New Horizons late cruise, 500 Millions kms - ~200 million kms Options

[Holder of the Tw...]

Well I have to say it ...

I always had faith in them.

www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=2048&view=findpost&p=37681

Congratulations!

[Aldebaran]

We'll soon see how similar Pluto is to Triton (or not as the case may be). Exciting times indeed.

[SFJCody]

2016 -2017 (like 1990 -1991) should be a great time for bringing out books on the solar system.

So, rough back-of-the-laptop calculation has a cruise time to KBO encounter of ~3.5 years. That's assuming constant speed, ~1 billion miles further to go. Here's to hoping a few more pop out of the woodwork!

May have to delay that textbook by a couple of years!

I asked Alex Parker about the possibility of searching for scattered disc objects:

We've tossed this idea around. It will require more study of the scattered disk population to know if this is feasible.

[0101Morpheus]

They would most likely need to apply for Hubble time again. When someone inevitably writes a book on New Horizons they will have to mention the invaluable amount of help Hubble has done for the mission.

[stevesliva]

Mag 26.8 for PT1 ... according to Wikipedia, visible from 8m telescopes? They don't need hubble exclusively to track it?

[0101Morpheus]

I meant if they wanted to look for a scattered disk object like SFJCody suggested. Not PT1.

Incidentally, which telescope do you think would be able to find KBOs better, Hubble or the Webb?

[john_s]

We will probably try to track these guys from the ground. From our ground-based search campaign, we already have a huge amount of data covering the locations of these objects, from 6-meter and 8-meter telescopes, going back to 2011. These KBOs are too faint to have been *discovered* in those data, but now we know where look, we might be able to *recover* them from the images, and thus extend our knowledge of their orbits. We'll be working on that over the winter, and will also be considering future ground-based tracking observations. Future ground-based tracking won't be as precise as Hubble's, but may provide a useful supplement and backup to Hubble- we'll see.

John

[nprev]

John, this is probably a very premature question, but if JWST launches as currently scheduled could it too play a part in final pre-encounter position & size observations of PT1? Main reason I ask is that STScI is to be the controlling organization for both scopes, if I'm not mistaken.

[john_s]

Yes, quite possibly, *if* it launches in 2018- we certainly won't be counting on it! Keep in mind, of course, that PT1 isn't necessarily our final choice- the other two are still in the running.

John

[nprev]

The NH final wakeup coverage is live now here. (began 0200 GMT/7 Dec)

EDIT: Also, here's a link to Eyes On The DSN. DSS43 at Canberra is currently listening for NH.

[Gerald]

Looks like incoming signal:

Edit: And this looks like data:

[nprev]

I have confirmation from a trusted source that telemetry is being received. Good morning, New Horizons!!!

EDIT: Comments indicate that wake-up telemetry was "fully nominal". Excellent and most welcome news!

[punkboi]

On Pluto's Doorstep, NASA's New Horizons Spacecraft Awakens for Encounter

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/news_center/news/20141206.php

[Aldebaran]

Excellent news. Does anybody know when we can expect the next set of LORRI images of the Pluto system?

[Paolo]

you will find all the answers to your questions in Emily's blog:
The New Horizons science mission to the Pluto-Charon system is about to begin