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

[tacitus]

Have any potential Kuiper belt objects been detected for after the Pluto flyby?

I'm a little worried that they won't find anything reachable.

Short answer is that they haven't even started looking in earnest yet -- the search proper will begin in 2011 when the background for the search isn't so cluttered with stars. They will still have plenty of time to search the relatively small field accessible to New Horizons after it leaves the vicinity of Pluto.

[ugordan]

A little piece of Burt Rutan / Scaled Composite's Space Ship 1, that won the Google Lunar X-Prize.

You mean the "regular" X-Prize, don't you?

[djellison]

Maybe.

Cough ahem.

[Guest_Enceladus75_*]

Most of the public don't realise that, like the Pioneers and Voyagers, New Horizons is leaving our solar system permanently. This is an important aspect of the mission IMO. I was wondering...if NH is on a hyperbolic trajectory and will eventually enter interstellar space, are there plans afoot, like there were with the Voyagers, to keep drawing science data from it until it crosses the heliosphere and into interstellar space? It would seem like a waste not to.

The more probes doing this, the merrier.

[djellison]

That issue's been mentioned already - have a bit of a google for it.

[stevesliva]

I was wondering...if NH is on a hyperbolic trajectory and will eventually enter interstellar space, are there plans afoot, like there were with the Voyagers, to keep drawing science data from it until it crosses the heliosphere and into interstellar space? It would seem like a waste not to.

The better question is how long it can keep the relevant instruments and its transmitter powered. The previous answers--if I recall correctly-- it that the single less-than-fully-fueled RTG may not last as long as we all hope.

But yup, if you google with site:unmannedspaceflight.com, you might find this:
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...&#entry5691

[Alan Stern]

Nine Mementos Headed to the Ninth Planet
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/overview/piPerspec...tive_10_23_2008

[ElkGroveDan]

Thanks Alan, that was fun.

[tedstryk]

Hi Alan,

I know that earth-based observers, NH, and Cassini are planning to team up to study Pluto's phase curve. I know that similar observations are planned for Triton using NH and earthbased data. Are there any plans to team up with Cassini on any of the Triton observations?

Thanks,

Ted

[Ken90000]

I bet not.

Right now, Neptune is about 20 degrees from the sun as view form Cassini. Although that distance is increasing, things move very slowly in the outer solar system. Aiming the cameras so close to the Sun would be nasty. Likewise, I bet the image would suffer glare issues.

Lastly, with Neptune beyond the inner solar system, the phase angle is not that different from what we can observe from Earth.

NH will observe a large change in phase angles on Neptune between now and the Pluto encounter.

[Alan Stern]

I bet not.

Right now, Neptune is about 20 degrees from the sun as view form Cassini. Although that distance is increasing, things move very slowly in the outer solar system. Aiming the cameras so close to the Sun would be nasty. Likewise, I bet the image would suffer glare issues.

Lastly, with Neptune beyond the inner solar system, the phase angle is not that different from what we can observe from Earth.

NH will observe a large change in phase angles on Neptune between now and the Pluto encounter.

Right Ken. So the bottom line: We didn't make plans with Cassini.

[Alan Stern]

1000 days in flight, some comments:

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/eForms/1000DaysResponses.php

[tedstryk]

Thanks Alan and Ken, I hadn't thought about Neptune being near conjunction.

[Guest_PhilCo126_*]

Amazing to see which "items" New Horizons is carrying: from post stamps to the late Clyde Tombaugh's ashes:
http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-102808a.html

[Vultur]

Wow. Looking at the "where is it now" website, New Horizons is already over 12 AUs from Earth! And even so, it'll be longer from Saturn's orbit to Uranus' orbit than from Earth's to Mars's to Jupiter's to Saturn's. Just shows how far apart things really are out that far...