Pluto flyby: New Horizons

Steve Pace

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On July 14th the New Horizons spacecraft will flyby Pluto to give us our first good look at this far off world.
For more information go to New Horizons.com -SP
 
Can't wait. Hope everything goes smooth for them.
 
Yes ... besides landing on Mars this was my most eagerly awaited spaceflight mission !

Here's always a good start to look:

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/main/index.html

Latest image from 9. July !

Deino
 

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It's a damn shame that this spacecraft is flying on by Pluto - it's really too bad it's not going into orbit! -SP
 
Steve Pace said:
It's a damn shame that this spacecraft is flying on by Pluto - it's really too bad it's not going into orbit! -SP

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCxYywyQF6o
 
Latest image of Pluto that was released today (7-11-15). -SP
 

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http://www.space.com/29850-new-horizons-pluto-flyby-complete-coverage.html
 
;) ;)



Pluto and Charon on July 12, 2015


These are the final optical navigation photos returned from New Horizons on July 12, 2015. They were taken at 08:45 and 08:50 UT on July 12 from a distance of 2.5 million kilometers, just a bit more than 2 days away from closest approach. The images have been enlarged, stacked, and deconvolved by the New Horizons team.


http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2015/07131311-pluto-first-science.html?referrer=https://www.facebook.com/
 

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+ this one: :eek:


http://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/assets/images/9-small-bodies/2015/20150713_new-horizons-encounter-data-set_20150712.png


Too large to be uploaded !
 
Closest point was reached already ... now it is again leaving Pluto and Charon.


Deino
 

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Interesting to see what targets they choose next for New Horizons, these images are absolutely stunning to say the least espesially when they have come from the very edge of the solar system. :eek: B)
 
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/space/11743649/Pluto-up-close-Nasas-New-Horizons-spacecrafts-flyby-in-pictures.html

cheers,
Robin.
 
Nasa's New Horizons probe strikes distant gold

The American space agency's New Horizons mission has struck gold again.
After its astonishing flyby of Pluto in 2015, scientists have just discovered that the probe's next target is not one object but very likely two.
Earth-based observations suggest the small icy world, referred to simply as MU69, has a moonlet.
It seems New Horizons will now be making a two-for-the price-of-one flyby when it has its encounter on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, 2019.
The plan is for the spacecraft to pass the 30-40km-wide main object with a separation of just 3,500km, acquiring high-resolution pictures and other data.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-42333783
 
Flyaway said:
Nasa's New Horizons probe strikes distant gold

The American space agency's New Horizons mission has struck gold again.
After its astonishing flyby of Pluto in 2015, scientists have just discovered that the probe's next target is not one object but very likely two.
Earth-based observations suggest the small icy world, referred to simply as MU69, has a moonlet.
It seems New Horizons will now be making a two-for-the price-of-one flyby when it has its encounter on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, 2019.
The plan is for the spacecraft to pass the 30-40km-wide main object with a separation of just 3,500km, acquiring high-resolution pictures and other data.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-42333783

Two for the price of one. It is going to be interesting as to what they look like, 2019 can't come fast enough.
 
her some links

despite Government Shut down NASA will broadcast it
https://www.nasa.gov/nasalive

or via the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/Where-to-Watch.php

On twitter
https://twitter.com/NASANewHorizons
 
FighterJock said:
New Horizons has flown past Ultima Thule, the first images won't reach Earth until 15:33 GMT.

Fingers crossed it all works.
 
On a couple of side notes:

https://www.cnet.com/news/nasa-shutdown-forces-agency-to-go-dark-during-historic-new-years-missions/

https://youtu.be/j3Jm5POCAj8
https://www.cnet.com/news/queen-guitarist-brian-may-an-astrophysicist-writes-song-for-historic-nasa-flyby/
 
Grey Havoc said:
On a couple of side notes:

https://www.cnet.com/news/nasa-shutdown-forces-agency-to-go-dark-during-historic-new-years-missions/

https://youtu.be/j3Jm5POCAj8
https://www.cnet.com/news/queen-guitarist-brian-may-an-astrophysicist-writes-song-for-historic-nasa-flyby/

Being a Queen fan myself I could not quite believe it when I had heard that Brian May had written a song about Ultima Thule. B)
 
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-46729898
https://science.slashdot.org/story/19/01/01/1558252/nasa-spacecraft-confirms-successful-flyby-of-distant-solar-system-object
 
FighterJock said:
Being a Queen fan myself I could not quite believe it when I had heard that Brian May had written a song about Ultima Thule. B)

More Surprising, Brian May has a PhD in astrophysics and is a "science team collaborator" on NASA's New Horizons mission
now that i call a successful carrier !
 
Seems to be a first image posted at the German FlugzeugForum from a distance prior to the closest encounter.
 

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The next New Horizon's press briefing will be at 2:00 pm Eastern Time (That is about 19:00 GMT) where they will talk about the results from Ultima Thule. This will be broadcast live on NASA TV.
 
sferrin said:
Looks like two big rocks grinding against each other.

I read somewhere that Ultima Thule is one object not two separate comets that joined together like Comet 67P that Rosetta visited.
 
https://science.slashdot.org/story/19/01/11/2316247/preliminary-results-published-from-new-horizons-flyby-of-mu69-ultima-thule
 
Ultima Thule as seen by LORRI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8zVujIN3J4
 
Flyaway said:
Ultima Thule as seen by LORRI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8zVujIN3J4

If this is the start of the images from New Horizons on Ultima Thule, then I cannot wait to see the rest.
 
There should be a probability that this could be simply the first beer bottle found in deep space magnified by New Horizon's lenses... But you know, NASA.
 
SwRI TO PLAN PLUTO ORBITER MISSION

Oct. 30, 2019 — NASA has funded Southwest Research Institute to study the important attributes, feasibility and cost of a possible future Pluto orbiter mission. This study will develop the spacecraft and payload design requirements and make preliminary cost and risk assessments for new technologies.

The study is one of 10 different mission studies that NASA is sponsoring to prepare for the next Planetary Science Decadal Survey. The results of these studies will be delivered to the National Academy Planetary Decadal Study that will begin in 2020.

The SwRI-led New Horizons mission — which flew past Pluto and its system of moons and then Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) 2014 MU69, the farthest, most primordial object visited to date — has returned data that has made a compelling case for a follow-up mission.

“We’re excited to have this opportunity to inform the decadal survey deliberations with this study,” said SwRI’s Dr. Carly Howett, who is leading the effort. “Our mission concept is to send a single spacecraft to orbit Pluto for two Earth years before breaking away to visit at least one KBO and one other KBO dwarf planet.”

Despite all that New Horizons revealed about the Pluto system and KBOs, it could only begin to explore complex Pluto and its five moons. Additionally, the New Horizons spacecraft carried only a limited payload and many aspects of KBO and dwarf planet science require different kinds instrumentation and the kind of global and temporal coverage that only an orbiter can provide. A Pluto orbiter mission will be designed to answer some of the questions New Horizons discoveries have sparked.

“In an SwRI-funded study that preceded this new NASA-funded study, we developed a Pluto system orbital tour, showing the mission was possible with planned capability launch vehicles and existing electric propulsion systems,” said SwRI’s Dr. Alan Stern, principal investigator of the New Horizons mission as well as the SwRI-funded study. “We also showed it is possible to use gravity assists from Pluto’s largest moon, Charon, to escape Pluto orbit and to go back into the Kuiper Belt for the exploration of more KBOs like MU69 and at least once more dwarf planet for comparison to Pluto.”

For more information, visit Planetary Science or contact Deb Schmid, +1 210 522 2254, Communications Department, Southwest Research Institute, PO Drawer 28510, San Antonio, TX 78228-0510.

 
SwRI TO PLAN PLUTO ORBITER MISSION

Oct. 30, 2019 — NASA has funded Southwest Research Institute to study the important attributes, feasibility and cost of a possible future Pluto orbiter mission. This study will develop the spacecraft and payload design requirements and make preliminary cost and risk assessments for new technologies.

The study is one of 10 different mission studies that NASA is sponsoring to prepare for the next Planetary Science Decadal Survey. The results of these studies will be delivered to the National Academy Planetary Decadal Study that will begin in 2020.

The SwRI-led New Horizons mission — which flew past Pluto and its system of moons and then Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) 2014 MU69, the farthest, most primordial object visited to date — has returned data that has made a compelling case for a follow-up mission.

“We’re excited to have this opportunity to inform the decadal survey deliberations with this study,” said SwRI’s Dr. Carly Howett, who is leading the effort. “Our mission concept is to send a single spacecraft to orbit Pluto for two Earth years before breaking away to visit at least one KBO and one other KBO dwarf planet.”

Despite all that New Horizons revealed about the Pluto system and KBOs, it could only begin to explore complex Pluto and its five moons. Additionally, the New Horizons spacecraft carried only a limited payload and many aspects of KBO and dwarf planet science require different kinds instrumentation and the kind of global and temporal coverage that only an orbiter can provide. A Pluto orbiter mission will be designed to answer some of the questions New Horizons discoveries have sparked.

“In an SwRI-funded study that preceded this new NASA-funded study, we developed a Pluto system orbital tour, showing the mission was possible with planned capability launch vehicles and existing electric propulsion systems,” said SwRI’s Dr. Alan Stern, principal investigator of the New Horizons mission as well as the SwRI-funded study. “We also showed it is possible to use gravity assists from Pluto’s largest moon, Charon, to escape Pluto orbit and to go back into the Kuiper Belt for the exploration of more KBOs like MU69 and at least once more dwarf planet for comparison to Pluto.”

For more information, visit Planetary Science or contact Deb Schmid, +1 210 522 2254, Communications Department, Southwest Research Institute, PO Drawer 28510, San Antonio, TX 78228-0510.


Highly interesting Flyaway, I really hope that they get the funding for the Pluto Orbiter mission, I always thought that Pluto needed revisiting ever since the New Horizons flyby.
 

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