizons: Pre-launch, launch and main cruise, Pluto and the Kuiper belt Options

[cIclops]

Yes it's happening after all these years, the mission to the last planet!

And maybe to celebrate the confirmation of budget, NASA approval preparations and the fueling of the RTG (radioisotope thermoelectric generator), there is an updated web site at http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/

Launch will be January 2006 with arrival at the Pluto Charon system July 2015 (mark your calender!) and then on through the Kuiper belt during 2016-2020 and beyond.

20.8-centimeter telescope for 100m resolution at closest approach
IR/UV spectrometers
2 x 8GB data recorders
data rate: 768 bps (sic) to 70m DSN
465kg including fuel
$650m

336 days to launch

[cIclops]

It's not about doing what is best in terms of systems efficiency, it's about minimizing risk. The saying we use is that "better is the enemy of good enough."  There is also that pesky detail of having limited budgets, so aerospace geeks and PIs love to say, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Enough said.

"Better is the enemy of good enough" yes I've heard that one before. Apparently it was the motto hung on the wall of Admiral Sergei Gorshkov, father and architect of the modern Soviet Navy, to remind him of the relative quality of the US and Soviet fleets.

Clearly in a project like NH success is the only real measure and that means the
unfailing execution of the baseline mission. Yet as technology advances there is a pattern of significantly reducing risk either by adding more complexity or by using new approaches. The test test test method is limited by the time and resources available and constrained by the design.

"He who knows that enough is enough will always have enough" - Lao Tsu