NASA focuses its missions on the study of space and planetary explorations. One such robotic spacecraft mission is the New Horizons which is designed to study Pluto and Charon, known as ‘double planets’ and its moons namely Nix, Hydra, S/2011 P 1 and S/2012 P 1. An extended mission of New Horizons is planned to visit more objects in the Kuiper Belt region, if an appropriate target is located beyond Neptune. The estimated arrival of the spacecraft on Pluto is in 2015. This mission will aide in understanding the icy worlds located at the edge of the solar system. This will provide valuable information about these planets whose characteristics still remain unknown to us.
The Solar System that we know of is divided mainly into three types of planets; terrestrial rocky planets such as Mars, Mercury, Venus and Earth; further from them are Uranus, Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune; and lastly the third zone which comprises of the cold bodies found in the Kuiper Belt which starts after Neptune. These bodies too would have formed into full grown sized planets but their growth was stopped during the initial history of solar system. As they strayed farther away from the sun, these planets became cold icy bodies. They are also known as the ice dwarfs due to their arrested growth. They are ancient relics formed nearly 4 billion years ago. Therefore these bodies hold clues to the past of our solar system, its formation and also throw light on the chemical compositions of the other planets, including that of Earth. It is estimated that there are nearly a billion such bodies that may have diameter of 10km and more. Thus to explore this zone and Pluto and Charon, NASA placed the New Horizons mission to explore these planetary bodies.
Launch and Mission Agenda
New Horizons was launched on January 19, 2006 with an Earth- relative velocity of 16.26 km/s, thus it was the fastest launch speed ever for a man- made object. It is also the first spacecraft to be launched directly into the solar escape trajectory making it revolutionary on terms of launching mechanisms. New Horizons is the first mission under NASA’s New Frontiers mission category and is the larger as well as more expensive than the Discovery missions. The principal investigator of the mission is Alan Stern.
Pluto and its moon Charon are together termed as ‘double planets because Charon is half the size of Pluto. This binary planet’s gravitational point is situated between the two planets itself. Binary planets are common within the solar system, as are binary stars, yet no mission has ever explored such binary planets or stars, New Horizons is the first such mission to explore a binary planet. Studies have revealed that the Kuiper Belt is a major source of cometary impactors on Earth. New Horizons mission will help to study these impactors and catalogue them according to their size. Pluto and the Kuiper Belt are also endowed with carbon bearing organic molecules as well as water ice which is the raw material for the evolvement of life. This mission will also explore such materials on Pluto, Charon and other Kuiper Belt bodies. Another agenda on this mission is learning about Pluto’s atmospheric structure and composition and also measuring Pluto’s atmospheric escape rate as well as studies on its gravity field. Pluto’s atmosphere is very unique in comparison to the other planets. It is learnt that the atmosphere of Pluto is escaping at the rate of a comet. Such a state does not exist anywhere else in the solar system; it is also believed that the Earth’s original helium- hydrogen atmosphere was lost in similar manner. Thus studying this state is important in knowing more about the early stages of our own planet.
As the first voyage to explore the farthest zone of the solar system, New Horizons mission has historical importance, as USA has made history by being the first to explore this zone with a space probe. Currently the probe has passed the great planet of Saturn and by July 2015, it is destined to approach its target. The total duration of the journey would be 10 years crossing a distance of about 3 billion miles (or 4.8 billion Kilometers) from earth.
Bibliography
Missions - New Horizons - NASA Science." Missions - New Horizons - NASA Science. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Dec. 2012.
"New Horizons Mission to Pluto Overview | Pluto Today - News and Information about the Planet Pluto." New Horizons Mission to Pluto Overview | Pluto Today - News and Information about the Planet Pluto. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Dec. 2012.
"NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration." NASA. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Dec. 2012.
