Philosophy
NASA
October 16, 2012
NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is now almost seven years into its 9½-year journey across the solar system to explore Pluto and its system of moons. Just over two years from now, in January 2015, New Horizons will begin encounter operations, which will culminate in a close approach to Pluto on July 14, 2015, and the first-ever exploration of a planet in the Kuiper Belt.
As New Horizons has traveled through space, its science team has become increasingly aware of the possibility that dangerous debris may be orbiting in the Pluto system, putting the spacecraft and its exploration objectives into harm’s way.
“We’ve found more and more moons orbiting near Pluto — the count is now up to five,” says Alan Stern, principal investigator of the New Horizons mission and an associate vice president of the Space Science and Engineering Division at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI).
“And we've come to appreciate that those moons, as well as those not yet discovered, act as debris generators, populating the Pluto system with shards from collisions between those moons and small Kuiper Belt objects.”
“Because our spacecraft is traveling so fast — more than 30,000 miles per hour — a collision with a single pebble, or even a millimeter-sized grain, could cripple or destroy New Horizons,” adds New Horizons Project Scientist Hal Weaver, of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), “so we need to steer clear of any debris zones around Pluto.”
The New Horizons team is already using every available tool — from sophisticated computer simulations of the stability of debris orbiting Pluto, to giant ground-based telescopes, to stellar occultation probes of the Pluto system, to the Hubble Space Telescope — to search for debris in orbit. At the same time, the team is plotting alternative, more distant courses through the Pluto system that would preserve most of the science mission but avert deadly collisions if the current flyby plan is found to be too hazardous.
“We’re worried that Pluto and its system of moons, the object of our scientific affection, may actually be a bit of a black widow,” says Stern, who discusses this aspect of the flyby today at the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences in Reno, Nevada.
”We’re making plans to stay beyond her lair if we have to,” adds New Horizons Deputy Project Scientist Leslie Young, of Southwest Research Institute. “From what we have determined, we can still accomplish our main objectives if we have to fly a ‘bail-out trajectory’ to a safer distance from Pluto. Although we’d prefer to go closer, going farther from Pluto is certainly preferable to running through a dangerous gauntlet of debris (and possibly rings) that may orbit close to Pluto among its complex system of moons.”
“We may not know whether to fire our engines on New Horizons and bail out to safer distances until just 10 days before reaching Pluto, so this may be a bit of a cliffhanger,” Stern says. “Stay tuned.”
New Horizons is the first mission in NASA’s New Frontiers program. APL, located in Laurel, Md., built and operates the New Horizons spacecraft and manages the mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. SwRI led the payload/instrument development and leads the New Horizons science and mission teams from the Tombaugh Science Operations Center, located at SwRI facilities in Boulder, Colo.
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Philosophy
Oh crap, but don't panic...New Horizons may have to dodge some debris near Pluto
NASA
October 16, 2012
NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is now almost seven years into its 9½-year journey across the solar system to explore Pluto and its system of moons. Just over two years from now, in January 2015, New Horizons will begin encounter operations, which will culminate in a close approach to Pluto on July 14, 2015, and the first-ever exploration of a planet in the Kuiper Belt.
As New Horizons has traveled through space, its science team has become increasingly aware of the possibility that dangerous debris may be orbiting in the Pluto system, putting the spacecraft and its exploration objectives into harm’s way.
“We’ve found more and more moons orbiting near Pluto — the count is now up to five,” says Alan Stern, principal investigator of the New Horizons mission and an associate vice president of the Space Science and Engineering Division at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI).
“And we've come to appreciate that those moons, as well as those not yet discovered, act as debris generators, populating the Pluto system with shards from collisions between those moons and small Kuiper Belt objects.”
“Because our spacecraft is traveling so fast — more than 30,000 miles per hour — a collision with a single pebble, or even a millimeter-sized grain, could cripple or destroy New Horizons,” adds New Horizons Project Scientist Hal Weaver, of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), “so we need to steer clear of any debris zones around Pluto.”
The New Horizons team is already using every available tool — from sophisticated computer simulations of the stability of debris orbiting Pluto, to giant ground-based telescopes, to stellar occultation probes of the Pluto system, to the Hubble Space Telescope — to search for debris in orbit. At the same time, the team is plotting alternative, more distant courses through the Pluto system that would preserve most of the science mission but avert deadly collisions if the current flyby plan is found to be too hazardous.
“We’re worried that Pluto and its system of moons, the object of our scientific affection, may actually be a bit of a black widow,” says Stern, who discusses this aspect of the flyby today at the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences in Reno, Nevada.
”We’re making plans to stay beyond her lair if we have to,” adds New Horizons Deputy Project Scientist Leslie Young, of Southwest Research Institute. “From what we have determined, we can still accomplish our main objectives if we have to fly a ‘bail-out trajectory’ to a safer distance from Pluto. Although we’d prefer to go closer, going farther from Pluto is certainly preferable to running through a dangerous gauntlet of debris (and possibly rings) that may orbit close to Pluto among its complex system of moons.”
“We may not know whether to fire our engines on New Horizons and bail out to safer distances until just 10 days before reaching Pluto, so this may be a bit of a cliffhanger,” Stern says. “Stay tuned.”
New Horizons is the first mission in NASA’s New Frontiers program. APL, located in Laurel, Md., built and operates the New Horizons spacecraft and manages the mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. SwRI led the payload/instrument development and leads the New Horizons science and mission teams from the Tombaugh Science Operations Center, located at SwRI facilities in Boulder, Colo.
- Lego's New Horizons
"A Model Spacecraft" December 13th, 2013 NASA NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is speeding quickly toward the first flyby of Pluto and its moons – nearing the destination on a voyage that has already captured the imaginations of millions and shown...
- New Horizons Getting Closer--5au Or About 14 Months To Pluto
"On the Path to Pluto, 5 AU and Closing" October 25th, 2013 NASA Pluto isn’t quite the next exit on New Horizons’ voyage through the outer solar system, but the destination is definitely getting closer. Today the NASA spacecraft speeds to within...
- A Fuzzy Charon Visible
Scientific American's Christopher Crockett wrote... NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, now en route to Pluto, got its first glimpse of the dwarf planet’s largest moon, Charon, in this image released July 10. Pluto is the bright spot in the center...
- New Horizons Stamp--one Week Left
PARTICIPATE"New Horizons Stamp Drive Completes a 10K – and Keeps Going!"March 7th, 2012NASAAs fast as NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is heading toward Pluto, the drive to honor this historic exploration of the ninth planet is speeding toward its finish....
- #4 For Pluto...new Moon “s/2011 P1” Or “p4”
"Fourth Moon Adds to Pluto's Appeal" July 20th, 2011 New Horizons NASA On the anniversary of the first landing of men on our moon, New Horizons mission team scientists have announced the discovery of a fourth moon around Pluto – adding to the...