Resolution of best HST images (FOC and ACS/HRC cameras) of Pluto is ~500 km/pix. New Horizons' monochromatic camera LORRI has similar resolution from distance ~100 millions km. It'll be three months before Pluto flyby.

I just watched Alan Stern's presentation to the DPS congress on ustream (http://www.ustream.tv/channel/aas-reno)
he showed some of the studies being carried out for the safe-haven trajectories. I wonder: is the presentation somewhere on the net? or can Alan share it with us?

Get an article, sorry not Alan's but well: http://spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=38923

Just over 1000 days to closest approach.

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/

Here you go!

thanks, I would really like to have a better look at two graphs that were in the prez: that of the possible "cloud" distribution of debris in the Pluto system, and that showing some possible bail-out trajectories relative to Pluto and its moons

Happy New Year 2013 from New Horizons!...Been waiting to say this for a long, long time, and now I can-- WE EXPLORE PLUTO THE YEAR AFTER NEXT! !

Indeed!!!

Alan, how's the Pluto system observation campaign going with respect to trajectory selection for C/A? I assume the ground-based part can't start again for a month or two (at least) given the time of year?

We've been doing a lot of work with HST and modelling the dynamics, and also using high speed guns to test how hard our spacecraft is to impacts by various size particles. We'll be selecting SHBOT trajectories in Jan and Feb from those data...

New Horizons has exited hibernation. Active operations begin tomorrow and will extend through January 30th.

Awesome on all counts, Alan. Seems like my anticipation grows year after year...will switch to a monthly "oh boy oh boy oh boy!!!" schedule shortly...

...Just 3 more hibernations left (this winter/spring, this summer/fall), next winter/spring. In May 2014 we exit hibernation to begin encounter pre-ops leading to encounter start 2 years from this week..

How time flies. Seems like we had the thrill of launch just the other day...

--Bill

Yes, time flies - fast. I was always going to experiment a bit by processing some of the PDS Jupiter flyby data (FITS files) from LORRI, MVIC and maybe LEISA to be ready for the Pluto flyby. By doing that I wouldn't have to spend (possibly lots of) time figuring it out once the Pluto data is released and I would be able to immediately do something with that data. However, I have always delayed this in favour of something else because the Pluto flyby has been so far away in the future. Now I'm realizing that if I want to experiment with the Jupiter flyby before the Pluto flyby I will soon not be be able to delay that project any longer because suddenly the Pluto flyby isn't that far away. Feels a bit strange...

Upload of new command & data handling (C&DH) software for New Horizons with a key operating system bug fix begins today, finishes Saturday.

Hey Alan! Terrific job on this project. Just a quick question to you: is it physically possible for New Horizons to enter Pluto's orbit? I know that this won't happen, I'm just interested.

It's physically impossible for New Horizons. Pluto's orbiter must be capable of delta v around 10 km/s and New Horizons is capable of only few 100's m/s.
But it's not impossible for dedicated orbiter, you can look here - Pluto Orbiter Probe.

Thanks for the comment, but what do you mean by delta v? Additional question: will New Horizons be able to slow down as it approaches Pluto?

Change in velocity. Takes lots of energy (available fuel) to change velocity.

Not without a 'lithobraking' maneuver, which I would not recommend

As Floyd wrote, delta v is total change in velocity which the spacecraft is capable of, by using its own propulsion system (fuel system + thrusters).
Because Pluto's flyby is planned at speed 13.78 km/s and delta v for New Horizons is ~250 m/s (0.25 km/s) , slowing down is meaningless.
Moreover New Horizons needs its precious fuel for targeting another KBO.
I recommend you this page with PDFs about every aspect of New Horizons mission and I suppose that you will find there answers to your questions.

a new paper on the results of the Jupiter encounter: MeV electrons detected by the Alice UV spectrograph during the New Horizons flyby of Jupiter

It's been over five years since LORRI last looked at Pluto; any plans to look again? Charon should be resolvable and visibly separate by now, if the article posted back then is correct.

The spacecraft's distance to Pluto is 7.15 AU. Will it be able to take any decent images?

I expect two points of light at this point. Images will overtake Hubble at t- 10 weeks from close approach, though observation will start 5 months earlier (see http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/mission/mission_timeline.php ) ADMIN: Link corrected.

Will New Horizons be in a position to see mutual Pluto-Charon events? I remember before Hubble there were some rather heroic attempts to map Pluto's surface from measurements taken during Charon transits; I'm wondering if New Horizons gives another chance to try to play the same game before it gets close enough to see resolved detail.

I don't think so. This is a flyby mission.

In the months long approach phase, NH will be watching as Charon and Pluto orbit each other many times. Whether this includes any mutual events, I don't know.

I got un-lazy and remembered the awesome geoviz tool the New Horizons scientists put up that anyone can use. With a bit of playing around, I see that the point of view from now to a month before close approach shows the orbits from a "bull's eye" view. Nowhere close to edge on, so no chance of transits.

Attached is the composite view of the satellite orbits for 5 dates from geoviz.

There's also this from the Wikipedia entry on Charon:

Pluto and Charon entered a five-year period of mutual eclipses and transits between 1985 and 1990. This occurs when the Pluto–Charon orbital plane is edge-on as seen from Earth, which only happens at two intervals in Pluto's 248-year orbital period. It was fortuitous that one of these intervals happened to occur so soon after Charon's discovery.


I guess the plane of NH's view is not much different from Earth's, so NH would have to wait another hundred years just as we do here on Earth. Hopefully there will be other options for studying Pluto by then!

There will be tens of Pluto orbiters by then.

ADMIN: Link corrected.

The LORRI resolution should be roughly 6000 km/pixel at NH's current distance from Pluto so the images wouldn't exactly be spectacular - but if NH imaged the Pluto system now, Pluto and Charon should show up as two points of light when Charon is near its maximum elongation from Pluto.

Your link is 404'ing.

ADMIN NOTE: Rather than make that unhelpful post, wouldn't it have been better to look at the URL and check to see what the error is?
It is obvious that the 'close bracket' ')' is the error in the posted link, you could have easily remedied it yourself and posted the correct one.
Remember that UMSF is about contributing information.

Corrected link:
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/mission/mission_timeline.php

By the way, what will be Uranus' and Nepune's positions when NH flies by them? Any chance of high-resolution images?

None at all. NH is past Uranus--which was distant anyhow--and Neptune will be tens of degrees away plus out out of the plane of the spacecraft's trajectory.

This is an extremely cool link to monitor NH's progress.

Here's the link to the planets' positions when when NH crossed their orbit (hopefully my link works this time!)

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/mission/passingpla...ets_current.php

With distances measured in the billions of kilometres, it makes the scale of the outer solar system more comprehensible. The Jupiter system and that asteroid in the main belt were the last exceptions until the main show starts...

Votes are in from the public for official names for newly-discovered P4 and P5.
Most popular are 'Vulcan' (I wonder why ) and 'Cerberus'

I personally think Vulcan should be saved in case of the remote chance of finding something orbiting the sun within Mercury's orbit.

I am sorry for the trekkies, but Vulcan makes no sense from either a mythological POV (no direct relation with Pluto) or an historical POV. and we already have an asteroid called Cerberus (I know there are lots of names that are duplicated between asteroids and moons, but so much better if we can avoid this)
I voted for Acheron and Styx, with the idea that if more moons are found, we can go on naming them after rivers of the underworld (Tartarus would be good as well)

Doubly sorry for the trekies, but I would go for R2D2 and C3P0.

I noticed that tomorrow New Horizons' distance from Pluto drops to less than 1 billion km. That must be a milestone. And now there are only a little more than two years until NH flies by Pluto.

Yep; just checked it on Yaohua's page:
http://www.yaohua2000.org/cgi-bin/New%20Horizons.pl

Look at that map! Unbelievable how fast the time has flown.

Today is a BIG day. Today is the day when New Horizons will be exactly ONE BILLION KILOMETERS away from 134340 Pluto. The historic moment will be occurred on March 28 at 15:58:18 UTC (SCET w/o LT correction), when New Horizons's range rate relative to 134340 at -13.889 km/s, and relative to the Earth at -14.717 km/s. Yes, the probe is running toward both 134340 and the Earth right now.

That's awesome! I'll tweet it for NH.

Thank you yaohua2000 for the milestone heads-up.

Sorry for a bit of nitpicking, but as for the "probe is running toward Earth" - isn't it rather that Earth are moving in its orbit so that the distance happen to decrease right now?

Right, the earth is approaching NH and Pluto.