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Estimating the Thermally Induced Acceleration of the New Horizons Spacecraft

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Estimating the Thermally Induced Acceleration of the New Horizons Spacecraft Estimating the thermally induced acceleration of the New Horizons spacecraft André G. C. Guerra,1, ∗ Frederico Francisco,1, y Paulo J. S. Gil,2, z and Orfeu Bertolami1, x 1Departamento de Física e Astronomia and Centro de Física do Porto, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade do Porto, Portugal 2CCTAE, IDMEC, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal (Dated: November 3, 2017) Residual accelerations due to thermal effects are estimated through a model of the New Horizons spacecraft and a Monte Carlo simulation. We also discuss and estimate the thermal effects on the attitude of the spacecraft. The work is based on a method previously used for the Pioneer and Cassini probes, which solve the Pioneer anomaly problem. The results indicate that after the encounter with Pluto there is a residual acceleration of the order of 10−9 m=s2, and that rotational effects should be difficult, although not impossible, to detect. I. INTRODUCTION mination of the γ parameter of the parametrised post- Newtonian (PPN) formalism so far [9], but also led to The first probes aimed at the planets beyond the aster- the detection of a similar anomalous acceleration of ther- oid belt were launched in the 1970s, starting with the ap- mal origin, just like the Pioneer spacecraft [10]. propriately named Pioneer 10 and 11. These two space- The New Horizons mission has undergone some “hiber- craft visited Jupiter and Saturn and paved the way for nation” periods, where no thruster was fired. Therefore, the two much heavier and more sophisticated Voyager 1 it is very likely that a similar thermal origin accelera- and 2, which completed the round through all four gas gi- tion might show up in the radiometric data. Indeed, this ants in the Solar System. More recently, orbiter missions has been reported in Ref. [11] for the period between like Galileo, launched in 1989, and Cassini, launched in February 2008 and May 2013. This detection leads to 1997, have been sent to explore Jupiter and Saturn, re- the necessity of comparing any such acceleration with a spectively, and some of their moons. computation of the thermally induced acceleration. The now demoted dwarf planet Pluto had yet to be We use the already proven pointlike source method, visited by a man-made probe. New Horizons was the briefly described in sectionII, to the New Horizons space- first spacecraft to explore Pluto and its moon Charon. craft and its Pluto bound mission (cf. section III). Fol- Launched in January 2006, its closest approach to Pluto lowing the same procedure applied to the Pioneers and was on July 2015, after a nine and a half year trip. The Cassini, we obtain a predicted range for the thermally main objective was to perform a series of scientific studies induced acceleration and discuss the expected thermal of what was, at the time, still classified as a planet [1]. effects on the attitude of the spacecraft, as discussed in A common feature of all of these probes is their power sections III andIV. Details of the attitude modelling are source. Since solar panels are unable to generate the re- presented in the appendix. quired amount of energy beyond the asteroid belt, these spacecraft are powered by Radioisotope Thermal Gener- ators (RTGs). These devices generate large quantities II. POINTLIKE SOURCE METHOD of excess heat, since the power conversion through the thermocouples has a rather low efficiency. A. Motivation In fact, the controversy about the so-called Pioneer anomaly, which lingered around for a decade [2,3], led The pointlike source method, first discussed in Ref. [4], arXiv:1703.05831v2 [gr-qc] 2 Nov 2017 to the discovery that the anisotropic heat radiation from is an approach that maintains a high computational these spacecraft had indeed a detectable impact on the speed and a broad degree of flexibility, allowing for an spacecraft’s trajectory [4–8]. The reason this effect was easy analysis of different contributions and scenarios. first detected on the Pioneers, but not on the Voyagers, is the use on the formers of spin-stabilisation and, as such, The method was designed to keep all the physical fea- long periods without manoeuvrers, which allows for high tures of the problem easily scrutinisable. A battery of precision in the trajectory determination. These condi- test cases can be performed to test the robustness of the tions were reproduced in the Cassini Solar Conjunction result and ensure that the simplicity and transparency experiment, which not only allowed for the best deter- were not achieved at the expense of accuracy [5]. One important feature of this method is its ability to consider parameters involving a large degree of uncer- tainty, which may arise from unavailability of accurate ∗ [email protected]; Corresponding author engineering data or lack of knowledge about changes due y [email protected] to the extended periods of degradation in space. By as- z [email protected] signing a statistical distribution to each parameter, based x [email protected] on the available information, and generating a large num- 2 ber of random values, a Monte Carlo simulation can be produced by radiation of the emitting surface, the inte- used to generate a probability distribution for the final gral should be taken over a closed surface encompassing result [6, 10]. the latter. Equivalently, the force exerted on an illumi- The fact that this method was already used to deal nated surface requires an integration surface that encom- with spacecraft thermal emissions in the context of the passes it. Furthermore, considering a set of emitting and Pioneer anomaly and the Cassini solar conjunction ex- illuminated surfaces implies a proper accounting of the periment, producing results that are in agreement with effect of shadows cast by each other, which must be sub- radiometric navigation data and with the ones obtained tracted from the estimated force on the emitting surface. through finite-element models [7,8], is a clear indication It is then possible to read the thermally induced acceler- of its reliability and robustness. ation directly. B. Radiative Momentum Transfer C. Reflection Modelling – Phong Shading Before considering the particular problem at hand, it The inclusion of reflections in the model is achieved is useful to briefly review the physical formulation behind through a method known as Phong Shading, a set of the pointlike source method. techniques and algorithms commonly used to render the The key feature of this method is the distribution of a illumination of surfaces in three-dimensional computer small number of criteriously placed pointlike sources that graphics [12]. model the thermal radiation emissions of the spacecraft. This method is composed of a reflection model, which Typically, Lambertian sources are used to model surface includes diffusive and specular reflection, known as the emissions, although other types of sources to model par- Phong reflection model, and an interpolation method for ticular objects are possible. curved surfaces modelled as polygons, known as Phong All the subsequent formulation of emission and reflec- interpolation. tion is made in terms of the Poynting vector field. For The Phong reflection model is based on an empirical instance, the time-averaged Poynting vector field for a expression that gives the illumination value of a given Lambertian source located at x0 is given by point in a surface, Ip, as W x − x x − x 0 0 X SLamb(x) = 2 n · ; (1) α πjjx − x0jj jjx − x0jj jjx − x0jj Ip = kaia + [kd(lm · n)id + ks(rm · v) is] ; (4) m2lights where W is the emissive power, and n is the surface nor- mal. where ka, kd, and ks are the ambient, diffusive, and spec- The amount of power illuminating a given surface ular reflection constants, and ia, id, and is the respective Wilum can be obtained by computing the Poynting vec- light source intensities. The vector quantities are the di- tor flux through the illuminated surface S, given by the rection of the light source m, lm, the surface normal, n, integral the direction of the reflected ray, rm, and the direction of Z the observer, v. Finally, α is a “shininess” constant, and Eilum = S · nilum dA; (2) the higher its value, the more mirror-like is the surface. S To use this formulation to resolve a physics problem, where nilum is the normal vector of the illuminated sur- some constraints should be taken into account. The am- face. bient light parameters ka and ia, while useful in com- The absorbed radiation transfers its momentum to the puter graphics, are not relevant in our problem, since surface, yielding a radiation pressure prad given by the they parametrise the reflection behaviour relative to a power flux divided by the speed of light, for an opaque background radiation source. Also, the intensities id and unit surface. There is also a radiation pressure on the is should be the same, since the diffusive and specular emitting surface but with its sign reversed. If there is reflection are relative to the same radiation sources. transmission (i.e., the surface is not opaque) the pressure This method provides a simple and straightforward is multiplied by the absorption coefficient. As for reflec- way to model the various components of reflection, as tion, we see in the next two sections that it is treated as well as a more accurate accounting of the thermal radia- a re-emission of a part of the absorbed radiation. tion exchanges between the surfaces on the spacecraft. In Integrating the radiation pressure on a surface allows principle, there is no difference between the treatment of us to obtain the force and, dividing by the mass of the infrared radiation, in which we are interested, and visible spacecraft (mSC), its acceleration light, for which the method was originally devised, al- Z lowing for a natural wavelength dependence of the above S · nilum S 1 F = dA ) a = F : (3) material constants.
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