New Horizons NASA's Mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt
Checking Out New Horizons October 1, 2007
Since I last wrote here, at the start of August, New Horizons has already traveled another 100 million kilometers from the Sun, putting us more than 7.5 Astronomical Units out, roughly halfway between Jupiter and Saturn. By the middle of next year, we’ll be beyond Saturn’s orbit, where Cassini is. That will make New Horizons the farthest spacecraft on its way to or at its target.
As New Horizons continues to journey across the great abyss of the outer solar system, we on the science and operations teams continue our work. In the past two months, this small squad has accomplished a great deal. Major events and accomplishments have included:
The New Horizons science team hears from Project Scientist Hal Weaver during its September 2007 meeting at Lowell Observatory. Image credit: Joe Peterson
In the next month, major activities will include more than 50 instrument and spacecraft checkouts, an update to our onboard fault detection and correction (autonomy) software code, the kickoff of Pluto far encounter planning, and the start of software design for the new C&DH and G&C software loads previously described.
Lowell Observatory’s main building and rotunda, where Lowell himself, his assistant and subsequent observatory director Vesto Slipher, and later Clyde Tombaugh each worked. Image credit: Joe Peterson
Keep an eye out for a Jupiter results press conference from the American Astronomical Society’s Division of Planetary Sciences meeting on Oct. 9, followed by a special issue of Science magazine that week with a series of technical reports (and the cover itself) about the significant findings already gleaned from our Jupiter encounter results.
Well, that catches you up with where New Horizons is and what the spacecraft and project teams have been doing. I’ll be back with more news in November, as we transition back to hibernation. In the meantime, keep on exploring, just as we do!