New Horizons: NASA's Mission to Pluto and Beyond

1. NEW HORIZONS: NASA’s Mission to Pluto and Beyond Next slide

2. NEW HORIZONS timeline: • Launch—January 19, 2006 from Cape Canaveral, Florida; solar-escape trajectory of 36,373 mph (58,536 km/h) • Flyby of Jupiter (gravity assist)—February 28, 2007 • Flyby of Pluto—July 14, 2015 • Flyby of 2014 MU69 (nicknamed Ultima Thule)—January 1, 2019 Next slide

3. NEW HORIZONS at Pluto: • July 14, 2015—Closest approach • Spacecraft flew 7,750 miles (12,472 km) above the surface of Pluto. • Radio signal from Earth to Pluto and New Horizons took about 4 hours 25 minutes. • At the slow downlink speed of 2 kbps data it took just over 15 months to receive all the data, and analysis will take longer. • October 25, 2016—Last of the recorded data from the Pluto flyby was received from New Horizons. Next slide

4. NEW HORISONS payload: • Ralph: visible and infrared imager/spectrometer • Alice: Ultraviolet imaging • spectrometer • REX: (Radio Science Experiment) • LORRI: (Long Range • Reconnaissance Imager) • SWAP: (Solar Wind Around Pluto) • PEPSSI: (Pluto Energetic Particle Spectrometer Science Investigation) • SDC: (Student Dust Counter) More information Next slide

5. New Horizons Power: Fully fueled, the agile, piano-sized probe weighed 1,054 pounds (478 kg) at launch. Designed to operate on a limited power source — a single radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) — New Horizons needs less power than a pair of 100-watt light bulbs to perform its mission. On average, each of the seven science instruments uses between 2 and 10 watts — about the power of a night light — when turned on. Next slide

6. After Pluto: In late 2015 the New Horizons team selected a small Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) known as 2014 MU69 (nicknamed Ultima Thule) that orbits nearly a billion miles beyond Pluto Next slide

7. Timeline at Ultima Thule: • October 22 – November 4, 2015—trajectory correction maneuver • November 2, 2015—observation of KBO 1580 Arawn • July 13 – 14, 2016—observation of KBO 50000 Quaoar • December 23, 2017 – June 4, 2018—final hibernation period before 2014 MU69 encounter • January 1, 2019—Closest approach • Distance—2,200 miles (3,500 km) First color image of Ultima Thule taken at a distance of 85,000 miles (137,000 km) by LORRI Next slide

8. Ultima Thule: • Discovered—June 26, 2014 using the Hubble Space Telescope • Official name—(486958) 2014 MU69 • Ultima Thule—a Greco-Latin term for “a place beyond the known world” Next slide

9. Most detailed image of Ultima Thule: Taken by New Horizons’ LORRI camera from 4,200 miles (6,700 km) on January 1, 2019, just seven minutes before closest approach. It was stored in New Horizons’ data memory and transmitted to Earth on January 18-19. Better color and resolution images coming soon. Next slide

10. End of show Return to Slide 1

14. NEW HORISONS payload: • Ralph: Provides color, composition and • thermal maps • Alice: Analyzes composition and structure of • Pluto’s atmosphere and looks for atmospheres • around Charon and Kuiper Belt Objects • REX: Measures atmospheric composition and • temperature; passive radiometer • LORRI: Telescopic camera; obtains encounter data at long distances, maps Pluto’s far side and provides high resolution geologic data • SWAP: Solar wind and plasma spectrometer; measures atmospheric “escape rate” and observes Pluto’s interaction with solar wind • PEPSSI: Energetic particle spectrometer; measures the composition and density of plasma (ions) escaping from Pluto’s atmosphere • SDC: Built and operated by students; measures the space dust peppering New Horizons during its voyage across the solar system Return