Have you even wondered how Pluto looks like, and is there anything beyond Pluto. To know this NASA sent NEW HORIZONS to Pluto. It is a flyby mission. it is one of five satellites to gain escape velocity to cross solar system. The primary mission is to perform flyby study of Pluto, and the secondary mission is to study one or more other Kuiper belt objects (KBOs).
On Jan 19 2006, New Horizons was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station by an Atlas V rocket directly into an Earth orbit with a speed of about 16.26 km/s. It was the fastest man-made object ever launched from Earth. It made a closest approach to Jupiter on feb 28 2007, The Jupiter flyby provided a gravity assist that increased New Horizons speed. On the closest approach it returning data about the planet's atmosphere, moons, and magnetosphere. On July 14, 2015, at 11:49 UTC, it flew 12,500 km (7,800 mi) above the surface of Pluto, making it the first spacecraft to explore the dwarf planet, In August 2016, New Horizons was reported to have traveled at speeds of more than 84,000 km/h.
After completing its Pluto flyby, New Horizons then make a flyby of Kuiper belt object 486958 Arrokoth (then nicknamed Ultima Thule), on jan 1 2019.
The estimated cost of this mission is approximately $700 million USD. On the launching time pluto was consider a planet, later to be reclassified as a dwarf planet by the International Astronomical Union (IAU).
How New Horizons got its name?
The satellite of the Pluto is Nix and Hydra. since the first letter is N and H, so by this the name is New Horizons.
The main goal of this mission is :
On the journey to Pluto it first encountered an asteroid named asteroid 132524 APL by chance, and the image was captured by Ralph. The first image of Pluto from new horizons was captured by LORRI. Images were taken at the distance of approximately 4.2 billion km.
After completing its Pluto flyby, New Horizons then make a flyby of Kuiper belt object 486958 Arrokoth (then nicknamed Ultima Thule), on jan 1 2019.
The estimated cost of this mission is approximately $700 million USD. On the launching time pluto was consider a planet, later to be reclassified as a dwarf planet by the International Astronomical Union (IAU).
How New Horizons got its name?
The satellite of the Pluto is Nix and Hydra. since the first letter is N and H, so by this the name is New Horizons.
The main goal of this mission is :
- map the surface composition of Pluto and Charon
- characterize the geology and morphology of Pluto and Charon
- characterize the neutral atmosphere of Pluto and its escape rate
- search for an atmosphere around Charon
- map surface temperatures on Pluto and Charon
- search for rings and additional satellites around Pluto
- conduct similar investigations of one or more Kuiper belt objects.
Construction of the spacecraft
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| image source : nasa |
This space craft is comparable size of a piano and has dish like structure on its top. It carries a radio isotopic thermoelectric generator (RTG) on a box in box structure. It has triangular body and this structure is designed to act as shielding, reducing electronics errors caused by radiation from the RTG. Also, the mass distribution required for a spinning spacecraft demands a wider triangle. The interior structure is painted black to equalize temperature by radiative heat transfer. The spacecraft is thoroughly blanketed to retain heat. In inner solar system, it should be prevented from over heating, so it limits the electronic activity and enery is supplied to radiator to remove excess heat and louvers (horizontal window) are opened. but on cold outer solar system, the louvers are closed and power is rerouted to electric heaters.
Propulsion system
The propellant used is hydrazine monopropellant. Helium is used as a pressurant. The spacecraft's on-orbit mass including fuel is over 470 kg (1,040 lb) on the Jupiter flyby trajectory, but would have been only 445 kg (981 lb) for the backup direct flight option to Pluto. Significantly, had the backup option been taken, this would have meant less fuel for later Kuiper belt operations.
Power system
A cylindrical radioisotopic thermoelectric generator (RTG) present on the plane of the triangle, it provides 245.7 W of power at the time of launch and it was predicted to drop 3.5 w every year. It expected to have a power of 202 w by the time it reaches Pluto surface in 2015. It has no inbuilt batteries. As of January 2019, the power output of the RTG about 190 W. the RTG system is originally from spare of Cassini
mission. It contains 9.75 kg of plutonium-238 oxide pellets. Each pellet is clad in iridium, then encased in a graphite shell.
Computer System
The spacecraft has two systems
- command and data handling system.
- guidance and control processor.
both are duplicated for redundancy (improve reliability).To conserve heat and mass, spacecraft and instrument electronics are housed together in IEMs (integrated electronics modules).
The main instrument are :
- Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI)
- Solar Wind Around Pluto (SWAP)
- Pluto Energetic Particle Spectrometer Science Investigation (PEPSSI)
- Alice
- Ralph telescope
- Venetia Burney Student Dust Counter (VBSDC)
- Radio Science Experiment (REX)
Journey to Pluto
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| PLUTO image source : nasa |
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| Jupiter image source : nasa |
on its way it also encounter Jupiter and its largest moons.
LORRI took the images of Jupiter at the distance of 291 million km. The main goal was observing its atmospheric conditions and analyzing the structure and composition of its clouds. New Horizons received a gravity assist from Jupiter, with its closest approach, when it was 2.3 million km from Jupiter. The flyby increased New Horizons speed by 4 km/s.
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| Pluto moon Charon image souce : nasa |
when it approach Pluto, the image were captured using LORRI and Ralph telescopes. when it was about 203 million km away from pluto, it began to took images of Pluto largest moon Charon. The exposure time was too short to see Pluto's smaller, much fainter, moons
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| Kuiper belt image source : nasa |
New Horizons did its job perfectly:)
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