Dwayne Brown/Tabatha Thompson
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726/3895
Michael Buckley
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md.
240-228-7536
RELEASE: 07-012
NASA SPACECRAFT EN ROUTE TO PLUTO PREPARES FOR JUPITER ENCOUNTER
WASHINGTON - NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is on the doorstep of the
solar system's largest planet. The spacecraft will study and swing
past Jupiter, increasing speed on its voyage toward Pluto, the Kuiper
Belt and beyond.
The fastest spacecraft ever launched, New Horizons will make its
closest pass to Jupiter on Feb. 28, 2007. Jupiter's gravity will
accelerate New Horizons away from the sun by an additional 9,000
miles per hour, pushing it past 52,000 mph and hurling it toward a
pass through the Pluto system in July 2015.
"Our highest priority is to get the spacecraft safely through the
gravity assist and on its way to Pluto," says New Horizons Principal
Investigator Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute,
Boulder, Colo. "We also have an incredible opportunity to conduct a
real-world encounter stress test to wring out our procedures and
techniques, and to collect some valuable science data."
The New Horizons mission team will use the flyby to put the probe's
systems and seven science instruments through the paces of more than
700 observations of Jupiter and its four largest moons. The planned
observations from January through June include scans of Jupiter's
turbulent, stormy atmosphere; a detailed survey of its ring system;
and a detailed study of Jupiter's moons.
The spacecraft also will take the first-ever trip down the long "tail"
of Jupiter's magnetosphere, a wide stream of charged particles that
extends tens of millions of miles beyond the planet, and the first
close-up look at the "Little Red Spot," a nascent storm south of
Jupiter's famous Great Red Spot.
Much of the data from the Jupiter flyby will not be sent back to Earth
until after the spacecraft's closest approach to the planet. New
Horizons' main priority during the Jupiter close approach phase is to
observe the planet and store data on its recorders before orienting
its main antenna to transmit information home beginning in early
March.
"Since launch, New Horizons will reach Jupiter faster than any of
NASA's previous spacecraft and begin a year of extraordinary
planetary science to complement future exploration activities," says
Jim Green acting director, Planetary Science Division, NASA
headquarters, Washington.
New Horizons has undergone a full range of system and instrument
checkouts, instrument calibrations, flight software enhancements, and
three propulsive maneuvers to adjust its trajectory.
After an eight-year cruise from Jupiter across the expanse of the
outer solar system, New Horizons will conduct a five-month-long study
of Pluto and its three moons in 2015. Scientific research will
include studying the global geology, mapping surface compositions and
temperatures, and examining Pluto's atmospheric composition and
structure. A potential extended mission would conduct similar studies
of one or more smaller worlds in the Kuiper Belt, the region of
ancient, rocky, icy planetary building blocks far beyond Neptune's
orbit.
New Horizons is the first mission in NASA's New Frontiers Program of
medium-class spacecraft exploration projects. The Applied Physics
Laboratory, Laurel, Md., manages the mission for NASA's Science
Mission Directorate, Washington. The mission team also includes
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.; NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.; the U.S. Department of
Energy, Washington; Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colo.; and
several corporations and university partners.
For more information on New Horizons on the Internet, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/newhorizons
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