NEW HORIZONS NASA’s Pluto-Kuiper Belt Mission: “The First Mission to the Last Planet”

Initial Reconnaissance of The Solar System’s New Horizons: A Historic Journey Initial Reconnaissance of The Solar System’s “Third Zone” KBOs 2016-2020 Pluto-Charon July 2015 Jupiter System March 2007 Launch Jan 2006

Mission Overview Spacecraft: Heritage-based, RTG-powered, with an ~400 m/s ΔV 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.

New Horizons: NASA’s Inaugural New Frontiers Mission

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, NASA’s 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.

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 I&T 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

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.

Pluto-Charon Is A Scientific Treasure-Trove Its surface is among the most variegated and contrasty in the solar system. And Pluto’s surface consists of a complex mélange of volatile ices (N2, CO, CH4,…) and organics.

Pluto-Charon: A Little Background The Best Hubble Images of Pluto Are Still Crude

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 system’s only known binary planet, with implications for atmospheric transfer and for better understanding the formation of the Earth-Moon system. Pluto’s atmosphere is provides the only likely site of planetary hydrodynamic escape, the process believed to have shaped Earth’s primordial atmospheric loss.

Pluto-Charon & The Kuiper Belt Are A Scientific Treasure-Trove Pluto-Charon’s 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.

Pluto/Charon Encounter Jupiter Gravity Assist Flyby Why Go Now? Jupiter Uranus Saturn Pluto/Charon Encounter Summer 2015 Onward to KBOs Launch January 2006 Jupiter Gravity Assist Flyby Spring 2007 Time-Criticality Factors: JGA Pluto trajectory closes in 2006, reopens in 2018. Pluto passed its perihelion in 1989; next perihelion: 2247. Pluto’s atmospheric collapse probability increases with time. Pluto’s approaching winter solstice nightfall costs ~200,000 km2/yr.

Toward New Horizons A Reconnaissance Expedition To the Kuiper Belt and Pluto-Charon The Highest Priority New Frontiers New Start Recommendation of the NRC’s Planetary Decadal Survey (2002)

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.”

NASA-Specified Pluto-Charon Measurement Objectives Required Important Desired

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.

The NH Launch Vehicle: Atlas V 551 and STAR-48 Upper Stage Centaur Interstage Adapter (12.5 ft Dia) CCB Cylindrical Interstage Adapter RD-180 Engine Common Core BoosterTM (CCB) Single RL10 Engine Centaur Upper Stage 5-meter Short Payload Fairing (68 ft) Solid Rocket Boosters Aft Transition Skirt/Heat Shield 5-Meter Payload Fairing Boattail Aft Stub Adapter Centaur Forward Load Reactor Payload Adapter (PLA) Centaur Conical

Spacecraft Block Diagram

Instrument Payload REX LORRI ALICE PEPSSI RALPH SWAP 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

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  

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, R=300-600). SwRI-Ball Alice UV Imaging Spectrometer λλ=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 PEPSSI In Situ Particle Spectrometer Ions: 1-5000 KeV Electrons: 20-700 KeV SDC In Situ Dust Counter 0.10 meters2 active area, Threshold Mass ~10-12 gm CU  

Functional Redundancy In the Instrument Payload

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

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 REX LORRI Oct 2004 SWAP Nov 2004 PEPPSI SDC Aug 2004

Launch Windows Overview 2006 Primary Jan 11-Feb 14 Jan ‘06 Window: 34 days C3: 164 km2/s2 Earliest Arrival 2015 2007 Backup 02–15 Feb ‘07 Window: 14 days C3: 166 km2/s2 Earliest Arrival 2019 Requires KBO Fuel Removal New Horizons will be launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida on Atlas V 551 with a Star 48B upper stage. NH Star 48B Atlas V

Jupiter Flyby Objectives Gravity Assist (Speed Trajectory to Pluto) Encounter Ops Practice Instrument Calibrations Jupiter System Science C/A Date 10–14 Mar 2007 Range 38–39 RJupiter The New Horizons approaches Jupiter more than three times closer to Jupiter than Cassini did.

Jupiter Flyby Science Jupiter science will include studies of Jovian meteorology, satellite geology and composition, Auroral phenomena, and magnetospheric physics.

New Horizons Will Yield Dramatic Results at Pluto-Charon Triton from Voyager Triton and Pluto at Best HST Resolution

Example Pluto-Charon Close Encounter: 14 July 2015 Pluto C/A 12:20 11,095 km 13.78 km/s Charon C/A 12:34 26,700 km 13.88 km/s Pluto-Sun Occultation 13:09:57 Charon-Sun Occultation 14:35:37 S/C trajectory time ticks: 10 min Charon orbit time ticks: 12 hr Occultation: center time Position and lighting at Pluto C/A C/A distances are to body centers Pluto Pluto-Earth Occultation 13:10:47 Charon-Earth Occultation 14:37:44 Charon 0.24° Sun Earth 13:00 14:00 12:00

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 Pluto’s 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 <1 km in diameter. The most exciting discoveries will likely be the ones we Don’t anticipate.

Imaging Coverage and SNR Predicts

Composition Mapping SNR Predicts

Radio Occultation Predicts

Airglow Model Predicts UV Occultation and Airglow Model Predicts

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 >40 km. Select first KBO target before Pluto encounter. Execute a maneuver at P+14 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

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 <20 m in Size Satellite Searches to <1 km, with Follow-up Studies

New Horizons in Build Jan 2005

New Horizons in Build Jan 2005 REX PEPSSI ALICE SWAP

Atlas V-010 in Build

Atlas V-010 in Build

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

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 RTG Atlas V STAR-48 PI & Science

Toward New Frontiers New Horizons is Demonstrating That Exciting, Lower Cost Outer Planet Missions Are Indeed Feasible.

We Aim to Make This 1990 U.S. Stamp Obsolete And One More Thing We Aim to Make This 1990 U.S. Stamp Obsolete

An Historic Exploration New Horizons: A Journey to New Frontiers