Interestingly, although New Horizons was launched far faster than any outbound probe before it, it will never overtake either Voyager 1 or Voyager 2 as the most distant human-made object from Earth, thanks to gravity assists they received from Jupiter and Saturn. When New Horizons reaches the distance of AU in , it will be travelling at about 46, kph 29, mph , around 14, kph 8, mph slower than Voyager 1 at that distance.
The New Horizons spacecraft is now more than 4. NASA reports that the probe is healthy and all systems are operating normally. Care about supporting clean energy adoption? Find out how much money and planet!
By signing up through this link , Futurism. The third question when will New Horizons leave our solar system? Write to Jeffrey Kluger at jeffrey. By Jeffrey Kluger. Related Stories. America Needs to Get Back to Facts. Already a print subscriber? Go here to link your subscription. Need help? Visit our Help Center. One AU is the average Earth-sun distance — about 93 million miles, or million kilometers.
The milestone is an occasion to celebrate and appreciate New Horizons' epic mission, which gave humanity its first up-close looks at Pluto in July and followed that up with a flyby of Arrokoth, an even more distant world, three and a half years later. But there's plenty of reason to look ahead as well as back, because New Horizons is far from done.
Though it's been streaking through space for 15 years, the probe remains in perfect health, Stern said, and it could continue to study its exotic environs for many years to come.
New Horizons is powered by a radioisotope thermoelectric generator RTG , which produces electricity from the heat emitted by the radioactive decay of plutonium Pioneer 10 and 11 ceased operations years ago, but the two Voyagers remain active today, more than 40 years after launch. New Horizons' journey has been three decades in the making, and it's full of twists and turns. For much more about the mission's tortuous history, read Stern and planetary scientist David Grinspoon's book, " Chasing New Horizons.
New Horizons launched in January , tasked with performing the first-ever flyby of Pluto. The distant dwarf planet had been mysterious since Clyde Tombaugh discovered it in , appearing as but a fuzzy blob in even the best photos NASA's Hubble Space Telescope could muster. They may be signs that volcanoes have erupted on Pluto, but instead of spewing out hot lava, they would have likely discharged slushy, viscous cryoflows of water.
But New Horizons only got a quick look at Pluto, and scientists are eager to send another mission to orbit the distant world. Such a mission would cost billions of dollars, and NASA is awaiting a recommendation from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine on what robotic planetary missions the agency should begin developing in the next decade. NASA has funded 11 planetary mission concept studies for consideration by the next decadal survey panel. Carly Howett, a member of the New Horizons science team from the Southwest Research Institute, led the concept study for a potential orbiter that could fly to Pluto.
That requirement means a Pluto orbiter, like the Persephone concept, will have to fly at a slower speed than New Horizons, which took more than nine years to reach Pluto. The plasma thrusters, which are more efficient than conventional rocket engines, would allow the spacecraft to more efficiently brake into orbit around Pluto, then adjust its trajectory around Pluto and its moons for at least three years of scientific observations.
The plasma thrusters would also allow the spacecraft to fly by a Kuiper Belt Object on the way to Pluto, and potentially depart Pluto to visit another target in an extended mission, Howett said.
The high power demand of a complex suite of cameras, a radar, spectrometers and other sensors — plus the electric propulsion system — will outpace the power requirements of any robotic deep space mission to date.
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