Updates NASA New Horizons Mission Updates

[Unstung]

Looks like they're coming down on the planet from one of it's poles? (Given that the above images of the planet and its moons are showing near-circular orbits of the moons...)

Pluto actually has a 120° axial tilt, so think of the dwarf planet like Uranus... not that one. Even if New Horizons flew above a pole, a heads-down view onto a pole is impossible prior to the flyby without the target being very tilted. Take the Voyager 2 flybys of Uranus and Neptune as an example. Pluto looks like this from Earth too and from anywhere in the flat ecliptic plane.

To be even more pedantic, the moons' orbits look quite elliptical and not circular due to the system's tilt and other factors. Otherwise Pluto's moons have very low eccentricities and their non-circular orbital shape would be impossible to discern with a human eye.

New Horizons is passing by Pluto's poles, but "down" is a confusing direction in space which led to this excessive post. The spacecraft is in the ecliptic plane and its hyperbolic trajectory is hardly inclined.

 

[ISProgram]

"New Horizons Spacecraft En Route to Pluto Encounter"

 

[Notebook]

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/news_center/news/20140912.php

New Horizons Makes its First Detection of Pluto’s Moon Hydra

N.

 

[Notebook]

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/overview/piPerspective.php?page=piPerspective_09_18_2014

The PI's Perspective
One Last Slumber
September 18, 2014

 

[MaverickSawyer]

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/news_center/news/20140912.php

New Horizons Makes its First Detection of Pluto’s Moon Hydra

N.

Hail Hydra



Sorry, couldn't resist.

 

[Notebook]

Science Shorts

Insights from members of the New Horizons Science Team


How Big Is Pluto?

October 3, 2014

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/overview/ScienceShorts.php?page=ScienceShorts_10_03_2014

N.

 

[Shifty]

The mission has identified a primary and two secondary KBO targets for follow-on after the Pluto fly-by. Looks like the extra Hubble time this summer paid off:

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2014/10151024-finally-new-horizons-has-a-kbo.html

 

[Unstung]

New Horizons will wake up in less than a month and the Pluto science mission will finally begin (in February)!

Universe Today: "Wake Up, Pluto Spacecraft! New Horizons Emerges From Nap Next Month"

“New Horizons is healthy and cruising quietly through deep space – nearly three billion miles from home – but its rest is nearly over,” stated Alice Bowman, New Horizons mission operations manager at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHUAPL) in Maryland. “It’s time for New Horizons to wake up, get to work, and start making history.”

Hibernation periods have lasted anywhere from 36 days to 202 days. Controllers usually rouse the spacecraft about twice a year to make sure all is well, and to do a little bit of science (such as taking distant pictures of Pluto of its moons). This means the next wakeup will be a new phase for the mission — a sustained effort instead of a burst of activity.

Confirmation of the wakeup should come six hours after it takes place, around 9:30 p.m. EST (2:30 p.m. UTC). This will be after the light signal takes an incredible 4.5 hours to reach Earth from New Horizons. What’s next will be a very busy few days — checking out navigation, downloading new science data, then getting the spacecraft ready for Pluto’s big closeup July 2015.

“Tops on the mission’s science list are characterizing the global geology and topography of Pluto and its large moon Charon, mapping their surface compositions and temperatures, examining Pluto’s atmospheric composition and structure, studying Pluto’s smaller moons and searching for new moons and rings,” JHUAPL stated.

In January, the spacecraft will observe a distant KBO.

 

[Prowler901]

Can't hardly wait for this mission to get rolling. The surface of Pluto has been a mystery for too long.

 

[Artlav]

The surface of Pluto has been a mystery for too long.

I bet it would be some shade of gray.

 

[Prowler901]

I bet it would be some shade of gray.

Could be. :hmm:

 

[C3PO]

I bet it would be some shade of gray.

Some shade of gray? At least 50! :lol: (and IMHO way more exciting)

I'm very much looking forward to this, and I can't begin to imagine how the people involved in the mission feel.

 

[statickid]

There are only fifty, so it would probably be one of those

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

Today New Horizons should come out of its last sleep period and will start to prepare for the big day.

 

[Quick_Nick]

Livestream.

 

[MaverickSawyer]

And we have confirmed contact from New Horizons!

 

[Notebook]

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/overview/ScienceShorts.php?page=ScienceShorts_12_23_2014

Science Shorts

Insights from members of the New Horizons Science Team
Great Expectations
December 23, 2014

 

[Notebook]

The PI's Perspective

As 2014 ends and 2015 begins, I’m reminded of something senior planetary scientist and New Horizons science team member Rick Binzel said a while back: “It’s Pluto Eve!”

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/overview/piPerspective.php?page=piPerspective_12_31_2014

N.

 

[Unstung]

 

[Unstung]

NASA posted a new animation of the New Horizons mission with a reimagined vision of Pluto.