Pluto, here we come! New Horizons probe is ready for wake-up call as it approaches planet for a historic encounter

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Pluto, here we come! New Horizons probe is ready for wake-up call as it approaches planet for a historic encounter

Posted by sciencetech-blog on Friday, November 14, 2014 Label:

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For eight years, a Pluto-bound spacecraft has been snoozing through space as it drifts nearly three billion miles (4.8 billion km) from Earth.

But it will soon be time to wake up the New Horizons probe from its long slumber, as scientists prepare it for a six-month encounter with the dwarf planet.

On December 6th, the piano-sized craft will come out of its hibernation to take historic images and data from Pluto – a dwarf planet whose appearance remains a mystery to astronomers.

There remain many unanswered questions about Pluto. The New Horizons probe (artist's impression pictured) hopes to provide some answers when it flies by the dwarf planet on July 15, 2015

Since launching in January 2006, New Horizons has spent 1,873 days in hibernation – about two-thirds of its flight time.

It has had around 18 separate 'nap' periods spread from mid-2007 to late 2014 that ranged from 36 days to 202 days long.

In hibernation mode, much of the spacecraft is unpowered; the onboard flight computer monitors system health and broadcasts a weekly beacon-status tone back to Earth.

'New Horizons is healthy and cruising quietly through deep space – nearly three billion miles from home – but its rest is nearly over,' says Alice Bowman, New Horizons mission operations manager at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.

The artist's impression shows the Pluto system from the surface of one of the smaller moons. Pluto is the large dwarf planet at centre, right. Charon, the system's largest moon, is the smaller body to the right of Pluto

'It's time for New Horizons to wake up, get to work, and start making history.'

On average, operators woke New Horizons just over twice each year to check out critical systems, calibrate instruments, gather science data, rehearse Pluto-encounter activities and perform course corrections when necessary.

Next month's wake-up call was pre-programmed into New Horizons' on-board computer in August, commanding it come out of hibernation at 8pm GMT (3pm EST) on December 6.

About 90 minutes later New Horizons will transmit word to Earth that it's in 'active' mode; those signals, even travelling at light speed, will need four hours and 25 minutes to reach home.

PLUTO AND ITS MOON SEEN LIKE NEVER BEFORE

As New Horizons travelled towards Pluto, it captured the dwarf planet locked in a mesmerising dance with its largest moon, Charon.

The New Horizons spacecraft took the footage as it raced through space to rendezvous with the dwarf planet in 2015.

The 12 images that make up the animation were taken from a distance ranging from 267 million to 262 million miles (429 million to 422 million km).

Put together, the footage covers Pluto and almost one full rotation of its largest moon, Charon, which orbits 11,200 miles (about 18,000km) above the dwarf planet's surface.

Charon is almost half the size of Pluto. The moon is so big that Pluto and Charon are sometimes referred to as a double dwarf planet system.

The mission team are now using the footage - which focuses on Pluto's position against a backdrop of stars – to fine-tune the distance that New Horizons will fly past Pluto and its moons.

Pluto's four smaller satellites are too faint to be seen in these distant images, but will begin to appear in images taken next year as the spacecraft speeds closer to its target.

New Horizons took this footage as it raced through space to rendezvous with the dwarf planet. The footage shows Pluto and almost one full rotation of its largest moon, Charon, which orbits 11,200 miles (about 18,000km) above the dwarf planet's surface

Confirmation should reach the mission operations team at in Maryland around 2.30am GMT on December 7th.

At the time New Horizons will be more than 2.9 billion miles from Earth, and just 162 million miles – less than twice the distance between Earth and the sun – from Pluto.

Top on the mission's science list is characterising the global geology and topography of Pluto and its large moon Charon, mapping their surface compositions and temperatures.

They also hope to examine Pluto's atmospheric composition and structure, studying the dwarf planet's smaller moons and searching for new moons and rings.

The New Horizon's team hope to examine Pluto's atmospheric composition and structure, studying the dwarf planet's smaller moons using seven instruments onboard

New Horizons' seven-instruments includes advanced imaging infrared and ultraviolet spectrometers, a compact multicolour camera, a high-resolution telescopic camera, two powerful particle spectrometers, a space-dust detector and two radio science experiments.

The entire spacecraft, drawing electricity from a single radioisotope thermoelectric generator, operates on less power than a pair of 100-watt light bulbs.

Distant observations of the Pluto system begin January and will continue until late July next year, with the closest approach to Pluto on the 14th of July. 'We've worked years to prepare for this moment,' said Mark Holdridge, New Horizons encounter mission manager at APL.

'Our team has done anything but, conducting a flawless flight past Jupiter just a year after launch, putting the spacecraft through annual workouts, plotting out each step of the Pluto flyby and even practicing the entire Pluto encounter on the spacecraft. We are ready to go.'

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