New Horizons Jupiter Encounter Options

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

I thought I'd start a new thread for this:

Jupiter Encounter Begins
January 10, 2007

[elakdawalla]

In some senses, Alan said, they were pushing the spacecraft: they have twice as many observations planned for the Jupiter flyby as for their current straw-man Pluto plan (each observation may consist of multiple measurements). He said that based upon the spacecraft's performance, they may increase or reduce the number of observations at Pluto. However, there are some things they'll be doing at Pluto that they won't at Jupiter. For instance, the Pluto plan will have "retargetable" blocks, points in the science plan where the science team can optionally choose different observations, depending upon what they see during approach. They didn't have time to plan that sort of thing for Jupiter.

--Emily

[JRehling]

For instance, the Pluto plan will have "retargetable" blocks, points in the science plan where the science team can optionally choose different observations, depending upon what they see during approach. They didn't have time to plan that sort of thing for Jupiter.

--Emily

That's interesting. Of course, Jupiter has already been the subject of six spacecrafts' imagery and is an easy target for HST, so for the most part, there wouldn't be the same call for change of plan -- a big Io eruption withstanding.

Making last-minute calls during the Pluto encounter could be a gritty affair. Given two alternatives, whatever you choose NOT to observe is going to remain unknown for a long time. Unlike the MERs, you can't sit still for an arbitrary amount of time and hash it out by committe. No pressure on the mission team, though!