New Horizons Arrives At Ksc Options

[Guest_Richard Trigaux_*]

It's a pity that the cops weren't able to pull him over. It can't be often that they get the opportunity to ticket someone for endangering a United States spacecraft.

[djellison]

Lots of posts deleted - it had all got far too political and personal.....consider lots of wrists slapped!!


Doug

[hal_9000]

Exploring NASA Links, I found a link for New Horizons' clean room....
Feed is here:




Good Watching...

Attached File(s)

 feedcleanroom.ram ( 99bytes ) Number of downloads: 507

 

[ljk4-1]

MISSION: New Horizons
LAUNCH VEHICLE: Lockheed Martin Atlas V 551 (AV-010)
LAUNCH PAD: Complex 41
LAUNCH SITE: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida
LAUNCH DATE: Jan. 11, 2006
LAUNCH WINDOW: 2:07 to 4:07 p.m. EST

The Centaur stage was hoisted onto the Atlas booster on Tuesday, and
mating should be completed by this weekend. New Horizons spacecraft
testing and processing activities in the clean room are on schedule.
The instrument to measure the solar wind around Pluto was installed
in the spacecraft and tested Oct. 6. Spacecraft communications
testing with Deep Space Network tracking stations is scheduled for
tomorrow and Saturday.

Previous status reports are available on the Web at:

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/launch...ets/status/2005

For information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

[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.

[mchan]

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.

The New Horizons website has a good summary and more --

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/mission/mission_timeline.html

Getting into orbit around Pluto is _much_ more difficult than it is for Saturn. For a short time of flight, the flyby speed will be high. And Pluto has very little gravity to help compared to Saturn. You would need an incredible amount of fuel or exotic propulsion.

[Guest_Richard Trigaux_*]

OK, a fast fly-by, and perhaps an attempt to rendez-vous another small Kuyper belt object in the following years.

[RNeuhaus]

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.

The mission of NH is not only focused on the binary Pluton and Charion but also of the remants of Kiups Belt. Up to now, it is still unknown which them the NH will visit. Hence, now, 15 years away, it is still to early to identify them. Hence, its fly-by trip will last up to 2-3 hours to cover all 6 of 7 (Alice, Raplh, LORRI, PEPSSI, SWAP, and REX) science instruments on them.

Rodolfo

[Guest_BruceMoomaw_*]

Alan Stern says its RTG fuel -- although less than originally planned -- can keep it working for about 10 years after the 2015 Pluto flyby. Hopefully that's enough to get at least one flyby of a small additional KBO (as yet unidentified) -- or two of them, if we're really lucky.

(That's still almost a decade less than the two Voyagers have already worked! I wonder how long NH could be kept working and sending back data from just its three instruments that are relevant to deep-space observations.)

[Comga]

Alan Stern says its RTG fuel -- although less than originally planned -- can keep it working for about 10 years after the 2015 Pluto flyby.  Hopefully that's enough to get at least one flyby of a small additional KBO (as yet unidentified) -- or two of them, if we're really lucky. 

They (and all of us) would have to be extremely lucky to get two KBO targets. The limitation is not RTG power, but fuel. The odds on being able to divert to one KBO target are supposed to be good, but not so the odds on discovering two KBOs pretty much in line. The spacecraft can only turn its path something like a degree or two. That's a pretty narrow cone in which to discover targets.

[punkboi]

It's a pity that the cops weren't able to pull him over. It can't be often that they get the opportunity to ticket someone for endangering a United States spacecraft.

HAHAHA! So true

[imran]

Pluto rocket in Florida damaged by Hurricane Wilma

A Lockheed Martin Atlas 5 rocket being prepared to launch NASA's first probe to Pluto was slightly damaged when Hurricane Wilma cut a swath through Florida but should still be able to launch as planned, officials said on Friday.

[BPCooper]

Pluto rocket in Florida damaged by Hurricane Wilma

The rocket itself was not damaged, don't trust Klotz. Just some ground equipment.

[Redstone]

As we get closer to launch, I thought post this chart of New Horizon's Launch window. It's taken from the NH presentation to the October meeting of OPAG.



The prime window is only 17 days long. After that, NH's arrival at Pluto gets later fast. Amazingly, the later part of the window sents NH on a Pluto-direct trajectory. No gravity assists. Even considering the longer flight time, and the fact that the mission involves a lot of rocket for a little spacecraft, a direct throw out of the solar system is pretty impressive. Hopefully, it won't be needed!

If the window is missed completely, then NH will launch in 2007, and we'll have to wait to 2019-2021 to see Pluto.

Fingers crossed!