{"id":31,"date":"2013-07-22T16:06:59","date_gmt":"2013-07-22T16:06:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kandrsmith.org\/blog\/?p=31"},"modified":"2016-10-05T07:07:00","modified_gmt":"2016-10-05T07:07:00","slug":"initial-reconnaissance-of-the-solar-systems-third-zone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kandrsmith.org\/KES\/index.php\/2013\/07\/22\/initial-reconnaissance-of-the-solar-systems-third-zone\/","title":{"rendered":"Initial Reconnaissance of the Solar System\u2019s Third Zone"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reposted from https:\/\/blogs.nasa.gov\/mission-ames\/2013\/07\/22\/initial-reconnaissance-of-the-solar-systems-third-zone\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This is part of a blog series on the Pluto Science Conference<\/a>, \u201cThe Pluto System on the Eve of Exploration by New Horizons: Perspectives and Predictions,\u201d held July 22-26, 2013 in Laurel, MD.<\/p>\n

\"alan_stern_nh_overview\"New Horizons\u2019 Principal Investigator (lead scientist) is Dr Alan Stern<\/b> (SwRI\/Southwest Rese<\/strong>arch Institute)<\/strong>. In his presentation, he gave an overview of the mission concept, the science objectives and mission status. The scientific suite is sophisticated and carries the first student-built deep space instrument. The cruise period spans two Presidential administrations (8 years). New Horizons launched on January 19, 2006, and will fly by the Pluto system with closest approach July 14, 2015.<\/p>\n

For more information about the mission, do check out the New Horizons Mission Websites: http:\/\/pluto.jhuapl.edu\/<\/a> (JHU APL site) and http:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/mission_pages\/newhorizons\/main\/index.html<\/a>.\u00a0(NASA site).<\/p>\n

\"nh_trajectory_mission_overview\"<\/a>
At a glance, the New Horizons Mission to Pluto and Beyond. Key milestone dates and the spacecraft trajectory (in red).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Measurement-wise, New Horizons\u2019 Pluto fly-by of July 2015 is comparable to Voyager 2\u2019s fly-by of Neptune\u2019s moon Triton in 1989. However, Voyager 2 did not have an infrared mapping nor ultraviolet imaging spectrometer, something New Horizons will have. Also, New Horizons will be flying three times closer<\/em> to Pluto than Voyager 2 did at Triton. \u00a0A snapshot of the comparison highlights from Alan\u2019s talk is below.<\/p>\n

\"nh_vs_triton_res\"<\/a>
Comparison of Voyager 2 data from its fly-by of Neptune\u2019s moon Triton in August 1989, with a \u201cvisualization\u201d of what New Horizons\u2019 best resolution at Pluto might reveal during its fly-by of Pluto in July 2015.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The New Horizons\u2019 unique science encounter involves more than 6 months of active science operations, starting in mid-April 2015 when the on-board instrument suite achieves resolution better than Hubble.<\/p>\n

A more in depth discussion about \u201cWhen will New Horizons have better views of Pluto than Hubble does?\u201d can be found in this blog entry on the Planetary Society\u2019s blog site at http:\/\/www.planetary.org\/blogs\/emily-lakdawalla\/2013\/0218-new-horizons-pluto-better-hubble.html<\/a> .<\/p>\n

For more in-depth information about the New Horizons mission check out a series of a papers published in Space Science Reviews.\u00a0 Link: http:\/\/www.boulder.swri.edu\/pkb\/<\/a><\/p>\n

To end this posting, a few fun factoids about New Horizon\u2019s Speedy Performance since Launch.<\/p>\n

New Horizons\u2019 Speed Record<\/b>. Launched on an Atlas V-551 on January 19, 2006 at 14:00 EST, the ~400 kg spacecraft, about the size of a grand-piano, needs to travel 5 billion km (5x10e9 km) from Earth before it can execute the observations for its prime science mission. Launching with a speed of\u00a0 58,000 km\/hr (36,000 mph) and benefiting from a gravity-assist from Jupiter in February 2007 (which boosted the spacecraft speed), New Horizons will reach its destination, Pluto, after ~9.5 years of space flight.<\/p>\n

New Horizons Speed Facts<\/strong>:
\nLaunched at 36,000 mph
\nPassed Moon\u2019s orbit in 9 hours
\nPassed orbits of:
\nMars on 4\/7\/2006
\nJupiter on 2\/28\/2007
\nSaturn on 6\/8\/2008
\nUranus on 3\/18\/2011
\nTo cross orbit of:
\nNeptune on 8\/24\/2014
\nWith closest Approach Pluto-Charon on 7\/14\/2015<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reposted from https:\/\/blogs.nasa.gov\/mission-ames\/2013\/07\/22\/initial-reconnaissance-of-the-solar-systems-third-zone\/. This is part of a blog series on the Pluto Science Conference, \u201cThe Pluto System on the Eve of Exploration by New Horizons: Perspectives and Predictions,\u201d held July 22-26, 2013 in Laurel, MD. New Horizons\u2019 Principal Investigator (lead scientist) is Dr Alan Stern (SwRI\/Southwest Research Institute). In his presentation, he gave an … Continue reading Initial Reconnaissance of the Solar System\u2019s Third Zone<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[9,8],"class_list":["post-31","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science","tag-new-horizons","tag-pluto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kandrsmith.org\/KES\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kandrsmith.org\/KES\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kandrsmith.org\/KES\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kandrsmith.org\/KES\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kandrsmith.org\/KES\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kandrsmith.org\/KES\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kandrsmith.org\/KES\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kandrsmith.org\/KES\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kandrsmith.org\/KES\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}