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Where is New Horizons now
NW71
post Sep 25 2010, 07:42 PM
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This one is updated every second...
[/quote]

About an hour ago NH became further away from Earth than it is Jupiter according to that website.

Neil
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Alan Stern
post Sep 26 2010, 12:24 AM
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QUOTE (infocat13 @ Sep 25 2010, 05:52 PM) *
what is the current thinking on imaging outer planet Trojans with NH ? smile.gifsmile.gif



We're actively looking for a Neptune Trojan to fly by, but the statistics make it clear we have only a TINY, TINY shot at it.

What we can do is to develop phase curves on one or more, we hope-- now that Scott Shepard is finding Trojans in the L4 cloud we'll actually fly through. Of course, such imaging won't resolve the targets unless we get VERY lucky and have one VERY close to our nominal course, in which case I'd consider spending fuel to make a REAL flyby. But even the phase curve science is unique and we're looking forward to performing it ca. 2013-2015.

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dmuller
post Sep 26 2010, 01:47 AM
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When I wrote my realtime simulation for New Horizons quite some time ago, I calculated that NH crosses the Neptune orbit on 24 AUG 2014, and comes to within 3.8AU of the actual Neptune L5 point on 06 NOV 2014 (that's approximate, couldn't find SPICE kernels or ephemeris for L5).

By the way, does anybody know if current New Horizons SPICE kernels are on the net (like they are for most other missions), or where I could get them from (HORIZONS uses a reference trajectory that seems a bit 'old', pre-2010 TCM)? Thanks in advance!

Also, I will look for 2008 LC18 (the first trailing Neptune trojan found) kernels/ephemeris and include in my sim in due course, though I heard that one will be too far from NH to observe.


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nprev
post Sep 26 2010, 03:12 AM
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I think the dust counter data will be the most interesting part of the L4 transit. AFAIK, this will be the first time any spacecraft has flown through a planet's L4 or L5 point (except for Earth's, of course.)


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A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.
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dmuller
post Sep 26 2010, 12:21 PM
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According to trajectory data in HORIZONS, New Horizons closest approach to 2008LC18 is on 01-MAY-2015 at 6.005AU


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yaohua2000
post Oct 7 2010, 12:53 AM
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New Horizons is now no more than 2.1 trillion meters away from 134340 Pluto

Date and Time: 2010-10-06 23:19:53 Orbiter UTC
Range: 2,100,000,000,000 meters
Range-rate: -14406 meters per second
Velocity: 14406 meters per second
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ups
post Oct 9 2010, 11:23 PM
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Can you even imagine how exciting this is going to get when NH is about 6 months out?
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Alan Stern
post Oct 17 2010, 01:34 AM
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Where is New Horizons tonight? She's half way along the journey-- with no more days in front of us than behind us. Go New Horizons! Go exploration!
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nprev
post Oct 17 2010, 01:40 AM
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Yep, I saw that. Congratulations, Alan; here's to a smooth remaining cruise, it's all downhill from here! wink.gif

GO NEW HORIZONS!!!


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Alan Stern
post Oct 26 2010, 02:23 PM
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Where is the New Horizons Centaur Stage Now? (for release this week)
by Alan Stern and Yanping Guo


When New Horizons launched at 2pm Eastern time on 19 January 2006, its first Atlas V stage and solid rocket boosters all fell back to Earth within minutes of launch, never entering orbit.

New Horizons then proceeded on to Earth orbit aboard its Atlas V’s powerful Centaur second stage, which then re-ignited that afternoon to propel itself, New Horizons, and our STAR-48 3rd stage solid rocket to escape Earth orbit.

Just seconds after the Centaur stage completed that Earth escape maneuver, it was discarded, and New Horizons was propelled onto its Pluto trajectory by a brief (84 second) but powerful (up to 13 G!) burn of its third stage. That derelict third stage is now traveling out of the solar system in the general direction of Pluto, much like New Horizons, though it will miss Pluto by hundreds of millions of miles because it had no ability to make the course corrections to precisely target for Pluto as New Horizons itself has.

But what became of the also now derelict Centaur second stage New Horizons left behind? It’s orbiting between the Earth and the asteroid belt, with a period of 2.83 years, never reaching farther than 3 times as far from the Sun as the Earth does.

Orbital calculations reveal that the approximate current positions of New Horizons, its STAR-48 third stage, and its Centaur second stage are as shown in the figure below. Our Centaur stage is now on its second orbit of the Sun, having just past its aphelion, or greatest distance from the Sun, and is now approaching the orbit of Mars as it falls back sunward.





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nprev
post Oct 26 2010, 03:58 PM
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Hey, this is different; thanks, Alan!

I'm a bit amazed that the third stage also completed the Jupiter gravity assist and is only separated from NH by a few hundred miles at this point; hadn't really thought about that before. Makes me wonder if something like a "PCROSS" mission would be possible someday (not that I see any value from that, but it's interesting to think about.)


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Alan Stern
post Oct 26 2010, 04:07 PM
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QUOTE (nprev @ Oct 26 2010, 04:58 PM) *
Hey, this is different; thanks, Alan!

I'm a bit amazed that the third stage also completed the Jupiter gravity assist and is only separated from NH by a few hundred miles at this point; hadn't really thought about that before. Makes me wonder if something like a "PCROSS" mission would be possible someday (not that I see any value from that, but it's interesting to think about.)



Clever, but the 3rd stage is very far away from NH, and can't possible be set on a course to impact PLuto even if it was close.

Alan
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ugordan
post Oct 26 2010, 04:21 PM
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QUOTE (nprev @ Oct 26 2010, 05:58 PM) *
I'm a bit amazed that the third stage also completed the Jupiter gravity assist and is only separated from NH by a few hundred miles at this point;

As Alan says, the two objects are much, much more distant than a few hundred miles. Eyeballing that graph I'd say the current distance is something like 0.3 AU.


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nprev
post Oct 26 2010, 07:27 PM
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Yeah, I don't know where I got the 'few hundred miles'...wasn't from the graphic, swear I saw it written in the article.

Well, my brain continues to merrily rot away. Thanks for the correction, Alan & Gordan.


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dmuller
post Oct 27 2010, 09:30 AM
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Any chance to get some trajectory figures or ephemeris on stage 3 (x,y,z,t would be nice) somewhere ... could add distance from NH to 3rd stage to my realtime sims!


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