sign in sign up
<<
Home , Alan Stern, Pluto Kuiper Express

JOURNEY TO THE FARTHEST

ntil about 10 years ago, most planetary scientists con- sidered to be merely an oddity. All the other neatly fit into what astronomers knew about the archi- Utecture of the —four small, rocky bodies in the inner orbits and four gas giants in the outer orbits, with an in between. But distant Pluto was an icy enigma traveling in a pe- culiar orbit beyond . Some researchers, most notably Dutch- American astronomer Gerard Kuiper, had suggested in the 1940s and Scientists are finally preparing to send a spacecraft to Pluto and the , the last unexplored region of our planetary system BY S.

PLUTO’S LANDSCAPE cannot be seen clearly from Earth, but astronomers’ best guesses about the planet are illustrated in this artist’s rendering. Pluto’s surface is believed to be composed of nitrogen, carbon monoxide, methane and water ices. Some of this material apparently sublimates into a rarefied when the planet is in the part of its orbit that is closest to the (shown on opposite page). Geysers may occasionally erupt, shooting plumes of gas and ice many kilometers above the surface. Pluto’s , , looms overhead. 1950s that perhaps Pluto was not a world Kuiper Belt contains approximately carrying just a camera. In the late 1990s without context but the brightest of a 100,000 objects larger than 100 kilome- NASA settled on a midsize concept called vast ensemble of objects orbiting in the ters across. As a result, the Kuiper Belt Pluto-Kuiper Express that would be built same region. This concept, which came has turned out to be the big brother to by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasa- to be known as the Kuiper Belt, rattled the asteroid belt, with far more mass, far dena, Calif. But the projected cost of that around in the scientific literature for more objects (especially of large sizes), mission quickly rose toward $800 mil- decades. But repeated searches for this and a greater supply of ancient, icy and lion, which was considerably more than myriad population of frosty worlds came organic material left over from the birth NASA wanted to invest. As a result, the up empty-handed. of the solar system. agency scrapped Pluto-Kuiper Express in In the late 1980s, however, scientists It is now clear that Pluto is not an the fall of 2000. determined that something like the Kuiper anomaly. Instead it lies within a vast But this cancellation didn’t go down Belt was needed to explain why many swarm of smaller bodies orbiting between easily. Scientists, space exploration advo- short-period orbit so close to the about five billion and at least eight billion cates and schoolchildren flooded NASA plane of the solar system. This circum- kilometers from the sun. Because this far- with requests to reconsider, and the stantial evidence for a distant belt of bod- off region may hold important clues to agency did so, but with a twist. Rather ies orbiting in the same region as Pluto the early development of the solar system, than restarting the expensive Pluto- drove observers back to their telescopes astronomers are keenly interested in learn- Kuiper Express, NASA launched a com- in search of faint, undiscovered objects ing more about Pluto, its moon, Charon, petition among universities, research labs beyond Neptune. By the 1980s telescopes and the bodies making up the Kuiper Belt. and aerospace companies for proposals to were being equipped with electronic light Unfortunately, the immense distance be- explore Pluto, Charon and the Kuiper detectors that made searches far more tween this region of the solar system and Belt at lower cost. Never before had NASA sensitive than work done previously with Earth has limited the quality of observa- allowed industry and universities to com- photographic plates. As a result, success tions. Even the exquisite Hubble Space pete to lead a mission to the outer solar would come their way. Telescope, for example, shows only blur- system. Given the novelty of such a com- In 1992 astronomers at the Mauna ry regions of light and dark on Pluto’s sur- petition, NASA made it clear that if none Kea Observatory in Hawaii discovered face. And although the Pioneer, Voyager of the proposals could accomplish the the first Kuiper Belt object (KBO), which and spacecraft have provided sci- specified scientific measurement objec- was found to be about 10 times as small entists with marvelous close-up images of tives by 2020, and for less than $500 mil- as and almost 10,000 times as faint as , Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, no lion, then the agency was under no obli- Pluto [see “The Kuiper Belt,” by Jane X. has ever visited the Pluto- gation to choose any of them. Luu and David C. Jewitt; Scientific Charon system or the Kuiper Belt. Last November, after a grueling se- American, May 1996]. Since then, ob- Recognizing the importance of this re- lection process, NASA picked our team, servers have found more than 600 KBOs, gion of the solar system, scientists have called , to carry out the with diameters ranging from 50 to almost urged NASA to put Pluto on its planetary Pluto–Kuiper Belt mission. New Hori- 1,200 kilometers. (Pluto’s diameter is exploration agenda for more than a zons is led by my institution, the Southwest about 2,400 kilometers.) decade. In response, the space agency has Research Institute, based in San Antonio, And that’s just the tip of the iceberg, studied mission concepts ranging from Tex., and the Applied Physics Laborato- so to speak. Extrapolating from the small houseboat-size, instrument-laden space- ry (APL) at Johns Hopkins Univers- ity. A fraction of the sky that has been surveyed craft similar to the Cassini probe (now on team of scientists from more than a dozen so far, investigators estimate that the its way to Saturn) to hamster-size craft universities, research institutions and NASA centers is deeply involved in plan- ning the scientific observations. The South- Overview/New Horizons west Re- search Institute will manage the ■ Astronomers have recently learned that Pluto is not an anomaly, as once project, be in charge of the mission team believed, but the brightest of a vast ensemble of objects orbiting in a distant and be responsible for the development of region called the Kuiper Belt. Scientists want to explore Pluto and the Kuiper Belt the scientific instruments. APL will build objects because they may hold clues to the early history of the planets. and operate the New Horizons space- ) ■ Pluto and its moon, Charon, are also intriguing in their own right. The two bodies craft. Ball Aerospace, the NASA Goddard are so close in size that astronomers consider them a . In addition, Space Flight Center and Stanford Univer- Pluto has a rapidly escaping atmosphere and complex seasonal patterns. sity will build portions of the instrument ■ NASA has chosen a team called New Horizons to build a spacecraft that would payload, and JPL will be responsible for preceding pages study Pluto, Charon and several Kuiper Belt objects during a series of flyby spacecraft tracking and navigation. encounters. If its funding is approved by Congress, the spacecraft could be By pioneering less expensive ways to launched in 2006 and arrive at Pluto as early as 2015. build and operate a spacecraft to explore

the outer solar system, New Horizons sat- EDWIN FAUGHN (

58 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN MAY 2002 OUTWARD BOUND THE JOURNEY TO PLUTO could take less than 10 years if the New Horizons spacecraft is launched in 2006. Traveling along the planned trajectory (red line), New Horizons would head initially for a Jupiter flyby that would use the planet’s gravity to slingshot the craft toward Pluto (yellow orbit). After investigating Jupiter in 2007 and the Pluto-Charon system in 2015, the probe would go on to reconnoiter several of the icy bodies in the Kuiper Belt.

New Horizons Launch Neptune Trajectory January 2006 Pluto and Jupiter Charon Flyby Saturn Uranus Flyby March 2007 Summer 2015

KUIPER BELT

isfied NASA’s conditions: the total mission Kuiper Belt, will reinstate funding for the such as Vega and Fomalhaut. Researchers, cost is $488 million, including more than construction of the craft. If so, New Hori- including myself, have used computer $80 million in budgeted reserves, and the zons would be much more than the first modeling techniques to simulate the for- spacecraft may arrive at Pluto as early as mission to Pluto. During its journey, the mation of the KBOs almost five billion the summer of 2015. Furthermore, New spacecraft would also fly by and study Ju- years ago as the planetary system was co- Horizons would fly more instruments and piter and its , and after flying by alescing from a whirling disk of gas and return about 10 times as much observa- Pluto-Charon, the probe would go on to dust. We found that the ancient Kuiper tional data as the canceled Pluto-Kuiper reconnoiter several KBOs at close range. Belt must have been approximately 100 Express mission would have delivered times as massive as it is today to give rise and would do so for less money. An Archaeological Dig to Pluto-Charon and the KBOs we see. In The launch of New Horizons, how- in Space other words, there was once enough sol- ever, is not yet a sure thing: in February, WHY ARE ASTRONOMERS so inter- id material to have formed another plan- President George W. Bush removed the ested in studying Pluto-Charon and the et the size of Uranus or Neptune in the $122 million needed for the mission from Kuiper Belt? I can summarize only a few Kuiper Belt. NASA’s budget for the 2003 fiscal year. of the reasons here. For one, the size, The same simulations also revealed But my colleagues and I are hopeful that shape, mass and general of the that large planets like Neptune would Congress, which mandated NASA to select Kuiper Belt appear to be much like the de- have naturally grown from the KBOs in a

DON DIXON and begin the mission to Pluto and the bris belts seen around other nearby stars, very short time had nothing disturbed the

www.sciam.com SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN 59 DISTANT WORLDS ASTRONOMERS ARE INTERESTED in obtaining close-up views of Pluto and its moon, Charon, depicted here in an artist’s rendering (top) based on the current knowledge of the two bodies. Because the Pluto-Charon system is so far from Earth, even the shows only blurry images of the two bodies (bottom).

Pluto

Charon

The relative sizes of Pluto and Charon are drawn to scale, but the distance between them is not. KEY FACTS Diameter of Pluto: 2,400 kilometers Diameter of Charon: 1,200 kilometers Average distance of Pluto-Charon from sun: 5.9 billion kilometers Orbital period around sun: 248 years Average distance between Pluto and Charon: 19,600 kilometers Charon Orbital period of Charon around Pluto: 6.39 days Pluto Rotation periods of Pluto and Charon: 6.39 days AVERAGE ORBITAL DISTANCE: 19,600 kilometers Surface composition of Pluto: Nitrogen, carbon monoxide, methane and water ices ) Surface composition of Charon: Water ice and possibly other compounds Hubble image region. Clearly, something disrupted the tional influence of a large population of The KBOs are remnants of that an- Kuiper Belt at about the time Pluto was planetary embryos—rocky bodies thou- cient planet-building process and there- formed, but we do not yet know the cause sands of kilometers across—moving fore hold extremely important clues to the

of the disturbance. Perhaps it was the for- rapidly through the Kuiper Belt billions formation of the outer solar system. Ex- ); NASA/ESA/ESO ( mation of Neptune near the belt’s inner of years ago after they were ejected by ploring Pluto and the Kuiper Belt is the boundary. Did the planet’s gravitational Uranus and Neptune from their forma- equivalent of conducting an archaeologi- influence somehow interrupt the creation tion zones. Or perhaps it was something cal dig into the history of the outer solar of another gas giant farther out? And if else altogether. Whatever the cause, the system—a place where researchers can get artist’s rendering so, why didn’t the formation of Uranus Kuiper Belt lost most of its mass, and the a valuable glimpse of the long-gone era of frustrate the birth of Neptune in the same growth of bodies in the region was sud- planetary formation.

way? Perhaps instead it was the gravita- denly arrested. Furthermore, although our knowl- DON DIXON (

60 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN MAY 2002 edge of Pluto and Charon is meager, what suggests that they should not, but Triton’s water ice in its interior. Recent observa- we do know indicates that they offer a sci- activity was not expected either. Perhaps tions of KBOs show that they, too, prob- entific wonderland of their own. For one, Triton is showing us that we do not yet ably harbor large quantities of ice and or- Charon is surprisingly large—its diameter understand the nature of small worlds. By ganics. Billions of years ago such objects is about 1,200 kilometers, or about half exploring Pluto and the KBOs, we expect are believed to have routinely strayed of Pluto’s. Because the two bodies are so to gain a better comprehension of this fas- into the inner part of the solar system and close in size, Pluto-Charon can be con- cinating class of bodies. helped to seed the young Earth with the sidered a double planet. No other planet Yet another of Pluto’s alluring fea- raw materials of life. in our solar system falls into this catego- tures is its bizarre atmosphere. Although ry—the diameters of most satellites are Pluto’s atmosphere is about 30,000 times A Grand Tour Indeed just a few percent of the diameters of their less dense than Earth’s, it offers some GIVEN SO MANY compelling scientific parent planets. But because astronomers unique insights into the workings of plan- motivations, it is not hard to understand have discovered many double asteroids etary . Whereas Earth’s at- why the planetary research community and double KBOs in recent years, there is mosphere contains only one gas (water wants to send a spacecraft to Pluto and now little doubt that binary objects like vapor) that regularly undergoes phase the Kuiper Belt. And given the romance Pluto-Charon are common in our solar transitions between solid and gaseous and adventure of exploring uncharted system and most likely in others. Yet we states, Pluto’s atmosphere contains three: worlds, it is not surprising that so many have never visited a binary world. nitrogen, carbon monoxide and methane. citizens and grade school children have We are eager to know how a system Furthermore, the current temperature on also become excited about this mission to such as Pluto-Charon could form. The Pluto varies by about 50 percent across its new frontiers. prevailing theory is that Pluto collided surface—from about 40 to about 60 NASA’s request for Pluto–Kuiper Belt with another large body in the distant kelvins. Pluto reached its closest approach mission proposals specified three top pri- past and that much of the debris from this to the sun in 1989. As the planet moves orities for scientific observations. First, impact went into orbit around Pluto and farther away, most astronomers believe the craft must map the surfaces of Pluto eventually coalesced to form Charon. Be- that the average surface temperature will and Charon with an average resolution of cause it appears that a similar collision led drop and that most of the atmosphere will one kilometer (in contrast, the Hubble to the creation of Earth’s moon, the study condense and fall as snow. Pluto may well Space Telescope cannot do better than of Pluto and Charon is expected to shed have the most dramatic seasonal patterns about 500-kilometer resolution when it some light on that subject as well. of any planet in the solar system. views Pluto and Charon). Second, the Researchers also want to know why What is more, Pluto’s atmosphere probe must map the surface composition Pluto and Charon are so different in ap- bleeds into space at a rate much like a across the various geologic provinces of pearance. Observations from Earth and ’s. Most of the molecules in the up- the two bodies. Third, the craft must de- the Hubble Space Telescope show that per atmosphere have enough thermal en- termine the composition and structure of Pluto has a highly reflective surface with ergy to escape the planet’s gravity; this Pluto’s atmosphere, as well as its escape distinct markings that indicate the pres- extremely fast leakage is called hydrody- rate. NASA also outlined a list of lower ence of expansive polar caps. In contrast, namic escape. Although this phenome- priorities, including the measurement of Charon’s surface is far less reflective, with non is not seen on any other planet to- surface temperatures and the search for indistinct markings. And whereas Pluto day, it may have been responsible for the additional satellites or rings around Plu- has an atmosphere, Charon apparently rapid loss of hydrogen from Earth’s at- to. The agency also required that the does not. Is the sharp dichotomy between mosphere early in our planet’s history. In spacecraft accomplish the same objectives these two neighboring worlds a result of di- this way, hydrodynamic escape may have for at least one KBO beyond Pluto. vergent evolution, perhaps because of their helped make Earth suitable for life. Plu- When NASA selected our proposal different sizes and compositions, or is it a to is now the only planet in the solar sys- late last year, it stated that the New Hori- consequence of how they originally tem where this process can be studied. zons mission offered both the best scien- formed? We do not know. An important connection between tific return and the lowest risk of sched- Also intriguing is the fact that Pluto’s Pluto and the origin of life on Earth is the ule delays and cost overruns. This was, in density, size and surface composition are presence of organic compounds, such as part, because of the robust capabilities of strikingly similar to those of Neptune’s frozen methane, on Pluto’s surface and the spacecraft we proposed and the ex- largest satellite, Triton. One of the great surprises of Voyager 2’s exploration of S. ALAN STERN is a planetary scientist and the principal investigator of NASA’s New Hori- the Neptune system was the discovery of zons mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt. He has participated in and led numerous space ongoing, vigorous volcanic activity on experiments and flies aboard NASA F-18s and other high-performance aircraft to conduct Triton. Will Pluto also display such activ- high-altitude airborne astronomical research. Stern received his Ph.D. in planetary ity? Will the KBOs as well? Our present- and from the University of Colorado in 1989. He is director of the Southwest day knowledge of planetary processes THE AUTHOR Research Institute’s department of space studies in Boulder, Colo. www.sciam.com SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN 61 perience of our team-member institutions spacecraft subsystems include spare equip- suite, PAM, consists of charged-particle at delivering space missions on schedule ment to increase reliability on the long detectors designed to sample material es- and at or below cost. flight to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt. caping from Pluto’s atmosphere and to The New Horizons spacecraft we de- The spacecraft will carry four instru- determine its escape rate. The fourth in- signed is lean, with a planned mass of just ment packages. A mapping and composi- strument is LORRI, a high-resolution im- 416 kilograms (917 pounds)—heavier tional spectroscopy package, PERSI, will ager that will supplement PERSI’s already than the early Pioneer probes but lighter make observations in the visible, ultravi- formidable mapping capabilities. At clos- than the Voyagers. This mass includes olet and infrared parts of the spectrum. est approach, PERSI’s global maps of Plu- the hydrazine maneuvering propellant PERSI’s infrared imaging spectrometer will to-Charon and the KBOs will have an av- that will be used to adjust the craft’s tra- be essential for mapping the composition erage resolution of one kilometer. But jectory in flight. Most of the spacecraft’s and physical state (including temperature) LORRI, which will image selected re- subsystems, such as its computers and its of the surface ices on Pluto and Charon. gions, will be able to detect objects 20 propulsion-control system, are based on A radio-science instrument dubbed REX times as small! designs used in the APL’s Comet Nucle- will probe Pluto’s atmospheric structure If all goes as planned, the spacecraft us Tour (CONTOUR) probe, which is and gauge the average surface tempera- will be launched in January 2006, heading scheduled to launch this July on a multi- tures of Pluto and Charon (on both the initially for a flyby of Jupiter that will use ple comet flyby mission. The use of CON- daysides and nightsides of the bodies) by the planet’s gravity to slingshot the craft TOUR’s designs reduces New Horizons’s measuring the intensity of the microwave toward Pluto [see illustration on page 59]. costs and lowers the risk of both techni- radiation striking the spacecraft’s 2.5-me- During its Jupiter flyby, New Horizons cal and schedule problems. Almost all our ter-wide radio dish. A third instrument will conduct an intensive four-month study of the planet’s intriguing system of more NEW HORIZONS SPACECRAFT than 20 moons, as well as its auroras, at- mosphere and magnetosphere. Thanks to TO EXPLORE Pluto, Charon and the Kuiper Belt objects, the proposed craft will carry four instrument packages, called REX, PAM, PERSI and LORRI. the gravitational assist from Jupiter, the spacecraft can reach the Pluto-Charon REX system as early as 2015. (The exact arrival ANTENNA Radio-science instrument date depends on the launch vehicle select- Radio dish (2.5 meters wide) ed by NASA and the precise day we launch will communicate with Earth from as far as 7.5 billion in January 2006.) kilometers away For much of the long cruise from Ju- piter to Pluto, New Horizons will slumber PAM in electronic hibernation. Turning off un- Suite of charged- needed systems and reducing the amount particle detectors of contact with the craft lowers the chance of equipment failures and drastically de- creases mission operations costs. During this hibernation the craft will continu- ously transmit a simple status beacon to Earth; if an unexpected problem develops, RTG our ground-control team will respond. Radioisotope Once each year the craft will be awakened thermoelectric LORRI generator will for about 50 days to thoroughly test the High-resolution camera provide power for systems, make course corrections and cal- the spacecraft’s ibrate its scientific instruments. systems STAR CAMERAS Unlike earlier plans for a quick flyby Navigation system will use star of Pluto-Charon, New Horizons will be- positions to orient the craft PERSI gin its study of Pluto-Charon six months Surface and atmospheric mapping and before its closest approach to the planet. compositional spectroscopy package Once the craft is about 100 million kilo- GENERAL INFORMATION meters from Pluto—about 75 days before ■ The spacecraft has a design mass of 416 kilograms (917 pounds) and is about the size of closest approach—its images of the plan- a small lifeboat. et will be better than those of the Hubble ■ On the journey to Pluto, the probe will reach a top speed of about 70,000 kilometers per hour. Space Telescope, and the results will im- ■ The craft’s computers will be able to store 48 gigabits of data and transmit the information prove with each passing day. In the weeks

to Earth at up to 770 bits per second from Pluto (16,000 bits per second from Jupiter). before closest approach, our mission JUAN VELASCO

62 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN MAY 2002 DON DIXON from aperspectivewithinCharon’sorbitaroundPlutoandslightlyabovetheorbitalplane. craft maycomeasnearafewthousandkilometersfromtheplanet’ssurface.Theflybyisshown FLYBY ofPLUTObytheNewHorizonsspacecraftwillreachitsclimaxatclosestapproach,when www.sciam.com and densityprofile ofPluto’satmosphere we willbeable toplotthetemperature suring therefractionofthisradio beam, ing throughPluto’satmosphere. Bymea- a powerfulradiobeamfromEarth pass- And thespacecraft’santennawill receive by thereflectedmoonlightfrom Charon. nightside, whichwillbesoftlyilluminated will turnaroundandmaptheplanet’s of dozenssmallerareasonthesebodies. cus onproducinghigher-resolutionmaps and Charon.MeanwhileLORRIwillfo- maps oftheentiresunlitfacesPluto ters fromPluto,PERSIwillobtainitsbest come asnearafewthousandkilome- approach, whenNewHorizonsmay special scrutiny.Duringthedayofclosest which geologicfeaturesareworthyof Pluto andCharonthatwillhelpusdecide bilities, wewillget“zoom-lens”viewsof LORRI’s high-resolutionimagingcapa- images oftheplanetovertime.Andusing such asPluto’sweatherbycomparingthe increasing detailandobservephenomena team willbeabletomapPluto-Charonin Once thespacecraftpassesPluto,it New Horizons Charon H E HORIZONS NEW THE Now left inthespacecraftafterPlutoflyby. will dependonhowmuchpropellantis years. Theexactnumberofencounters with ancientKBOsoverthenextfive hope willbethreeormoresimilarflybys maneuver tobeginaseriesofwhatwe New Horizonswillalmostimmediately from highaltitudedowntothesurface. Because ofthechangingalignment lost ifthemissionisnotlaunchedin2006. Belt. Butthepotentialfordiscoverywillbe the Pluto-CharonsystemandKuiper es torevolutionizeourknowledgeofboth Details oftheNew Horizonsmissionareavailableat seds.lpl.arizona.edu/nineplanets/nineplanets/pluto.html Information aboutPlutoandCharon is availableat Cambridge UniversityPress,2001. Beyond Pluto:ExploringtheOuterLimits oftheSolarSystem. and JacquelineMitton.JohnWiley& Sons,1999. Pluto andCharon:IceWorldsonthe RaggedEdgeoftheSolarSystem. Pluto. MO After thePluto-Charonencounter, — RE TO EXPLORE Richard P.Binzelin or Never? Pluto Scientific American, mission promis- Vol. 262,No.6,pages50–58;June1990. terrain sun, morethanfourmillionkilometersof its motion around the treme polartiltand Because ofacombinationPluto’sex- colderthanitistoday. and significantly kilometers fartherfromthesun of millions mid-2020s attheearliest. again, delayinganyencounteruntilthe 2018 forJupitertobeintherightplace return tofirst-timeexplorationfor proach tothesun. rise astheplanetmakesitsnextcloseap- tury, whentheatmosphereshouldagain opportunity tostudyituntilthe23rdcen- have condensedbythen,closingoffany virtually alltheplanet’satmospherewill from beingobserved.Also,itislikelythat dark polarshadow,therebypreventingit itive bidding, selecting NewHorizonsthroughcompet- Mariner missionstoVenusandMars. that itbeganinthe1960swithhistoric basic reconnaissanceofoursolarsystem project, theU.S.willatlastcomplete in thesummerof2015.Insupportingthis ginning justoveradozenyearsfromnow, mence withaseriesofflybyencountersbe- Charon andtheKuiperBeltwillcom- spacecraft, theexploration funding tocomplete missions totheoutersolarsystem. dimes onthedollarcomparedwithrecent hemisphere is missed, by swingingpastJupiter.Ifthiswindow longer beabletoacceleratetowardPluto planets, after2006thespacecraftwillno of tific bonanzaof a newworld.Themissionoffersscien- a spacecraftwilltrainitsinstrumentson 1989, whenVoyager2flewbyNeptune, planetary program:forthefirsttimesince pluto.jhuapl.edu NASA By thattimePluto New Horizonsrepresentsathrilling If Congressapproves — ’s historic explorations. And by ’s historicexplorations.And much of the planet’s southern planet’s much ofthe NASA John Davies. — will bythenbecoveredina SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN and NASA would havetowaituntil proportions remi S. AlanStern www.plutomission.com the New Horizons will behundredsof reduced coststo the development of Pluto- niscent NASA 63 ’s SA