Team members at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, MD, attach the high-gain antenna assembly to the New Horizons spacecraft on April 13, 2005. The spacecraft's most prominent design feature, the assembly includes high-, medium-, and low-gain antennas. The high-gain antenna consists of a 2.1-meter (nearly 7-foot) reflector dish mounted close to the spacecraft and a subreflector on the back side of the medium-gain reflector.
Also visible on the left side of the spacecraft below the dish are (clockwise, from top) the Pluto Energetic Particle Spectrometer Science Investigation (PEPSSI), LOng Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) and Solar Wind at Pluto (SWAP) instruments.
According to mission plans, New Horizons would be about 5 billion kilometers (3.1 billion miles) from Earth when it reaches Pluto in summer 2015. This stacked design provides a clear field of view for the low-gain antenna, while providing structural support for the high- and medium-gain reflector antennas. The antenna is also a key component of the mission's Radio Science Experiment - called REX - which will help scientists understand the structure of Pluto's atmosphere by looking at how radio signals change as they're sent from Earth and move through Pluto's atmosphere.
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute (NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI) |
