New Horizons spacecraft is launched
with primary mission to flyby Pluto and its moons and study them. But before we
get into this blog, read the previous blog about the planet Pluto and get an
overall idea about the planet.
Now that you have read about Pluto’s
history, orbit and composition let’s get into this NASA’s New Frontiers
Program- New Horizons. New Horizon is
space probe which was launched on January 19, 2006.It is engineered by Johns HopkinsUniversity Applied Physics
Laboratory (APL)
and the Southwest ResearchInstitute (SwRI),
with a team led by S. Alan Stern. The name “New Horizons” was derived from
Pluto’s moons, Nix and Hydra. The first letters of their names, N and H are
initials of New Horizons.
MISSION:
The
primary mission of New Horizons spacecraft is to study Pluto and study one or
more Kuiper belt objects. Originally the
mission was to explore the undiscovered planets and objects in the solar
system. This was when Pluto was still classified as a planet. But later when it
was reclassified as a dwarf planet, Alan Stern and many members of New Horizons
team disagreed. Due to this, the mission was changed to study the Pluto and its
satellites. Alan Stern has even proposed a new definition of ‘planet’ to
include Pluto as a planet again.
The
goal is to understand formation of Pluto and its system, Kuiper belt formation.
This mission will attempt to answer
questions like: What is Pluto’s atmosphere made of? How to solar particles
interact with its atmosphere? What does Pluto’s surface look like? And many
others.
DESIGN:
The
design of New Horizons space craft is bit complicated. It has a giant
piano-like structure. It has propulsion and attitude control to stabilize the
spins (two axis spin and three axis spin). It has a radioisotopethermoelectric generator which provides it with power. LORRI imager is responsible
for sending images back to earth. It is accompanied with Ralph telescope that
make up New Horizons' Pluto
Exploration Remote Sensing Investigation (PERSI). Both this photographic
instruments sent back the images of Pluto and other objects.
ACHIEVEMENTS:
New
Horizons spacecraft approached Pluto in January 25, 2015. Till this date, it
has sent many images of the target. The first image which NASA released was of
Pluto and its biggest moon, Charon. Later it released photos of Nix and Hydra.
These images helped to understand their surfaces and atmosphere.
Now the
team has moved on to its next target: the Kuiper belt objects. The team discovered a mysterious object known
as 2014 MU69, in 2014. This object is blocking light from the background star,
which is known as occultation. 2014 MU69 is void of external disturbances and
collisions. It is also referred to as ‘cold classic object’. Scientists assume
that it is the oldest object in the solar system. It will help us to reveal the
formation of solar system. The space probe will reveal photos in 2019.
New horizons
mission will help us to fulfill various objectives: it will help us to
understand the geological structure of Pluto and Charon, tell us more about
their atmosphere and how solar particles interact with it. Not only this but it
will also help us to know more about the Kuiper belt objects which will help us
to understand the formation of solar system. There are many questions which
will be answered by this mission. We just have to wait for it to make more such
discoveries!
Comments
Post a Comment