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165-722: New Horizons is an interplanetary space probe launched as a part of NASA 's New Frontiers program . Engineered by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) and the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), with a team led by Alan Stern , the spacecraft was launched in 2006 with the primary mission to perform a flyby study of the Pluto system in 2015, and a secondary mission to fly by and study one or more other Kuiper belt objects (KBOs) in

330-450: A delta-v ), in this case an increase, of about 3.8 km/s. Then, after intercepting Mars, it must change its speed by another 2.3 km/s in order to match Mars' orbital speed around the Sun and enter an orbit around it. For comparison, launching a spacecraft into low Earth orbit requires a change in speed of about 9.5 km/s. For many years economical interplanetary travel meant using

495-422: A gravity assist that increased New Horizons ' speed; the flyby also enabled a general test of New Horizons ' scientific capabilities, returning data about the planet's atmosphere , moons , and magnetosphere . Most of the post-Jupiter voyage was spent in hibernation mode to preserve onboard systems, except for brief annual checkouts. On December 6, 2014, New Horizons was brought back online for

660-423: A latency of about 4.5 hours (one-way). The 70 m (230 ft) NASA Deep Space Network (DSN) dishes are used to relay commands once the spacecraft is beyond Jupiter. The spacecraft uses dual modular redundancy transmitters and receivers, and either right- or left-hand circular polarization . The downlink signal is amplified by dual redundant 12-watt traveling-wave tube amplifiers (TWTAs) mounted on

825-538: A nuclear reactor or solar cells to generate electricity , which is then used to accelerate a chemically inert propellant to speeds far higher than achieved in a chemical rocket. Such drives produce feeble thrust, and are therefore unsuitable for quick maneuvers or for launching from the surface of a planet. But they are so economical in their use of working mass that they can keep firing continuously for days or weeks, while chemical rockets use up reaction mass so quickly that they can only fire for seconds or minutes. Even

990-480: A space-based economy . Aerobraking uses the atmosphere of the target planet to slow down. It was first used on the Apollo program where the returning spacecraft did not enter Earth orbit but instead used a S-shaped vertical descent profile (starting with an initially steep descent, followed by a leveling out, followed by a slight climb, followed by a return to a positive rate of descent continuing to splash-down in

1155-460: A 2023 survey found that Americans rate basic research as their third-highest priority for NASA, after monitoring Earth-endangering asteroids and understanding climate change. Support for scientific research is about four times higher than for human flight to the Moon or Mars. Besides spinoffs, other practical motivations for interplanetary travel are more speculative. But science fiction writers have

1320-493: A change of plans such that the entire probe was rotated to make photos at Uranus and Neptune, similar to how New Horizons rotated. New Horizons carries seven instruments: three optical instruments, two plasma instruments, a dust sensor and a radio science receiver/radiometer. The instruments are to be used to investigate the global geology, surface composition, surface temperature, atmospheric pressure, atmospheric temperature and escape rate of Pluto and its moons. The rated power

1485-409: A close flyby of Saturn 's moon Titan . The spacecraft sent back detailed images and data from both gas giants, revolutionizing our understanding of these distant worlds. The Voyager 2 spacecraft followed a more extensive trajectory, conducting flybys of not just Jupiter and Saturn, but also Uranus and Neptune. These encounters provided firsthand data from all four gas giants, offering insights into

1650-525: A collection of images of New Horizons project personnel on another CD, a piece of Scaled Composites 's SpaceShipOne , a "Not Yet Explored" USPS stamp, and two copies of the Flag of the United States . About 30 grams (1 oz) of Clyde Tombaugh's ashes are aboard the spacecraft, to commemorate his discovery of Pluto in 1930. A Florida state quarter coin, whose design commemorates human exploration,

1815-454: A composite light shield and mount with titanium and fiberglass for thermal isolation. Overall mass is 8.6 kg (19 lb), with the optical tube assembly (OTA) weighing about 5.6 kg (12 lb), for one of the largest silicon-carbide telescopes flown at the time (now surpassed by Herschel ). For viewing on public web sites the 12-bit per pixel LORRI images are converted to 8-bit per pixel JPEG images. These public images do not contain

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1980-408: A connection with the spacecraft: the first letters of their names (N and H) are the initials of New Horizons . The moons' discoverers chose these names for this reason, plus Nix and Hydra's relationship to the mythological Pluto . In addition to the science equipment, there are nine cultural artifacts traveling with the spacecraft. These include a collection of 434,738 names stored on a compact disc,

2145-507: A disaster or terrorist attack. FINDER uses microwave radar to detect breathing and pulses. Additionally, JPL is home to the JPL-RPIF (Jet Propulsion Laboratory – Regional Planetary Image Facility) which is chartered as a repository for all robotic spacecraft hard-copy data and thus provides a valuable resource to NASA funded science investigators, and an important conduit for the distribution of NASA generated materials to local educators in

2310-478: A fairly good track record in predicting future technologies—for example geosynchronous communications satellites ( Arthur C. Clarke ) and many aspects of computer technology ( Mack Reynolds ). Many science fiction stories feature detailed descriptions of how people could extract minerals from asteroids and energy from sources including orbital solar panels (unhampered by clouds) and the very strong magnetic field of Jupiter. Some claim that such techniques may be

2475-992: A human crew, such as Mars 96 , Deep Space 2 , and Beagle 2 (the article List of Solar System probes gives a full list). Many astronomers, geologists and biologists believe that exploration of the Solar System provides knowledge that could not be gained by observations from Earth's surface or from orbit around Earth. However, they disagree about whether human-crewed missions justify their cost and risk. Critics of human spaceflight argue that robotic probes are more cost-effective, producing more scientific knowledge per dollar spent; robots do not need costly life-support systems, can be sent on one-way missions, and are becoming more capable as artificial intelligence advances. Others argue that either astronauts or spacefaring scientists, advised by Earth-based scientists, can respond more flexibly and intelligently to new or unexpected features of whatever region they are exploring. Some members of

2640-592: A kilometer or more in diameter that cross Earth's orbit by 2013. Entering the 2010s and 2020s, JPL continued its Mars exploration with the Curiosity rover and the Mars 2020 mission, which included the Perseverance rover and the retired Ingenuity helicopter . Perseverance's core objective was to collect samples for a future Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission. In addition, JPL ventured into asteroid exploration with

2805-399: A malfunction could be disastrous. Fission-based thermal rocket concepts produce lower exhaust velocities than the electric and plasma concepts described below, and are therefore less attractive solutions. For applications requiring high thrust-to-weight ratio, such as planetary escape, nuclear thermal is potentially more attractive. Electric propulsion systems use an external source such as

2970-455: A mothership (providing life support for the crews of smaller spacecraft which hitch a ride on it). Cyclers could also possibly make excellent cargo ships for resupply of a colony. A space elevator is a theoretical structure that would transport material from a planet's surface into orbit. The idea is that, once the expensive job of building the elevator is complete, an indefinite number of loads can be transported into orbit at minimal cost. Even

3135-408: A reduced-g centrifuge providing artificial gravity for crew health to ameliorate the effects of long-term 0g exposure, and the capability to mitigate the space radiation environment. The electric propulsion missions already flown, or currently scheduled, have used solar electric power, limiting their capability to operate far from the Sun, and also limiting their peak acceleration due to the mass of

3300-589: A resident office at the facility staffed by federal managers who oversee JPL's activities and work for NASA. There are also some Caltech graduate students , college student interns and co-op students. The JPL Education Office serves educators and students by providing them with activities, resources, materials and opportunities tied to NASA missions and science. The mission of its programs is to introduce and further students' interest in pursuing STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) careers. JPL offers research, internship and fellowship opportunities in

3465-403: A result, aerobraking is only helpful in cases where the fuel needed to transport the heatshield to the planet is less than the fuel that would be required to brake an unshielded craft by firing its engines. This can be addressed by creating heatshields from material available near the target. Several technologies have been proposed which both save fuel and provide significantly faster travel than

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3630-751: A series of proposed Pluto missions leading up to New Horizons . Stamatios "Tom" Krimigis , head of the Applied Physics Laboratory 's space division, one of many entrants in the New Frontiers Program competition, formed the New Horizons team with Alan Stern in December 2000. Appointed as the project's principal investigator , Stern was described by Krimigis as "the personification of the Pluto mission". New Horizons

3795-426: A slower trajectory directly to Pluto, delaying its encounter by five to six years. Interplanetary spaceflight A number of techniques have been developed to make interplanetary flights more economical. Advances in computing and theoretical science have already improved some techniques, while new proposals may lead to improvements in speed, fuel economy, and safety. Travel techniques must take into consideration

3960-432: A small application of thrust is all that is needed to put it into a circular orbit around Mars. If the manoeuver is timed properly, Mars will be "arriving" under the spacecraft when this happens. The Hohmann transfer applies to any two orbits, not just those with planets involved. For instance it is the most common way to transfer satellites into geostationary orbit , after first being "parked" in low Earth orbit . However,

4125-513: A smaller part of JPL's overall budget, they are integral to fulfilling the diverse set of objectives that these federal agencies oversee. In fiscal year 2022, the laboratory's budget was approximately $ 2.4 billion, with the largest share going to Planetary Science development. In 2024, due to budget misappropriation in Mars Sample Return (MSR), the lab slashed approximately 1000 workers and contractors in preparation to make wave for

4290-484: A spare Juno I (a modified Jupiter-C with a fourth stage), the two organizations then launched the United States' first satellite, Explorer 1 , on January 31, 1958. This significant achievement marked a new era for JPL and the US in the space race. Less than a year later in December 1958, JPL was transferred to the newly formed National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). As a result of this transition, JPL became

4455-482: A triangle, almost 0.76 m (2.5 ft) thick. (The Pioneers have hexagonal bodies, whereas the Voyagers , Galileo , and Cassini–Huygens have decagonal , hollow bodies.) A 7075 aluminium alloy tube forms the main structural column, between the launch vehicle adapter ring at the "rear", and the 2.1 m (6 ft 11 in) radio dish antenna affixed to the "front" flat side. The titanium fuel tank

4620-531: A trip to the Moon is long enough for an electric propulsion system to outrun a chemical rocket – the Apollo missions took 3 days in each direction. NASA's Deep Space One was a very successful test of a prototype ion drive , which fired for a total of 678 days and enabled the probe to run down Comet Borrelly, a feat which would have been impossible for a chemical rocket. Dawn , the first NASA operational (i.e., non-technology demonstration) mission to use an ion drive for its primary propulsion, successfully orbited

4785-526: A visible-light CCD imager with broadband and color channels; and LEISA (Linear Etalon Imaging Spectral Array), a near- infrared imaging spectrometer. LEISA is derived from a similar instrument on the Earth Observing-1 spacecraft. Ralph was named after Alice's husband on The Honeymooners , and was designed after Alice. On June 23, 2017, NASA announced that it has renamed the LEISA instrument to

4950-461: A year on a Saturday and Sunday in May or June, when the public was invited to tour the facilities and see live demonstrations of JPL science and technology. More limited private tours are also available throughout the year if scheduled well in advance. Thousands of schoolchildren from Southern California and elsewhere visit the lab every year. Due to federal spending cuts mandated by budget sequestration ,

5115-455: Is 21 watts , though not all instruments operate simultaneously. In addition, New Horizons has an Ultrastable Oscillator subsystem, which may be used to study and test the Pioneer anomaly towards the end of the spacecraft's life. The Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) is a long-focal-length imager designed for high resolution and responsivity at visible wavelengths. The instrument

New Horizons - Misplaced Pages Continue

5280-608: Is adaptable to a variety of mission-specific propulsion units of various low-thrust, high specific impulse (I sp ) designs, nuclear ion-electric drive is shown for illustrative purposes. It is intended for integration and checkout at the International Space Station (ISS), and would be suitable for deep-space missions from the ISS to and beyond the Moon, including Earth/Moon L1 , Sun/Earth L2 , near-Earth asteroidal , and Mars orbital destinations. It incorporates

5445-456: Is also enclosed in blankets that extend to the body. The heat from the RTG adds warmth to the spacecraft while it is in the outer Solar System. While in the inner Solar System, the spacecraft must prevent overheating, hence electronic activity is limited, power is diverted to shunts with attached radiators, and louvers are opened to radiate excess heat. While the spacecraft is cruising inactively in

5610-608: Is approximately $ 700 million over 15 years (2001–2016). The spacecraft was built primarily by Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. The mission's principal investigator is Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute (formerly NASA Associate Administrator). After separation from the launch vehicle, overall control was taken by Mission Operations Center (MOC) at

5775-740: Is clad in iridium , then encased in a graphite shell. It was developed by the U.S. Department of Energy at the Materials and Fuels Complex, a part of the Idaho National Laboratory . The original RTG design called for 10.9 kg (24 lb) of plutonium, but a unit less powerful than the original design goal was produced because of delays at the United States Department of Energy, including security activities, that delayed plutonium production. The mission parameters and observation sequence had to be modified for

5940-455: Is designed to act as shielding , reducing electronics errors caused by radiation from the RTG. Also, the mass distribution required for a spinning spacecraft demands a wider triangle. The interior structure is painted black to equalize temperature by radiative heat transfer. Overall, the spacecraft is thoroughly blanketed to retain heat. Unlike the Pioneers and Voyagers , the radio dish

6105-492: Is energetically more favorable than fission, which releases only about 0.1% of the fuel's mass-energy. However, either fission or fusion technologies can in principle achieve velocities far higher than needed for Solar System exploration, and fusion energy still awaits practical demonstration on Earth. One proposal using a fusion rocket was Project Daedalus . Another fairly detailed vehicle system, designed and optimized for crewed Solar System exploration, "Discovery II", based on

6270-561: Is equipped with a 1024×1024 pixel by 12-bits-per-pixel monochromatic CCD imager giving a resolution of 5  μrad (~1  arcsec ). The CCD is chilled far below freezing by a passive radiator on the antisolar face of the spacecraft. This temperature differential requires insulation and isolation from the rest of the structure. The 208.3 mm (8.20 in) aperture Ritchey–Chretien mirrors and metering structure are made of silicon carbide to boost stiffness, reduce weight and prevent warping at low temperatures. The optical elements sit in

6435-524: Is given annually to an individual or organization that has made significant contributions to public awareness of space programs, in 1998; and with the John L. "Jack" Swigert, Jr., Award for Space Exploration on three occasions – in 2009 (as part of NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander Team ), 2006 and 2005. When it was founded, JPL's site was immediately west of a rocky flood-plain – the Arroyo Seco riverbed – above

6600-413: Is in this tube. The RTG attaches with a 4-sided titanium mount resembling a gray pyramid or stepstool. Titanium provides strength and thermal isolation. The rest of the triangle is primarily sandwich panels of thin aluminum face sheet (less than 1 ⁄ 64  in or 0.40 mm) bonded to aluminum honeycomb core. The structure is larger than strictly necessary, with empty space inside. The structure

6765-538: Is included, officially as a trim weight, as is a Maryland state quarter to honor the probe's builders. One of the science packages (a dust counter) is named after Venetia Burney , who, as a child, suggested the name "Pluto" after its discovery. The goal of the mission is to understand the formation of the Plutonian system, the Kuiper belt, and the transformation of the early Solar System. The spacecraft collected data on

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6930-450: Is moving around the Sun at a different speed than the planet to which the spacecraft is travelling (in accordance with Kepler's Third Law ). Because of these facts, a spacecraft desiring to transfer to a planet closer to the Sun must decrease its speed with respect to the Sun by a large amount in order to intercept it, while a spacecraft traveling to a planet farther out from the Sun must increase its speed substantially. Then, if additionally

7095-508: Is possible to put stations or spacecraft on orbits that cycle between different planets, for example a Mars cycler would synchronously cycle between Mars and Earth, with very little propellant usage to maintain the trajectory. Cyclers are conceptually a good idea, because massive radiation shields, life support and other equipment only need to be put onto the cycler trajectory once. A cycler could combine several roles: habitat (for example it could spin to produce an "artificial gravity" effect), or

7260-450: Is subject to annual fluctuations based on both the federal allocation to NASA and the life cycle of ongoing projects. High-profile missions may receive significant long-term funding commitments, whereas smaller or shorter-term projects may have more modest financial support. These agencies often commission projects that leverage JPL's unique expertise in areas like remote sensing , robotics, and systems engineering. Although these projects form

7425-655: Is the Mongoose-V , a 12 MHz radiation-hardened version of the MIPS R3000 CPU . Multiple redundant clocks and timing routines are implemented in hardware and software to help prevent faults and downtime. To conserve heat and mass, spacecraft and instrument electronics are housed together in IEMs (integrated electronics modules). There are two redundant IEMs. Including other functions such as instrument and radio electronics, each IEM contains 9 boards. The software of

7590-580: Is the lead on the New Horizons navigation team and is responsible for planning trajectory adjustments as the spacecraft speeds toward the outer Solar System . Coincidentally the Naval Observatory Flagstaff Station was where the photographic plates were taken for the discovery of Pluto's moon Charon . The Naval Observatory itself is not far from the Lowell Observatory where Pluto was discovered. New Horizons

7755-405: Is to extend operations for New Horizons until the spacecraft exits the Kuiper belt, which is expected to occur between 2028 and 2029. In August 1992, JPL scientist Robert Staehle called Pluto discoverer Clyde Tombaugh , requesting permission to visit his planet. "I told him he was welcome to it," Tombaugh later remembered, "though he's got to go one long, cold trip." The call eventually led to

7920-682: Is used as a pressurant, with an elastomeric diaphragm assisting expulsion. The spacecraft's on-orbit mass including fuel is over 470 kg (1,040 lb) on the Jupiter flyby trajectory, but would have been only 445 kg (981 lb) for the backup direct flight option to Pluto. Significantly, had the backup option been taken, this would have meant less fuel for later Kuiper belt operations. There are 16 thrusters on New Horizons : four 4.4  N (1.0  lbf ) and twelve 0.9 N (0.2 lbf) plumbed into redundant branches. The larger thrusters are used primarily for trajectory corrections, and

8085-530: The Aerojet Corporation to manufacture JATO rockets. The project took on the name Jet Propulsion Laboratory in November 1943, formally becoming an Army facility operated under contract by the university. In the same year, Qian and two of his colleagues drafted the first document to use the name Jet Propulsion Laboratory. In a NASA conference on the history of early rocketry, Malina wrote that

8250-630: The Army Ballistic Missile Agency 's Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama , to propose orbiting a satellite during the International Geophysical Year . The team lost that proposal to Project Vanguard , and instead embarked on a classified project to demonstrate ablative re-entry technology using a Jupiter-C rocket. They carried out three successful sub-orbital flights in 1956 and 1957. Using

8415-411: The Arroyo Seco . This initial venture involved Caltech graduate students Frank Malina , Qian Xuesen , Weld Arnold and Apollo M. O. Smith , along with Jack Parsons and Edward S. Forman , often referred to as the "Suicide Squad" due to the dangerous nature of their experiments. Together, they tested a small, alcohol-fueled motor to gather data for Malina's graduate thesis. Malina's thesis advisor

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8580-753: The Atlas V 's kerosene tank. Further delays related to low cloud ceiling conditions downrange , and high winds and technical difficulties—unrelated to the rocket itself—prevented launch for a further two days. The probe finally lifted off from Pad 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station , Florida , directly south of Space Shuttle Launch Complex 39 , at 19:00 UTC on January 19, 2006. The Centaur second stage ignited at 19:04:43 UTC and burned for 5 minutes 25 seconds. It reignited at 19:32 UTC and burned for 9 minutes 47 seconds. The ATK Star 48 B third stage ignited at 19:42:37 UTC and burned for 1 minute 28 seconds. Combined, these burns successfully sent

8745-490: The Hohmann transfer orbit . Hohmann demonstrated that the lowest energy route between any two orbits is an elliptical "orbit" which forms a tangent to the starting and destination orbits. Once the spacecraft arrives, a second application of thrust will re-circularize the orbit at the new location. In the case of planetary transfers this means directing the spacecraft, originally in an orbit almost identical to Earth's, so that

8910-699: The JPL Small-Body Database , and provides physical data and lists of publications for all known small Solar System bodies . JPL's Space Flight Operations Facility and Twenty-Five-Foot Space Simulator are designated National Historic Landmarks . JPL traces its beginnings to 1936 in the Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology (GALCIT) when the first set of United States rocket experiments were carried out in

9075-545: The Los Angeles Superior Court took opening statements on the case in which former JPL employee David Coppedge brought suit against the lab due to workplace discrimination and wrongful termination. In the suit, Coppedge alleges that he first lost his "team lead" status on JPL's Cassini-Huygens mission in 2009 and then was fired in 2011 because of his evangelical Christian beliefs and specifically his belief in intelligent design . Conversely, JPL, through

9240-752: The MGM-5 Corporal and MGM-29 Sergeant intermediate-range ballistic missiles, marking the first US ballistic missiles developed at JPL. It also developed several other weapons system prototypes, such as the Loki anti-aircraft missile system, and the forerunner of the Aerobee sounding rocket. At various times, it carried out rocket testing at the White Sands Proving Ground , Edwards Air Force Base , and Goldstone, California . In 1954, JPL teamed up with Wernher von Braun 's engineers at

9405-468: The Mariner missions to Venus , Mars , and Mercury , returning valuable data about our neighboring planets. Additionally, JPL was early to employ female mathematicians. In the 1940s and 1950s, using mechanical calculators, women in an all-female computations group performed trajectory calculations. In 1961, JPL hired Dana Ulery as the first female engineer to work alongside male engineers as part of

9570-540: The Moon as slingshots in journeys to the outer planets. This maneuver can only change an object's velocity relative to a third, uninvolved object, – possibly the “centre of mass” or the Sun. There is no change in the velocities of the two objects involved in the maneuver relative to each other. The Sun cannot be used in a gravitational slingshot because it is stationary compared to rest of the Solar System, which orbits

9735-507: The New Horizons spacecraft, a " hydrogen wall " at the outer edges of the Solar System that was first detected in 1992 by the two Voyager spacecraft . The Ralph telescope, 75 mm in aperture, is one of two photographic instruments that make up New Horizons ' Pluto Exploration Remote Sensing Investigation (PERSI), with the other being the Alice instrument. Ralph has two separate channels: MVIC (Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera),

9900-543: The OSIRIS-REx mission which returned a sample from asteroid Bennu . As JPL moves forward, its focus remains on diverse interplanetary and even interstellar missions. Future Mars missions will aim to return the samples collected by the Perseverance rover back to Earth. Additionally, JPL's Europa Clipper mission launched in 2024 to study Jupiter's moon Europa , believed to harbor a subsurface ocean. Building on

10065-528: The Ranger and Mariner mission tracking teams. Building on the momentum from the successes of the 1960s and early 1970s, JPL initiated an era of deep space exploration in the late 1970s and 1980s. The highlight of this period was the launch of the twin Voyager spacecraft in 1977. Initially set on a trajectory to explore Jupiter and its moon Io, Voyager 1 's mission parameters were adjusted to also provide

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10230-503: The Saturn V launch vehicle, but the tests revealed reliability problems, mainly caused by the vibration and heating involved in running the engines at such high thrust levels. Political and environmental considerations make it unlikely such an engine will be used in the foreseeable future, since nuclear thermal rockets would be most useful at or near the Earth's surface and the consequences of

10395-519: The United States Geological Survey (USGS), and the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). Occasionally, JPL engages in joint missions or research endeavors with international space agencies or research institutions. While these partnerships contribute a relatively small portion of JPL's overall budget, they serve to enhance the scope and impact of its scientific research and technological development. The total budget for JPL

10560-731: The University of Colorado Boulder , led by principal investigator Larry W. Esposito , and supported by the JPL, Lockheed Martin and the University of California . However, the APL, in addition to being supported by Pluto Kuiper Express developers at the Goddard Space Flight Center and Stanford University were at an advantage; they had recently developed NEAR Shoemaker for NASA, which had successfully entered orbit around 433 Eros earlier that year, and would later land on

10725-444: The Voyager program probes, had a rotatable instrumentation platform (a "scan platform") that could take measurements from virtually any angle without losing radio contact with Earth. New Horizons was mechanically simplified to save weight, shorten the schedule, and improve reliability during its 15-year designed lifetime. The Voyager 2 scan platform jammed at Saturn, and the demands of long time exposures at outer planets led to

10890-450: The aphelion of the transfer orbit is on the far side of the Sun near the orbit of the other planet. A spacecraft traveling from Earth to Mars via this method will arrive near Mars orbit in approximately 8.5 months, but because the orbital velocity is greater when closer to the center of mass (i.e. the Sun) and slower when farther from the center, the spacecraft will be traveling quite slowly and

11055-485: The gravity of planets and moons to change the speed and direction of a spacecraft without using fuel. In typical example, a spacecraft is sent to a distant planet on a path that is much faster than what the Hohmann transfer would call for. This would typically mean that it would arrive at the planet's orbit and continue past it. However, if there is a planet between the departure point and the target, it can be used to bend

11220-407: The high-gain antenna , there are two backup low-gain antennas and a medium-gain dish. The high-gain dish has a Cassegrain reflector layout, composite construction, of 2.1-meter (7 ft) diameter providing over 42  dBi of gain and a half-power beam width of about a degree. The prime-focus medium-gain antenna, with a 0.3-meter (1 ft) aperture and 10° half-power beam width, is mounted to

11385-412: The spacecraft propulsion article for a discussion of a number of other technologies that could, in the medium to longer term, be the basis of interplanetary missions. Unlike the situation with interstellar travel , the barriers to fast interplanetary travel involve engineering and economics rather than any basic physics. Solar sails rely on the fact that light reflected from a surface exerts pressure on

11550-605: The "Lisa Hardaway Infrared Mapping Spectrometer" in honor of Lisa Hardaway , the Ralph program manager at Ball Aerospace , who died in January 2017 at age 50. The Venetia Burney Student Dust Counter (VBSDC), built by students at the University of Colorado Boulder, is operating periodically to make dust measurements. It consists of a detector panel, about 460 mm × 300 mm (18 in × 12 in), mounted on

11715-703: The Applied Physics Laboratory in Howard County, Maryland . The science instruments are operated at Clyde Tombaugh Science Operations Center (T-SOC) in Boulder, Colorado . Navigation is performed at various contractor facilities, whereas the navigational positional data and related celestial reference frames are provided by the Naval Observatory Flagstaff Station through Headquarters NASA and JPL . KinetX

11880-418: The D He reaction but using hydrogen as reaction mass, has been described by a team from NASA's Glenn Research Center . It achieves characteristic velocities of >300 km/s with an acceleration of ~1.7•10 g , with a ship initial mass of ~1700 metric tons, and payload fraction above 10%. Fusion rockets are considered to be a likely source of interplanetary transport for a planetary civilization . See

12045-504: The Department of Commerce, claiming their constitutional rights were being violated by the new, overly invasive background investigations. 97% of JPL employees were classified at the low-risk level and would be subjected to the same clearance procedures as those obtaining moderate/high risk clearance. Under HSPD 12 and FIPS 201, investigators have the right to obtain any information on employees, which includes questioning acquaintances on

12210-569: The Devil's Gate dam in the northwestern panhandle of the city of Pasadena in Southern California , near Los Angeles . While the first few buildings were constructed in land bought from the city of Pasadena, subsequent buildings were constructed in neighboring unincorporated land that later became part of La Cañada Flintridge . Nowadays, most of the 168 acres (68 ha) of the U.S. federal government -owned NASA property that makes up

12375-479: The Hohmann transfer takes an amount of time similar to ½ of the orbital period of the outer orbit, so in the case of the outer planets this is many years – too long to wait. It is also based on the assumption that the points at both ends are massless, as in the case when transferring between two orbits around Earth for instance. With a planet at the destination end of the transfer, calculations become considerably more difficult. The gravitational slingshot technique uses

12540-547: The JPL campus is located in La Cañada Flintridge. Despite this, JPL still uses a Pasadena address (4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109) as its official mailing address. There has been occasional rivalry between the two cities over the issue of which one should be mentioned in the media as the home of the laboratory. After the 2024 layoffs, there are only approximately 5,500 full-time Caltech employees and contractors working on any given day. NASA also has

12705-567: The Kuiper belt, are speculative. The VBSDC is always turned on measuring the masses of the interplanetary and interstellar dust particles (in the range of nano- and picograms) as they collide with the PVDF panels mounted on the New Horizons spacecraft. The measured data is expected to greatly contribute to the understanding of the dust spectra of the Solar System. The dust spectra can then be compared with those from observations of other stars, giving new clues as to where Earth-like planets can be found in

12870-532: The Los Angeles/southern California area. The predominant source of JPL's financial support is NASA. As a field center of NASA, JPL's primary activities and projects are generally aligned with NASA's mission objectives in space exploration, Earth sciences, and astrophysics. The funding allocated to JPL comes as a portion of NASA's annual budget, which is itself part of the United States federal budget approved by Congress. The scale of

13035-559: The NASA Museum Alliance in 2003 out of a desire to provide museums, planetariums, visitor centers and other kinds of informal educators with exhibit materials, professional development and information related to the then-upcoming landings of the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity . The Alliance now has more than 500 members, who get access to NASA displays, models, educational workshops and networking opportunities through

13200-600: The Ninth Circuit found the process violated the employees' privacy rights and issued a preliminary injunction. NASA appealed and the US Supreme Court granted certiorari on March 8, 2010. On January 19, 2011, the Supreme Court overturned the Ninth Circuit decision, ruling that the background checks did not violate any constitutional privacy right that the employees may have had. On March 12, 2012,

13365-493: The Pluto encounter, and instrument check-out began. On January 15, 2015, the spacecraft began its approach phase to Pluto. On July 14, 2015, at 11:49  UTC , it flew 12,500 km (7,800 mi) above the surface of Pluto, which at the time was 34 AU from the Sun, making it the first spacecraft to explore the dwarf planet. In August 2016, New Horizons was reported to have traveled at speeds of more than 84,000 km/h (52,000 mph). On October 25, 2016, at 21:48 UTC,

13530-788: The Science Mission Directorate, Ed Weiler , prompted Stern to lobby for the funding of New Horizons in hopes of the mission appearing in the Planetary Science Decadal Survey , a prioritized "wish list," compiled by the United States National Research Council , that reflects the opinions of the scientific community. After an intense campaign to gain support for New Horizons , the Planetary Science Decadal Survey of 2003–2013

13695-620: The Solar System. Currently, the only spacecraft to use a solar sail as the main method of propulsion is IKAROS which was launched by JAXA on May 21, 2010. It has since been successfully deployed, and shown to be producing acceleration as expected. Many ordinary spacecraft and satellites also use solar collectors, temperature-control panels and Sun shades as light sails, to make minor corrections to their attitude and orbit without using fuel. A few have even had small purpose-built solar sails for this use (for example Eurostar E3000 geostationary communications satellites built by EADS Astrium ). It

13860-484: The Solar System. NASA 's Apollo program , however, landed twelve people on the Moon and returned them to Earth . The American Vision for Space Exploration , originally introduced by U.S. President George W. Bush and put into practice through the Constellation program , had as a long-term goal to eventually send human astronauts to Mars. However, on February 1, 2010, President Barack Obama proposed cancelling

14025-669: The Sun. It may be used to send a spaceship or probe into the galaxy because the Sun revolves around the center of the Milky Way. A powered slingshot is the use of a rocket engine at or around closest approach to a body ( periapsis ). The use at this point multiplies up the effect of the delta-v, and gives a bigger effect than at other times. Computers did not exist when Hohmann transfer orbits were first proposed (1925) and were slow, expensive and unreliable when gravitational slingshots were developed (1959). Recent advances in computing have made it possible to exploit many more features of

14190-514: The US component of a joint NASA/ESA program for the exploration of Europa and Ganymede . A NASA multi-center Technology Applications Assessment Team led from the Johnson Spaceflight Center , has as of January 2011 described "Nautilus-X", a concept study for a multi-mission space exploration vehicle useful for missions beyond low Earth orbit (LEO), of up to 24 months duration for a crew of up to six. Although Nautilus-X

14355-610: The Voyager program's success, JPL continues to push the boundaries of deep-space exploration. The Interstellar Probe concept, though not yet formalized, proposes to send a spacecraft ten times the distance from the Sun as Pluto, to explore the interstellar medium and the outermost reaches of our solar system. JPL has been recognized four times by the Space Foundation : with the Douglas S. Morrow Public Outreach Award, which

14520-438: The agency's primary planetary spacecraft center, leading the design and operation of various lunar and interplanetary missions. The transfer to NASA marked the beginning of a "Golden Age" of planetary exploration for JPL in the 1960s and 1970s. JPL engineers designed and operated Ranger and Surveyor missions to the Moon that paved the way for the Apollo program . JPL proved itself a leader in interplanetary exploration with

14685-505: The angle to the Sun, whereas the other measures spin rate and clocking. A cylindrical radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) protrudes in the plane of the triangle from one vertex of the triangle. The RTG provided 245.7  W of power at launch, and was predicted to drop approximately 3.5  W every year, decaying to 202 W by the time of its encounter with the Plutonian system in 2015 and will decay too far to power

14850-426: The anti-solar face of the spacecraft (the ram direction), and an electronics box within the spacecraft. The detector contains fourteen polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) panels, twelve science and two reference, which generate voltage when impacted. Effective collecting area is 0.125 m (1.35 sq ft). No dust counter has operated past the orbit of Uranus ; models of dust in the outer Solar System, especially

15015-563: The asteroid to scientific and engineering fanfare. In November 2001, New Horizons was officially selected for funding as part of the New Frontiers program. However, the new NASA Administrator appointed by the Bush administration , Sean O'Keefe , was not supportive of New Horizons and effectively canceled it by not including it in NASA's budget for 2003. NASA's Associate Administrator for

15180-580: The atmospheres, surfaces, interiors, and environments of Pluto and its moons. It will also study other objects in the Kuiper belt. "By way of comparison, New Horizons gathered 5,000 times as much data at Pluto as Mariner did at the Red Planet ." Some of the questions the mission attempts to answer are: What is Pluto's atmosphere made of and how does it behave? What does its surface look like? Are there large geological structures? How do solar wind particles interact with Pluto's atmosphere? Specifically,

15345-505: The body under the dish. The receivers are low-power designs. The system can be controlled to power both TWTAs at the same time, and transmit a dual-polarized downlink signal to the DSN that nearly doubles the downlink rate. DSN tests early in the mission with this dual polarization combining technique were successful, and the capability was declared to be operational (when the spacecraft power budget permits both TWTAs to be powered). In addition to

15510-481: The budget is contingent on the projects that JPL undertakes as missions can range from flagship interplanetary missions costing billions of U.S. dollars to smaller Earth observation systems with budgets in the hundreds of millions. Aside from NASA, JPL secures funding for specialized projects from other federal agencies, including but not limited to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

15675-414: The cold outer Solar System, the louvers are closed, and the shunt regulator reroutes power to electric heaters . New Horizons has both spin-stabilized (cruise) and three-axis stabilized (science) modes controlled entirely with hydrazine monopropellant . Additional post launch delta- v of over 290 m/s (1,000 km/h; 650 mph) is provided by a 77 kg (170 lb) internal tank. Helium

15840-553: The communications channels. These are small enough to fit on a single card. Because there are two redundant communications subsystems, there are two, identical REX circuit boards. On September 24, 2005, the spacecraft arrived at the Kennedy Space Center on board a C-17 Globemaster III for launch preparations. The launch of New Horizons was originally scheduled for January 11, 2006, but was initially delayed until January 17, 2006, to allow for borescope inspections of

16005-454: The data to Earth. Data storage is done on two low-power solid-state recorders (one primary, one backup) holding up to 8  gigabyte s each. Because of the extreme distance from Pluto and the Kuiper belt, only one buffer load at those encounters can be saved. This is because New Horizons would require approximately 16 months after leaving the vicinity of Pluto to transmit the buffer load back to Earth. At Pluto's distance, radio signals from

16170-429: The decade to follow, which became a mission to 486958 Arrokoth . It is the fifth space probe to achieve the escape velocity needed to leave the Solar System . On January 19, 2006, New Horizons was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station by an Atlas V rocket directly into an Earth-and-solar escape trajectory with a speed of about 16.26 km/s (10.10 mi/s; 58,500 km/h; 36,400 mph). It

16335-522: The diversity of organizations you represent." The NASA/JPL Educator Resource Center, which is moving from its location at the Indian Hill Mall in Pomona, California, at the end of 2013, offers resources, materials and free workshops for formal and informal educators covering science, technology, engineering and science topics related to NASA missions and science. The lab had an open house once

16500-500: The dwarf planet Ceres , arriving in March 2015. Remotely controlled landers such as Viking , Pathfinder and the two Mars Exploration Rovers have landed on the surface of Mars and several Venera and Vega spacecraft have landed on the surface of Venus, with the latter deploying balloons to the planet's atmosphere. The Huygens probe successfully landed on Saturn's moon, Titan . No crewed missions have been sent to any planet of

16665-417: The electric power source. Nuclear-electric or plasma engines, operating for long periods at low thrust and powered by fission reactors, can reach speeds much greater than chemically powered vehicles. Fusion rockets , powered by nuclear fusion reactions, would "burn" such light element fuels as deuterium, tritium, or He. Because fusion yields about 1% of the mass of the nuclear fuel as released energy, it

16830-670: The energy cost close to zero. Space elevators have also sometimes been referred to as " beanstalks ", "space bridges", "space lifts", "space ladders" and "orbital towers". A terrestrial space elevator is beyond our current technology, although a lunar space elevator could theoretically be built using existing materials. A skyhook is a theoretical class of orbiting tether propulsion intended to lift payloads to high altitudes and speeds. Proposals for skyhooks include designs that employ tethers spinning at hypersonic speed for catching high speed payloads or high altitude aircraft and placing them in orbit. In addition, it has been suggested that

16995-587: The equivalent radiation of 80% the average annual dosage in North America from background radiation over an area with a radius of 105 km (65 mi). The spacecraft carries two computer systems: the Command and Data Handling system and the Guidance and Control processor. Each of the two systems is duplicated for redundancy , for a total of four computers. The processor used for its flight computers

17160-435: The existence of a " hydrogen wall " at the outer edges of the Solar System . This "wall" was first detected in 1992 by the two Voyager spacecraft . New Horizons is traveling through the Kuiper belt; it is 60.99  AU (9.12  billion   km ; 5.67 billion  mi ) from Earth and 60.37  AU (9.03  billion   km ; 5.61 billion  mi ) from the Sun as of November 2024. NASA has announced it

17325-490: The far and extreme ultraviolet (from 50– 180  nm ), over 32 view fields. Its goal is to determine the composition of Pluto's atmosphere. This Alice instrument is derived from another Alice aboard ESA 's Rosetta spacecraft. The instrument has a mass of 4.4 kg and draws 4.4 watts of power. Its primary role is to determine the relative concentrations of various elements and isotopes in Pluto's atmosphere. In August 2018, NASA confirmed, based on results by Alice on

17490-550: The first successful Mars rover, Sojourner , demonstrating the feasibility of mobile exploration on the Martian surface. In 2004, the Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity , landed on Mars. Opportunity outlived its expected lifespan by 14 years, providing a wealth of scientific data and setting the stage for future Mars missions. In the 2000s and 2010s, JPL broadened its exploration scope, including

17655-405: The five planets known to the ancients: The first being Venus ( Venera 7 , 1970), Mars ( Mariner 9 , 1971), Jupiter ( Galileo , 1995), Saturn ( Cassini/Huygens , 2004), and most recently Mercury ( MESSENGER , March 2011), and have returned data about these bodies and their natural satellites . The NEAR Shoemaker mission in 2000 orbited the large near-Earth asteroid 433 Eros , and

17820-515: The forward-facing side of the high-gain antenna's secondary reflector. The forward low-gain antenna is stacked atop the feed of the medium-gain antenna. The aft low-gain antenna is mounted within the launch adapter at the rear of the spacecraft. This antenna was used only for early mission phases near Earth, just after launch and for emergencies if the spacecraft had lost attitude control. New Horizons recorded scientific instrument data to its solid-state memory buffer at each encounter, then transmitted

17985-425: The full dynamic range of brightness information available from the raw LORRI images files. Solar Wind Around Pluto (SWAP) is a toroidal electrostatic analyzer and retarding potential analyzer (RPA), that makes up one of the two instruments comprising New Horizons ' Plasma and high-energy particle spectrometer suite (PAM), the other being PEPSSI. SWAP measures particles of up to 6.5 keV and, because of

18150-440: The general public mainly value space activities for whatever tangible benefits they may deliver to themselves or to the human race as a whole. So far the only benefits of this type have been "spin-off" technologies which were developed for space missions and then were found to be at least as useful in other activities. However, public support, at least in the US, remains higher for basic scientific research than for human space flight;

18315-573: The gravity fields of astronomical bodies and thus calculate even lower-cost trajectories . Paths have been calculated which link the Lagrange points of the various planets into the so-called Interplanetary Transport Network . Such "fuzzy orbits" use significantly less energy than Hohmann transfers but are much, much slower. They aren't practical for human crewed missions because they generally take years or decades, but may be useful for high-volume transport of low-value commodities if humanity develops

18480-488: The human species from being exterminated by several possible events (see Human extinction ). One of these possible events is an asteroid impact like the one which may have resulted in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event . Although various Spaceguard projects monitor the Solar System for objects that might come dangerously close to Earth, current asteroid deflection strategies are crude and untested. To make

18645-482: The imperative to make spacecraft lighter. All rocket concepts are limited by the Tsiolkovsky rocket equation , which sets the characteristic velocity available as a function of exhaust velocity and mass ratio, of initial ( M 0 , including fuel) to final ( M 1 , fuel depleted) mass. The main consequence is that mission velocities of more than a few times the velocity of the rocket motor exhaust (with respect to

18810-554: The laboratory is now owned and sponsored by NASA and administered and managed by the California Institute of Technology . The primary function of the laboratory is the construction and operation of planetary robotic spacecraft , though it also conducts Earth-orbit and astronomy missions. It is also responsible for operating the NASA Deep Space Network (DSN). Among the major active projects at

18975-896: The laboratory, some are the Mars 2020 mission, which includes the Perseverance rover; the Mars Science Laboratory mission, including the Curiosity rover; the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter ; the Juno spacecraft orbiting Jupiter ; the SMAP satellite for Earth surface soil moisture monitoring; the NuSTAR X-ray telescope ; and the Psyche asteroid orbiter. It is also responsible for managing

19140-496: The large main-belt asteroids 1 Ceres and 4 Vesta . A more ambitious, nuclear-powered version was intended for a Jupiter mission without human crew, the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (JIMO), originally planned for launch sometime in the next decade. Due to a shift in priorities at NASA that favored human crewed space missions, the project lost funding in 2005. A similar mission is currently under discussion as

19305-494: The last recorded data from the Pluto flyby was received from New Horizons . Having completed its flyby of Pluto, New Horizons then maneuvered for a flyby of Kuiper belt object 486958 Arrokoth (then nicknamed Ultima Thule ), which occurred on January 1, 2019, when it was 43.4  AU (6.49  billion   km ; 4.03 billion  mi ) from the Sun . In August 2018, NASA cited results by Alice on New Horizons to confirm

19470-610: The launch of missions to study the outer planets, like the Juno mission to Jupiter and the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn. Concurrently, JPL also began to focus on Earth science missions, developing satellite technology to study climate change, weather patterns, and natural phenomena on Earth. JPL also opened the Near-Earth Object Program Office for NASA in 1998, which had found 95% of asteroids

19635-412: The main challenges in interplanetary travel is producing the very large velocity changes necessary to travel from one body to another in the Solar System. Due to the Sun's gravitational pull, a spacecraft moving farther from the Sun will slow down, while a spacecraft moving closer will speed up. Also, since any two planets are at different distances from the Sun, the planet from which the spacecraft starts

19800-477: The mass, energy and distribution of charged particles around Pluto, and is also able to differentiate between protons , electrons , and other heavy ions . Alice is an ultraviolet imaging spectrometer that is one of two photographic instruments comprising New Horizons ' Pluto Exploration Remote Sensing Investigation (PERSI); the other being the Ralph telescope. It resolves 1,024 wavelength bands in

19965-643: The mission's science objectives are to: The spacecraft is comparable in size and general shape to a grand piano and has been compared to a piano glued to a cocktail bar-sized satellite dish. As a point of departure, the team took inspiration from the Ulysses spacecraft, which also carried a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) and dish on a box-in-box structure through the outer Solar System. Many subsystems and components have flight heritage from APL's CONTOUR spacecraft, which in turn had heritage from APL's TIMED spacecraft. New Horizons ' body forms

20130-542: The nature and dynamics of the outer planets. Both Voyager spacecraft, after fulfilling their primary mission objectives, were directed towards interstellar space , carrying with them the Golden Records – phonograph discs containing sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life on Earth. The 1980s also saw the inception of the Galileo mission which launched in the late 1980s. The Galileo spacecraft

20295-565: The nearby motion picture and television industries, by advising them about scientific accuracy in their productions. Science fiction shows advised by JPL include Babylon 5 and its sequel series, Crusade . JPL also works with the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate (DHS-S&T). JPL and DHS-S&T developed a search and rescue tool for first responders called FINDER. First responders can use FINDER to locate people still alive who are buried in rubble after

20460-432: The next fiscal year 2025. There is a tradition at JPL to eat "good luck peanuts " before critical mission events, such as orbital insertions or landings. As the story goes, after the Ranger program had experienced failure after failure during the 1960s, the first successful Ranger mission to impact the Moon occurred after a JPL staff member had decided to pass out peanuts to relieve tension. The staff jokingly decided that

20625-696: The observed planets of the Solar System from Mercury to Neptune , with the New Horizons probe having flown by the dwarf planet Pluto and the Dawn spacecraft currently orbiting the dwarf planet Ceres . The most distant spacecraft, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 have left the Solar System as of 8 December 2018 while Pioneer 10 , Pioneer 11 , and New Horizons are on course to leave it. In general, planetary orbiters and landers return much more detailed and comprehensive information than fly-by missions. Space probes have been placed into orbit around all

20790-426: The ocean) through Earth's atmosphere to reduce its speed until the parachute system could be deployed enabling a safe landing. Aerobraking does not require a thick atmosphere – for example most Mars landers use the technique, and Mars' atmosphere is only about 1% as thick as Earth's. Aerobraking converts the spacecraft's kinetic energy into heat, so it requires a heatshield to prevent the craft from burning up. As

20955-423: The only way to provide rising standards of living without being stopped by pollution or by depletion of Earth's resources (for example peak oil ). There are also non-scientific motives for human spaceflight, such as adventure or the belief that humans have a spiritually fated destiny in space. Finally, establishing completely self-sufficient colonies in other parts of the Solar System could, if feasible, prevent

21120-535: The open house has been previously cancelled. JPL open house for 2014 was October 11 and 12 and 2015 was October 10 and 11. Starting from 2016, JPL replaced the annual Open House with "Ticket to Explore JPL", which features the same exhibits but requires tickets and advance reservation. Roboticist and Mars rover driver Vandi Verma frequently acts as science communicator at open house type events to encourage children (and particularly girls) into STEM careers. In addition to its government work, JPL has also assisted

21285-412: The path toward the target, and in many cases the overall travel time is greatly reduced. A prime example of this are the two crafts of the Voyager program , which used slingshot effects to change trajectories several times in the outer Solar System. It is difficult to use this method for journeys in the inner part of the Solar System, although it is possible to use other nearby planets such as Venus or even

21450-425: The payload, and therefore even more fuel is needed to put both the spacecraft and the fuel required for its interplanetary journey into orbit. Thus, several techniques have been devised to reduce the fuel requirements of interplanetary travel. As an example of the velocity changes involved, a spacecraft travelling from low Earth orbit to Mars using a simple trajectory must first undergo a change in speed (also known as

21615-445: The peanuts must have been a good luck charm, and the tradition persisted. These are some of the missions partially sponsored by JPL: The JPL Advanced Projects Design Team, also known as Team X, is an interdisciplinary team of engineers that utilizes "concurrent engineering methodologies to complete rapid design, analysis and evaluation of mission concept designs". On February 25, 2005, Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12

21780-460: The probe on a solar-escape trajectory at 16.26 kilometers per second (58,536 km/h; 36,373 mph). New Horizons took only nine hours to pass the Moon's orbit. Although there were backup launch opportunities in February 2006 and February 2007, only the first twenty-three days of the 2006 window permitted the Jupiter flyby. Any launch outside that period would have forced the spacecraft to fly

21945-401: The probe runs on Nucleus RTOS operating system. There have been two "safing" events, that sent the spacecraft into safe mode : Communication with the spacecraft is via X band . The craft had a communication rate of 38 kbit/s at Jupiter; at Pluto's distance, a rate of approximately 1  kbit/s per transmitter was expected. Besides the low data rate, Pluto's distance also causes

22110-653: The program in Fiscal Year 2011. An earlier project which received some significant planning by NASA included a crewed fly-by of Venus in the Manned Venus Flyby mission, but was cancelled when the Apollo Applications Program was terminated due to NASA budget cuts in the late 1960s. The costs and risk of interplanetary travel receive a lot of publicity—spectacular examples include the malfunctions or complete failures of probes without

22275-736: The program. Staff at educational organizations that meet the Museum Alliance requirements can register to participate online. The Museum Alliance is a subset of the JPL Education Office's Informal Education group, which also serves after-school and summer programs, parents and other kinds of informal educators. On December 9, 2020 , the Museum Alliance officially announced a rebrand to the Museum & Informal Education (MIE) Alliance. In an announcement to members, they said, "Pronounced 'My' Alliance, our new name better reflects

22440-408: The reactive chemicals in a traditional rocket engine . Due to the low molecular mass and hence high thermal velocity of hydrogen these engines are at least twice as fuel efficient as chemical engines, even after including the weight of the reactor. The US Atomic Energy Commission and NASA tested a few designs from 1959 to 1968. The NASA designs were conceived as replacements for the upper stages of

22605-467: The reduced wattage; still, not all instruments can operate simultaneously. The Department of Energy transferred the space battery program from Ohio to Argonne in 2002 because of security concerns. The amount of radioactive plutonium in the RTG is about one-third the amount on board the Cassini–Huygens probe when it launched in 1997. The Cassini launch had been protested by multiple organizations, due to

22770-415: The risk of such a large amount of plutonium being released into the atmosphere in case of an accident. The United States Department of Energy estimated the chances of a launch accident that would release radiation into the atmosphere at 1 in 350, and monitored the launch because of the inclusion of an RTG on board. It was estimated that a worst-case scenario of total dispersal of on-board plutonium would spread

22935-682: The rotating skyhook is "not engineeringly feasible using presently available materials". The SpaceX Starship is designed to be fully and rapidly reusable, making use of the SpaceX reusable technology that was developed during 2011–2018 for Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch vehicles. Jet Propulsion Laboratory The Jet Propulsion Laboratory ( JPL ) is a federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) in La Cañada Flintridge, California , Crescenta Valley, United States. Founded in 1936 by Caltech researchers,

23100-425: The simplest designs avoid the vicious circle of rocket launches from the surface, wherein the fuel needed to travel the last 10% of the distance into orbit must be lifted all the way from the surface, requiring even more fuel, and so on. More sophisticated space elevator designs reduce the energy cost per trip by using counterweights , and the most ambitious schemes aim to balance loads going up and down and thus make

23265-615: The small ones (previously used on Cassini and the Voyager spacecraft) are used primarily for attitude control and spinup/spindown maneuvers. Two star cameras are used to measure the spacecraft attitude. They are mounted on the face of the spacecraft and provide attitude information while in spin-stabilized or 3-axis mode. In between the time of star camera readings, spacecraft orientation is provided by dual redundant miniature inertial measurement units . Each unit contains three solid-state gyroscopes and three accelerometers . Two Adcole Sun sensors provide attitude determination. One detects

23430-438: The space probe back to Earth took four hours and 25 minutes to traverse 4.7 billion km of space. Part of the reason for the delay between the gathering of and transmission of data is that all of the New Horizons instrumentation is body-mounted. In order for the cameras to record data, the entire probe must turn, and the one-degree-wide beam of the high-gain antenna was not pointing toward Earth. Previous spacecraft, such as

23595-477: The spacecraft wishes to enter into orbit around the destination planet (instead of just flying by it), it must match the planet's orbital speed around the Sun, usually requiring another large velocity change. Simply doing this by brute force – accelerating in the shortest route to the destination and then matching the planet's speed – would require an extremely large amount of fuel. And the fuel required for producing these velocity changes has to be launched along with

23760-439: The status of the employee's mental, emotional, and financial stability. Additionally, if employees depart JPL before the end of the two-year validity of the background check, no investigation ability is terminated; former employees can still be legally monitored. Employees were told that if they did not sign an unlimited waiver of privacy, they would be deemed to have "voluntarily resigned". The United States Court of Appeals for

23925-525: The summer and throughout the year to high school through postdoctoral and faculty students. (In most cases, students must be U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents to apply, although foreign nationals studying at U.S. universities are eligible for limited programs.) Interns are sponsored through NASA programs, university partnerships and JPL mentors for research opportunities at the laboratory in areas including technology, robotics, planetary science, aerospace engineering, and astrophysics. In August 2013, JPL

24090-474: The surface. The radiation pressure is small and decreases by the square of the distance from the Sun, but unlike rockets, solar sails require no fuel. Although the thrust is small, it continues as long as the Sun shines and the sail is deployed. The original concept relied only on radiation from the Sun – for example in Arthur C. Clarke 's 1965 story " Sunjammer ". More recent light sail designs propose to boost

24255-515: The task more difficult, carbonaceous chondrites are rather sooty and therefore very hard to detect. Although carbonaceous chondrites are thought to be rare, some are very large and the suspected " dinosaur-killer " may have been a carbonaceous chondrite. Some scientists, including members of the Space Studies Institute , argue that the vast majority of mankind eventually will live in space and will benefit from doing so. One of

24420-546: The tenuous solar wind at Pluto's distance, the instrument is designed with the largest aperture of any such instrument ever flown. Pluto Energetic Particle Spectrometer Science Investigation (PEPSSI) is a time of flight ion and electron sensor that makes up one of the two instruments comprising New Horizons ' plasma and high-energy particle spectrometer suite (PAM), the other being SWAP. Unlike SWAP, which measures particles of up to 6.5 keV, PEPSSI goes up to 1 MeV. The PEPSSI sensor has been designed to measure

24585-524: The thrust by aiming ground-based lasers or masers at the sail. Ground-based lasers or masers can also help a light-sail spacecraft to decelerate : the sail splits into an outer and inner section, the outer section is pushed forward and its shape is changed mechanically to focus reflected radiation on the inner portion, and the radiation focused on the inner section acts as a brake. Although most articles about light sails focus on interstellar travel , there have been several proposals for their use within

24750-513: The traditional methodology of using Hohmann transfers . Some are still just theoretical, but over time, several of the theoretical approaches have been tested on spaceflight missions. For example, the Deep Space 1 mission was a successful test of an ion drive . These improved technologies typically focus on one or more of: Besides making travel faster or cost less, such improvements could also allow greater design "safety margins" by reducing

24915-473: The transmitters in the 2030s. There are no onboard batteries since RTG output is predictable, and load transients are handled by a capacitor bank and fast circuit breakers. As of January 2019, the power output of the RTG is about 190  W . The RTG, model " GPHS-RTG ", was originally a spare from the Cassini mission. The RTG contains 9.75 kg (21.5 lb) of plutonium-238 oxide pellets. Each pellet

25080-482: The universe. The dust counter is named for Venetia Burney , who first suggested the name "Pluto" at the age of 11. A thirteen-minute short film about the VBSDC garnered an Emmy Award for student achievement in 2006. The Radio Science Experiment (REX) used an ultrastable crystal oscillator (essentially a calibrated crystal in a miniature oven ) and some additional electronics to conduct radio science investigations using

25245-415: The vehicle) rapidly become impractical, as the dry mass (mass of payload and rocket without fuel) falls to below 10% of the entire rocket's wet mass (mass of rocket with fuel). In a nuclear thermal rocket or solar thermal rocket a working fluid, usually hydrogen , is heated to a high temperature, and then expands through a rocket nozzle to create thrust . The energy replaces the chemical energy of

25410-768: The velocity changes necessary to travel from one body to another in the Solar System. For orbital flights, an additional adjustment must be made to match the orbital speed of the destination body. Other developments are designed to improve rocket launching and propulsion, as well as the use of non-traditional sources of energy. Using extraterrestrial resources for energy, oxygen, and water would reduce costs and improve life support systems. Any crewed interplanetary flight must include certain design requirements. Life support systems must be capable of supporting human lives for extended periods of time. Preventative measures are needed to reduce exposure to radiation and ensure optimum reliability. Remotely guided space probes have flown by all of

25575-493: The work of the JPL was "considered to include" the research carried out by the GALCIT Rocket Research Group from 1936 on. In 1944, Parsons was expelled due to his "unorthodox and unsafe working methods" following one of several FBI investigations into his involvement with the occult, drugs and sexual promiscuity. During JPL's Army years, the laboratory developed two significant deployed weapon systems,

25740-458: Was approved by the Secretary of Commerce . This was followed by Federal Information Processing Standards 201 ( FIPS 201 ), which specified how the federal government should implement personal identity verification. These specifications led to a need for rebadging to meet the updated requirements. On August 30, 2007, a group of JPL employees filed suit in federal court against NASA, Caltech, and

25905-471: Was based largely on Stern's work since Pluto 350 and involved most of the team from Pluto Kuiper Express . The New Horizons proposal was one of five that were officially submitted to NASA. It was later selected as one of two finalists to be subject to a three-month concept study in June 2001. The other finalist, POSSE (Pluto and Outer Solar System Explorer), was a separate but similar Pluto mission concept by

26070-486: Was designed to study Jupiter and its major moons in detail. Although the probe only entered the gas giant's orbit in the 1990s, its inception and planning during the 1980s signified JPL's continued commitment to deep space exploration. The 1990s and 2000s saw a resurgence in Mars exploration, driven by JPL's Mars Pathfinder and Mars Exploration Rover missions. In 1997, the Mars Pathfinder mission deployed

26235-573: Was engineer/aerodynamicist Theodore von Kármán , who eventually secured U.S. Army financial support for this "GALCIT Rocket Project" in 1939. In the early years of the project, work was primarily focused on the development of rocket technology. In 1941, Malina, Parsons, Forman, Martin Summerfield , and pilot Homer Bushey demonstrated the first jet-assisted takeoff ( JATO ) rockets to the Army. In 1943, von Kármán, Malina, Parsons, and Forman established

26400-420: Was even successfully landed there, though it had not been designed with this maneuver in mind. The Japanese ion-drive spacecraft Hayabusa in 2005 also orbited the small near-Earth asteroid 25143 Itokawa , landing on it briefly and returning grains of its surface material to Earth. Another ion-drive mission, Dawn , has orbited the large asteroid Vesta (July 2011 – September 2012) and later moved on to

26565-663: Was finally able to start building the spacecraft and its instruments, with a planned launch in January 2006 and arrival at Pluto in 2015. Alice Bowman became Mission Operations Manager (MOM). New Horizons is the first mission in NASA's New Frontiers mission category, larger and more expensive than the Discovery missions but smaller than the missions of the Flagship Program. The cost of the mission, including spacecraft and instrument development, launch vehicle, mission operations, data analysis, and education/public outreach,

26730-656: Was named one of "The 10 Most Awesome College Labs of 2013" by Popular Science, which noted that about 100 students who intern at the laboratory are considered for permanent jobs at JPL after they graduate. The JPL Education Office also hosts the Planetary Science Summer School (PSSS), an annual week-long workshop for graduate and postdoctoral students. The program involves a one-week team design exercise developing an early mission concept study, working with JPL's Advanced Projects Design Team ("Team X") and other concurrent engineering teams. JPL created

26895-644: Was originally planned as a voyage to the only unexplored planet in the Solar ;System. When the spacecraft was launched, Pluto was still classified as a planet , later to be reclassified as a dwarf planet by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Some members of the New Horizons team, including Alan Stern, disagree with the IAU definition and still describe Pluto as the ninth planet. Pluto's satellites Nix and Hydra also have

27060-405: Was published in the summer of 2002. New Horizons topped the list of projects considered the highest priority among the scientific community in the medium-size category; ahead of missions to the Moon, and even Jupiter. Weiler stated that it was a result that "[his] administration was not going to fight". Funding for the mission was finally secured following the publication of the report. Stern's team

27225-517: Was the fastest (average speed with respect to Earth) human-made object ever launched from Earth. It is not the fastest speed recorded for a spacecraft, which, as of 2023, is that of the Parker Solar Probe . After a brief encounter with asteroid 132524 APL , New Horizons proceeded to Jupiter , making its closest approach on February 28, 2007, at a distance of 2.3 million kilometers (1.4 million miles). The Jupiter flyby provided

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