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New Horizons: Reconnaissance of the Pluto-Charon System and The C.T. Russell Editor New Horizons Reconnaissance of the Pluto-Charon System and the Kuiper Belt Previously published in Space Science Reviews Volume 140, Issues 1–4, 2008 C.T. Russell Institute of Geophysics & Planetary Physics University of California Los Angeles, CA, USA Cover illustration: NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft was launched on 2006 January 19, received a grav- ity assist during a close approach to Jupiter on 2007 February 28, and is now headed for a flyby with closest approach 12,500 km from the center of Pluto on 2015 July 14. This artist’s depiction shows the spacecraft shortly after passing above Pluto’s highly variegated surface, which may have black-streaked surface deposits produced from cryogenic geyser activity, and just before passing into Pluto’s shadow when solar and earth occultation experiments will probe Pluto’s tenuous, and possibly hazy, atmosphere. Sunlit crescents of Pluto’s moons Charon, Nix, and Hydra are visible in the background. After flying through the Pluto system, the New Horizons spacecraft could be re-targeted towards other Kuiper Belt Objects in an extended mission phase. This image is based on an original painting by Dan Durda. © Dan Durda 2001 All rights reserved. Back cover illustration: The New Horizons spacecraft was launched aboard an Atlas 551 rocket from the NASA Kennedy Space Center on 2008 January 19 at 19:00 UT. Library of Congress Control Number: 2008944238 DOI: 10.1007/978-0-387-89518-5 ISBN-978-0-387-89517-8 e-ISBN-978-0-387-89518-5 Printed on acid-free paper. © 2009 Springer Science+Business Media, BV No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without the written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for the exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. 1 springer.com Contents Foreword C.T. Russell 1 The New Horizons Pluto Kuiper Belt Mission: An Overview with Historical Context S.A. Stern 3 The New Horizons Spacecraft G.H. Fountain D.Y. Kusnierkiewicz C.B. Hersman T.S. Herder T.B. Coughlin W.C. Gibson D.A. Clancy C.C. DeBoy T.A. Hill J.D. Kinnison D.S. Mehoke G.K. Ottman G.D. Rogers S.A. Stern J.M. Stratton S.R. Vernon S.P. Williams 23 New Horizons Mission Design Y. Guo R.W. Farquhar 49 Overview of the New Horizons Science Payload H.A. Weaver W.C. Gibson M.B. Tapley L.A. Young S.A. Stern 75 New Horizons: Anticipated Scientific Investigations at the Pluto System L.A. Young S.A. Stern H.A. Weaver F. Bagenal R.P. Binzel B. Buratti A.F. Cheng D. Cruikshank G.R. Gladstone W.M. Grundy D.P. Hinson M. Horanyi D.E. Jennings I.R. Linscott D.J. McComas W.B. McKinnon R. McNutt J.M. Moore S. Murchie C.B. Olkin C.C. Porco H. Reitsema D.C. Reuter J.R. Spencer D.C. Slater D. Strobel M.E. Summers G.L. Tyler 93 Ralph: A Visible/Infrared Imager for the New Horizons Pluto/Kuiper Belt Mission D.C. Reuter S.A. Stern J. Scherrer D.E. Jennings J.W. Baer J. Hanley L. Hardaway A. Lunsford S. McMuldroch J. Moore C. Olkin R. Parizek H. Reitsma D. Sabatke J. Spencer J. Stone H. Throop J. Van Cleve G.E. Weigle L.A. Young 129 ALICE: The Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph Aboard the New Horizons Pluto–Kuiper Belt Mission S.A. Stern D.C. Slater J. Scherrer J. Stone G. Dirks M. Versteeg M. Davis G.R. Gladstone J.W. Parker L.A. Young O.H.W. Siegmund 155 Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager on New Horizons A.F. Cheng H.A. Weaver S.J. Conard M.F. Morgan O. Barnouin-Jha J.D. Boldt K.A. Cooper E.H. Darlington M.P. Grey J.R. Hayes K.E. Kosakowski T. Magee E. Rossano D. Sampath C. Schlemm H.W. Taylor 189 The New Horizons Radio Science Experiment (REX) G.L. Tyler I.R. Linscott M.K. Bird D.P. Hinson D.F. Strobel M. Pätzold M.E. Summers K. Sivaramakrishnan 217 The Solar Wind Around Pluto (SWAP) Instrument Aboard New Horizons D.J. McComas F. Allegrini F. Bagenal P. Casey P. Delamere D. Demkee G. Dunn H. Elliott J. Hanley K. Johnson J. Langle G. Miller S. Pope M. Reno B. Rodriguez N. Schwadron P. Valek S. Weidner 261 The Pluto Energetic Particle Spectrometer Science Investigation (PEPSSI) on the New Horizons Mission R.L. McNutt Jr. S.A. Livi R.S. Gurnee M.E. Hill K.A. Cooper G.B. Andrews E.P. Keath S.M. Krimigis D.G. Mitchell B. Tossman F. Bagenal J.D. Boldt W. Bradley W.S. Devereux G.C. Ho S.E. Jaskulek T.W. LeFevere H. Malcom G.A. Marcus J.R. Hayes G.T. Moore M.E. Perry B.D. Williams P. Wilson IV L.E. Brown M.B. Kusterer J.D. Vandegriff 315 The Student Dust Counter on the New Horizons Mission M. Horányi V. Hoxie D. James A. Poppe C. Bryant B. Grogan B. Lamprecht J. Mack F. Bagenal S. Batiste N. Bunch T. Chanthawanich F. Christensen M. Colgan T. Dunn G. Drake A. Fernandez T. Finley G. Holland A. Jenkins C. Krauss E. Krauss O. Krauss M. Lankton C. Mitchell M. Neeland T. Reese K. Rash G. Tate C. Vaudrin J. Westfall 387 Foreword New Horizons: Reconnaissance of the Pluto–Charon System and the Kuiper Belt C.T. Russell Originally published in the journal Space Science Reviews, Volume 140, Nos 1–4, 1–2. DOI: 10.1007/s11214-008-9450-0 © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2008 Exploration is mankind’s imperative. Since the beginnings of civilization, men and women have not been content to build a wall around their settlements and stay within its confines. They explored the land around them, climbed the mountains, and scanned the horizons. The boldest among them pushed exploration to the most distant frontiers of the planet. As a result, much of the Earth was inhabited well before the days of the renowned European ex- plorers of the 15th and 16th centuries. Exploration did not cease, after the circumnavigation of the globe; it continued to the present. Today explorers are going in new directions, not just east and west, north and south. They explore backward in time and upward in space. Arche- ology explores the shorter time scales, and geochemistry the longer time scales of geophysi- cal events: asteroidal and cometary collisions, magnetic reversals, continental formation and more. However, on Earth we cannot go back indefinitely, for much of the evidence of the very earliest days has been lost. To go further back in time we must first go up, climb out of the Earth’s gravitational potential well, and use our spacecraft to scan new horizons on the surfaces of our planetary neighbors. Like the Earth, these planets are dynamic, evolving spheres, large enough that their interiors have undergone significant thermal evolution. The terrestrial planets, Mer- cury, Venus, Earth, and Mars have aged the most. The outer gas giants have also changed, and because of their enormous size, most evidence of past processes is difficult to obtain. Fortunately, the smaller planetary bodies in the asteroid belt and those in the furthest reaches of the solar system, the ones that have evolved the least, are accessible with current technol- ogy. To enable bold initiatives such as a flight to the outermost classical planet, Pluto, NASA established the New Frontiers program. This volume describes the first successful response to New Frontiers opportunity. The very appropriately named New Horizons mission, by the year 2020, extends planetary exploration to the Pluto–Charon system and one or two Kuiper Belt objects. Selected in 2000 and launched in 2006, New Horizons is well on its C.T. Russell () University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA e-mail: [email protected] C.T. Russell (ed.), New Horizons. DOI: 10.1007/978-0-387-89518-5_1 1 2 C.T. Russell way to arrival at Pluto on July 14, 2015, fifty years to the day after the first successful Mars reconnaissance by Mariner 4 in 1965. This collection of articles describes the New Horizons mission, its spacecraft, instru- ments and scientific investigations. It begins with a historical overview of the events leading to the New Horizons mission by the Principal Investigator, Alan Stern. This introduction to the mission is followed by a description of the spacecraft by G.H. Fountain and colleagues. A critical aspect of the mission is the Jupiter gravity assist that was essential in speed- ing the spacecraft on its way to the Pluto–Charon system. The mission design that enabled the gravity assist and the observations to be obtained at Pluto and Charon is described by Y. Guo and R.W. Farquhar. Next H. Weaver and colleagues describe the science payload and L.A. Young and colleagues describe the anticipated scientific investigations. The vol- ume closes with seven articles describing the instruments and investigations. D.C. Reuter et al. discuss Ralph; the visible and infrared imager. S.A. Stern et al. describe the UV imag- ing spectrograph. A.F. Cheng et al cover the long-range reconnaissance imager, LORRI. G.L. Tyler et al., present the radio science experiment, REX. D.J. McComas et al. describes the solar wind instrument. R.L. McNutt et al. discusses the energetic particle spectrometer science investigation, PEPSSI.
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