NEW HORIZONS

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NEW HORIZONS
NASAs Pluto-Kuiper Belt Mission The First
Mission to the Last Planet
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New Horizons A Historic Journey
Initial Reconnaissance of The Solar Systems
Third Zone
Pluto-Charon July 2015
KBOs 2016-2020
Jupiter System March 2007
Launch Jan 2006
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Mission Overview

• Spacecraft Heritage-based, RTG-powered, with an
  400 m/s ?V budget, and redundant subsystems.
• Encounters A 2-month Jupiter encounter, and a
  5-month Pluto-Charon encounter hopefully on to
  explore KBOs.
• Payload 6 science instruments, plus the Student
  Dust Counter.

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New Horizons NASAs Inaugural New Frontiers
Mission
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Proposal Phase
Science Team Alan Stern, PI/SwRI Fran Bagenal/
U. Colorado Rick Binzel/MIT Bonnie
Buratti/JPL Andy Cheng/APL Dale Cruikshank/NASA
Ames Randy Gladstone/SwRI Will Grundy/Lowell Dave
Hinson/Stanford Mihaly Horanyi/U. Colorado Don
Jennings/NASA Goddard Ivan Linscott/Stanford Jeff
Moore/NASA Ames Dave McComas/SwRI Bill
McKinnon/Washington U. Ralph McNutt/APL Scott
Murchie/APL Carolyn Porco/SSI Harold
Reitsema/Ball Aerospace Dennis Reuter/NASA
Goddard Dave Slater/SwRI John Spencer/SwRI Darrel
Strobel/Johns Hopkins Mike Summers/GMU Len
Tyler/Stanford Hal Weaver/APL Leslie Young/SwRI
New Horizons was proposed to AO-OSS-01, NASAs
request for flyby mission proposals to
Pluto-Charon and the Kuiper Belt. New Horizons
was selected by NASA on 29 Nov 2001. New
Horizons is now completing its development, with
launch planned for January 2006.
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Project Team

• SwRI and APL Teamed To Lead The Project
• SwRI leads the science team and payload, and is
  the PI institution
• APL leads mission development, operations, and
  EPO
• With Major Team Partners
• Lockheed-Martin delivering the Atlas V ELV, RTG
  IT
• Boeing delivering the STAR-48B upper stage
• NASA/GSFC delivering the LEISA IR spectrometer
• Stanford leading the REX radio science
  investigation
• Ball leading the Ralph instrument
• JPL for DSN, NEPA/LA, and CoI roles
• DOE for the flight RTG and NEPA/LA work
• And A World Class Science Team
• 26 members from various institutions

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Pluto-Charon Planet 9

• Pluto Discovered 1930 by Tombaugh
• Charon Discovered 1978 by Christy
• Only Known Double Planet System

• Orbital Distance 30-50 AU
• Orbital Period 248 years
• Orbital Eccentricity 25
• Orbital Inclination 17 deg
• Owing to its distance, faintness, and
• small angular size, the Pluto-Charon system is
  exceptionally hard to study from Earth.

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Pluto-Charon Is A Scientific Treasure-Trove

• Its surface is among the most variegated and
  contrasty in the solar system.
• And Plutos surface consists of a complex mélange
  of volatile ices (N2, CO, CH4,) and organics.

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Pluto-Charon A Little Background
The Best Hubble Images of Pluto Are Still Crude
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Pluto-Charon Unique Among The Planets

• Pluto is neither a terrestrial nor a gas giant
  planet It is a wholly new type an ice dwarf,
  common to the deep outer solar system.
• Pluto-Charon is the solar systems only known
  binary planet, with implications for atmospheric
  transfer and for better understanding the
  formation of the Earth-Moon system.
• Plutos atmosphere is provides the only likely
  site of planetary hydrodynamic escape, the
  process believed to have shaped Earths
  primordial atmospheric loss.

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Pluto-Charon The Kuiper Belt Are A Scientific
Treasure-Trove

• Pluto-Charons surfaces record the detailed
  history of outer solar system bombardment.
• The Kuiper Belt is the best archeological site to
  explore mid-stage accretion in the outer solar
  system.

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Why Go Now?

• Time-Criticality Factors
• JGA Pluto trajectory closes in 2006, reopens in
  2018.
• Pluto passed its perihelion in 1989 next
  perihelion 2247.
• Plutos atmospheric collapse probability
  increases with time.
• Plutos approaching winter solstice nightfall
  costs 200,000 km2/yr.

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Toward New Horizons

• A Reconnaissance Expedition
• To the Kuiper Belt and Pluto-Charon

The Highest Priority New Frontiers New Start
Recommendation of the NRCs Planetary Decadal
Survey (2002)
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PKB AO Mission Requirements(AO 01-OSS-01)

• Requirement Flyby Pluto-Charon before the end
  of 2020 accomplish all Group 1 science
  objectives, and as many Group 2 and 3 objectives
  as possible.
• Desirement NASA desires, if at all possible,
  to have a reasonable plan for visiting one or
  more KBOs...during an extended mission.

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NASA-Specified Pluto-Charon Measurement
Objectives
Required
Important
Desired
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Project Philosophy
Offer early and highly-leveraged science. Do so
on time, within budget, and at low risk.

• Exploit the Jupiter Gravity Assist trajectory to
  
• Jupiter.
• Offer a rich return at Pluto-Charon.
• Reconnoiter KBOs during Extended Mission.
• Keep it Simple.

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The NH Launch Vehicle Atlas V 551 and STAR-48
Upper Stage
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Spacecraft Block Diagram
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Instrument Payload
REX
LORRI
ALICE
PEPSSI
RALPH

• CORE
• REX radio science radiometry
• RALPH VIS/IR imaging spectroscopy
• ALICE UV imaging spectroscopy
• Supplemental
• LORRI High-resolution imager
• SWAP plasma spectrometer
• PEPSSI energetic particle spectrometer
• SDC EPO Student Dust Counter

SWAP
Student Dust Counter
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Primary Instrument Uses
Device Type Primary Uses (BOLD Signifies Group 1 Objective)
Ralph VIS Imager/ IR Imaging Spectrometer Panchromatic Photometric/Geologic Mapping 3-Color and CH4 Mapping Composition Mapping Thermal Mapping
Alice UV Imaging Spectrometer Atmospheric Composition Upper Atmosphere P,T Profiles
REX Radio Science, Radiometry Lower Atmospheric P,T Profiles Disk Averaged Brightness Temperatures Masses of Pluto and Charon and KBOs
LORRI Hi-Res Imager Pluto-Far Side Mapping Hi-Res Geology Early Start to Encounters (5x farther than Ralph)
SWAP Plasma Spectrometer Assist in Determining Atmospheric Escape Rate Measure Solar Wind Interaction with Pluto
PEPSSI Particle Spectrometer Pickup Ion Composition
SDC In Situ Dust Counter First Solar System Dust Density Profile Beyond 18 AU
 
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Payload Characteristics
Type Characteristics Builders
Ralph Imager/Imaging Spectrometer Panchromatic 4-color CCD imagery (20 µrad resolution) 1.25-2.50 µm IR imaging spectroscopy (62 µrad, R300-600). SwRI-Ball
Alice UV Imaging Spectrometer ??520-1870 Å, 3 Å resolution, airglow occultation capabilities SwRI
REX Radio Science, Radiometery Atmosphere P,T to 0.1µbar, 1 K Surface Temp to 0.3 K Stanford-APL
LORRI Hi-Res Imager Panchromatic CCD imagery (5 µrad resolution) APL
SWAP In Situ Plasma Spectrometer Solar wind ions up to 6.5 KeV SwRI
PEPSSI In Situ Particle Spectrometer Ions 1-5000 KeV Electrons 20-700 KeV APL
SDC In Situ Dust Counter 0.10 meters2 active area, Threshold Mass 10-12 gm CU
 
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Functional RedundancyIn the Instrument Payload

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The Student Dust Counter A New Kind of EPO

• EPO Goal Give students a chance to design,
  build, operate, study data from a planetary
  flight experiment.
• Science Goal Make the first dust density
  size spectrum observations beyond 18 AU.
• Students have the primary responsibility for the
  design and development of the SDC over 35 first
  generation students were involved at CU, with
  dozens more participating across the U.S.
• Four Generations of Students To Be Directly
  Involved.

SDC Student Team Leaders
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Science Fulfillment Summary

• All six originally planned science instruments
  are aboard, as is the E/PO Student Dust Counter.
• No instrument or spacecraft capability descopes
  that affect AO science requirement fulfillment
  have been made.
• All of the proposed Group 1, 2, and 3 objectives
  can be fulfilled.
• The spacecraft is capable of flying to one or
  more KBOs after Pluto-Charon for a 2006 launch.

Instrument Delivered Meets AO Objectives
Ralph Mar 2005 YES
Alice Sep 2004 YES
REX Mar 2005 YES
LORRI Oct 2004 YES
SWAP Nov 2004 YES
PEPPSI Nov 2004 YES
SDC Aug 2004 YES
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Launch Windows Overview

• 2006 Primary
• Jan 11-Feb 14 Jan 06
• Window 34 days
• C3 164 km2/s2
• Earliest Arrival 2015
• 2007 Backup
• 0215 Feb 07
• Window 14 days
• C3 166 km2/s2
• Earliest Arrival 2019
• Requires KBO Fuel Removal

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Jupiter Flyby Objectives

• Gravity Assist (Speed Trajectory to Pluto)
• Encounter Ops Practice
• Instrument Calibrations
• Jupiter System Science

C/A Date 1014 Mar 2007
Range 3839 RJupiter
The New Horizons approaches Jupiter more than
three times closer to Jupiter than Cassini did.
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Jupiter Flyby Science
Jupiter science will include studies of Jovian
meteorology, satellite geology and
composition, Auroral phenomena, and
magnetospheric physics.
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New Horizons Will Yield Dramatic Results at
Pluto-Charon
Triton from Voyager
Triton and Pluto at Best HST Resolution
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Example Pluto-Charon Close Encounter 14 July
2015
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Pluto-Charon Encounter Highlights

• Six months of encounter science.
• Exceed Hubble resolution for months.
• Map all of Pluto and all of Charon.
• Make global composition maps of Pluto and
  Charon.
• Map their surface temperature fields.
• Directly measure Plutos escape rate and assay
  its atmospheric structure and composition.
• Improve interior models and determine if either
  Pluto or Charon differentiated.
• Locate additional Pluto-system satellites lt1 km
  in diameter.

The most exciting discoveries will likely be the
ones we Dont anticipate.
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Imaging Coverage and SNR Predicts
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Composition Mapping SNR Predicts
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Radio Occultation Predicts
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UV Occultation and Airglow Model Predicts
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On To Kuiper Belt Objects

• Ground-based campaign to locate candidate KBOs
  along the spacecraft nominal trajectory up to 55
  AU from Sun.
• On-board ?V is capable of reaching multiple KBOs
  with size gt40 km.
• Select first KBO target before Pluto encounter.
• Execute a maneuver at P14 days towards first
  KBO.
• Typical KBO transit time 2.5-3.5 years.

Region containing potential KBO targets
55 AU
Sun
Pluto Encounter 33 34 AU
KBO1 ?40 AU
KBO2 ?50 AU
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Selected New Horizons KBO Science

• Geologic, Photometric, Color Mapping
• Composition Mapping (H2O,CO,CO2,CH4)
• Stereo Surface Mapping
• Thermal Mapping
• Atmosphere Search
• Measure Sputtering Products
• Mass, Density, Figure Measurements
• Crater Counts for Impactors lt20 m in Size
• Satellite Searches to lt1 km, with Follow-up
  Studies

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New Horizons in Build
Jan 2005
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New Horizons in Build
Jan 2005
REX
PEPSSI
ALICE
SWAP
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Atlas V-010 in Build
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Atlas V-010 in Build
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Major Project Milestones

• Proposal Phase Jan-Sep 2001
• Phase A Study Complete Oct 2001
• Selection Nov 2001
• Phase B Start Jan 2002
• Requirements Review (SRR) May 2002
• Preliminary Design Review (PDR) Oct 2002
• Non-Advocate Review (NAR) Dec 2002
• Phase C/D Start Apr 2003
• Critical Design Review (CDR) Oct 2003
• Instrument Deliveries July 2004-Mar 2005
• Integration Test Aug 2004-May 2005
• Environmental Test May-Sep 2005
• Ship to Cape 30 Sep 2005
• Launch Readiness Review 11 Dec 2005
• Launch Window Opens 11 Jan 2006

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Hardware Status Summary

• We are at the L-6 month point.
• Spacecraft testing is going well we are now in
  the last major environmental test Thermal-Vac.
• The Atlas, RTG, and STAR-48 third stage are all
  on track.

Project Element Status
Spacecraft GO
Payload GO
RTG GO
Atlas V GO
STAR-48 GO
PI Science GO
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Toward New Frontiers
New Horizons is Demonstrating That Exciting,
Lower Cost Outer Planet Missions Are Indeed
Feasible.
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And One More Thing
We Aim to Make This 1990 U.S. Stamp Obsolete
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An Historic Exploration
New Horizons A Journey to New Frontiers