Reaching for Pluto: NASA Launches Probe to Solar System's Edge Reaching for Pluto: NASA Launches Probe to Solar System's Edge By Tariq Malik, Space.com Managing Editor | January 19, 2006 03:47pm ET MORE NASA's New Horizons spacecraft launches into space on a mission to the planet Pluto and beyond on Jan. 19, 2006. Credit: NASA. This story was updated at 5:09 p.m. EST. NASA's first probe bound for the planet Pluto and beyond rocketed toward the distant world Thursday after two days of delay due to weather. A Lockheed Martin-built Atlas 5 rocket flung the New Horizons spacecraft spaceward at 2:00 p.m. EST (1900), sending the probe speeding away from Earth at about 36,250 miles per hour (58,338 kilometers per hour)- the fastest ever for a NASA mission. The probe should pass the Moon at 11:00 EST (0400 Jan. 20 GMT) on a nine-year trek towards Pluto.

"The United States has a spacecraft on its way to Pluto, the Kuiper Belt and on to the stars," said New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern during a post-launch press conference. "I have July 14, 2015 emblazoned on my calendar." Initial reports indicate that the probe is in good health. Grounds stations received their first signals from New Horizons at about 2:50 p.m. EST (1950 GMT), which showed the spacecraft's radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) - which uses heat from decaying plutonium dioxide to generate power - is online and performing as expected, mission managers said. "The vehicle looks to be right where it needs to be," NASA launch manager Omar Baez, said just after liftoff. "It was Mother Nature that was holding us back earlier, but we got through it." Weather woes Indeed, nature was the bane of New Horizons' launch from the beginning. Flight controllers were forced to scrub an initial Jan. 17 launch attempt when winds proved too strong at the spacecraft's Complex 41 launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

One day later, severe storms in Maryland prevented a second launch attempt when they knocked out power at New Horizons' mission control center at Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory. The laboratory is managing the mission for NASA. Earlier today, thick cloud cover repeatedly forced flight controllers to push back New Horizons' planned liftoff from 1:08 p.m. EST (1808 GMT), until the weather eased to meet launch guidelines. "It was suspenseful, there was no question," Stern said of today's countdown, holding up a small stub of a pencil. "This has been our mascot for years, this little ground-down pencil...it represents perseverance." New Horizons mission managers took today's launch as an opportunity to honor Pluto's past. Riding aboard the NASA spacecraft are ashes of the late astronomer Clyde Tombaugh, who discovered the planet in 1930 at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. Tombaugh died in Jan. 17, 1997, nine years to the day of New Horizons first launch attempt this week.

"I want to point out what a great honor it is to have Clyde's widow [and family] here with us," Stern said of Patsy Tombaugh, her daughter Annette and son-in-law. Jim Kennedy, NASA's Kennedy Space Center director, said earlier this week that a Florida quarter - bearing the image of a space shuttle - is also accompanying the probe to Pluto. Onward to Pluto The $700 million New Horizons mission began in earnest as the probe popped free from its third stage to begin the long, nine-year trek toward Pluto. The spacecraft should swing past Jupiter, grabbing a gravity boost in the process, in late February 2007, NASA officials said. "This mission is going to the far frontier of our solar system," said Richard Binzel, a science team co-investigator from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), before today's launch. "In some ways, our basic knowledge about Pluto could fit on a three-by-five inch note card." Pluto is the only member of the traditional nine-planet solar system not visited by a spacecraft, a statistic New Horizons hopes to change.

The probe carries seven primary instruments to study Pluto, its moon Charon and two other objects - currently dubbed P1 and P2 - discovered orbiting the planet last year. The spacecraft is designed to begin observing Pluto about five months before its scheduled flyby in July 2015, which will take place about three billion miles (five billion kilometers) from Earth on the 50th anniversary of Mariner 4's flyby of Mars - NASA's first ever red planet flyby, Stern said. Mission managers expect New Horizons to speed past the planet at about 31,000 miles per hour while using its instrument package to build detailed maps of the planet, as well as study its composition and tenuous atmosphere. About nine months after the encounter, the 1,054-pound (478-kilogram) spacecraft should finish sending its Pluto observations to Earth, which will take about 4.5 hours to reach researchers on the ground. The information New Horizons will send to Earth about Pluto and its moons will likely alter our view of the distant, icy world, researchers said. "I think it's exciting that all the textbooks will have to be rewritten," Stern said.

Thursday's space shot marked the second Atlas 5 launch for NASA - the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter flight was the first - and the seventh flight overall for the Lockheed Martin rocket. The launch also marked the second success for NASA this week. The space agency's Stardust probe - which collected samples of interstellar dust and fragments of Comet Wild 2 (pronounced "Vilt 2") - landed safely on the Utah desert on Jan. 15. ""This week, NASA has accomplished an amazing one-two punch for...exploration," said Andrew Dantzler, director of the solar system division at NASA's Washington, D.C. headquarters.

"It's been a great day." NASA probe to arrive at Pluto carrying ashes of Clyde Tombaugh - Telegraph NASA probe to arrive at Pluto carrying ashes of Clyde Tombaugh NASA’s New Horizons probe will arrive at the dwarf-planet carrying the astrophysicist’s ashes An artist's impression of the New Horizons probe approaching Pluto Photo: Nasa/Rex Features By Sarah Knapton , Science Editor 9:30PM GMT 10 Jan 2015 Follow When Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto in 1930 he could never have imagined that the icy world would one day be his final resting place. But this week NASA’s New Horizons probe will arrive at the dwarf-planet carrying the astrophysicist’s ashes. The mission is hoping to answer fundamental questions about the 9th rock from the Sun and will send back the first close-up pictures of our elusive neighbour. It could even help explain the origin of life on Earth. Tombaugh died on January 17 1997, nine years and two days before New Horizon’s launch, but one of his final requests was for his ashes to be sent into space.

A small container carrying his remains is affixed to the inside of the upper deck of the probe bearing the inscription: “Interred herein are remains of American Clyde W. Tombaugh, discoverer of Pluto and the solar system's 'third zone'” Related Articles Nasa films captivating footage of intense solar flare 26 Dec 2014 Since Tombaugh discovered Pluto it has been of the most contentious bodies in the solar system with astronomers divided as to whether it is a planet, a dwarf-planet, an escaped moon of Neptune or even a comet. It is fitting that when New Horizon first set off in January 2006, carrying Tombaugh’s ashes, Pluto was still considered a planet. But just a few months later it was downgraded to a dwarf-planet or ‘plutoid’ and is now known unceremoniously as ‘asteroid number 134340’ However scientists say the £460 million mission is ‘incredibly important’. New Horizons will be close enough to begin observing Pluto and its giant moon Charon by January 15 and then begin a slow fly-past in the summer, sampling the solar wind, magnetic field, dust and atmospheric conditions.

Its seven-instrument science payload includes advanced imaging infrared and ultraviolet spectrometers, a compact multicolour camera, a high-resolution telescopic camera, two powerful particle spectrometers and a space-dust detector. “New Horizons is incredibly important,” said Dr Sheila Kanani, Planetary Scientist at the Royal Astronomical Society, “Because it is so far away we don’t know much about Pluto and Charon. We have a few pictures of Pluto but they are pixilated and fuzzy so we have high hopes from the images that New Horizons will give us. “Pluto is made of rock and ice and has five moons, although the classification is still under debate. • 100 odd objects sent into space “Its temperature is about -230C and Pluto is unusual in that as you go up in the atmosphere it actually gets warmer. “But all these observations have taken place from the confines of Earth or images from the Hubble Space Telescope so it will be incredible to have data from the New Horizons mission – who knows what Pluto has to offer.” The nuclear powered New Horizons probe set off on January 19, 2006, on the fastest rocket to have ever left Earth.

Pluto, which is not even two-thirds the diameter of the Moon, is a member of the Kuiper Belt, a giant band of planetary debris left over from the solar system’s formation 4.56 billion years ago. Because of its elliptical 248 year orbit the mission has been timed so that probe needed only travel the shortest distance. New Horizons set off when Pluto was just 2.6 billion miles from Earth. At its furthest point it can be 4.6 billion miles away. The probe has spent 1,873 days dozing in standby to save energy and was woken by NASA On December 6, NASA for the final leg of its journey . “This is a watershed event that signals the end of New Horizons crossing of a vast ocean of space to the very frontier of our solar system, and the beginning of the mission’s primary objective,” said Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator from Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colorado. The spaceship will be closest to the dwarf-planet on July 14, near enough for images that will ‘knock your socks off,” promised mission team member Will Grundy, an astronomer at Lowell Observatory in Arizona, where Pluto was first seen.

Grundy believes that material from the Kuiper belt may have delivered organic molecules which sparked life on Earth. “There’s no doubt that complex organic molecules do exist in the outer solar system which were created via energetic radiation acting on simpler molecules,” Grundy told Forbes magazine. “Whether [they] played an important role in seeding life on Earth is not yet known. “It’s entirely possible that we didn’t need that stuff. But it’s equally possible that after the Earth had been sterilized and cooked and things cooled down, impactors from the outer solar system [delivered key] astrobiological ingredients.” The astrophysicists will also be looking out for huge wind-swept dunes of ice and soot on the surface of the dwarf-planet which would prove Pluto’s atmosphere was once much thicker. Dr Kanani said space had recaptured the public’s imagination. “With new technology we have entered a new space age,” she said. “We are able to send satellites to comets and dwarf planets and we are learning more about where we live and where we come from every day.

“We are able to observe planets for tens of years (like the Cassini mission at Saturn) which means our knowledge of the Solar System has increased a huge amount in the last 50 years. “Twitter and Facebook, and other internet sharing sites, means that the whole world can connect and celebrate the wonderful science, engineering, technology and maths that is being done across the world, and across the Solar System, today.” Pluto facts: When Pluto was discovered in 1930, a competition was held to find a name for the new planet. Eleven-year-old Venetia Burney chose Pluto because it was dark and far away, like the god of the underworld. She received a £5 note as a reward. Pluto is smaller than Mercury and seven other moons, including Ganymede, Titan, Callisto, Io, Europa, Triton, and the Moon. For 20 years of its almost 248-year orbit, Pluto is closer to the sun than Neptune. Between 1979 to 1999, Pluto was the eighth planet and Neptune was the ninth. Some astronomers hypothesise that Pluto is just an escaped satellite of Neptune that pulled out of Neptune’s atmosphere and made its own orbit.

It takes about five hours for sunlight to reach Pluto making the sky is so dark that stars are visible all day long. Attempting to view Pluto from Earth is like trying to see a walnut from 30 miles away. Russell Watson recorded a special version of ‘Where My Heart Will Take Me’ which was played in New Horizons mission operations upon confirmation of the spacecraft’s wake-up on December 6 / New Horizons New Horizons Download JPG Credit: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory Mission Project Scientist Hal Weaver (right) points out features on the New Horizons spacecraft model to curious Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory co-workers, just after the one-half-scale model was installed in the lobby of APL’s newest building (Building 200) on Dec. 22, 2011. APL built and operates the New Horizons spacecraft from its campus in Laurel, Maryland. Model Spacecraft Pair Download JPG Credit: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory Models of the Pluto-bound New Horizons (left) and the Mercury-orbiting MESSENGER spacecraft adorn the lobby of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory’s newest building (Building 200). APL built and operates both spacecraft from its campus in Laurel, Maryland.

The one-half-scale New Horizons model, also built at APL, was installed on Dec. 22, 2011. APL Model Download JPG Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute A half-scale model of the New Horizons spacecraft hangs in the lobby of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory’s newest building (Building 200), which houses most of the Lab’s Space Department staff. APL built and operates the New Horizons spacecraft from its campus in Laurel, Maryland. The model, also built at APL, was installed on Dec. 22, 2011. NASM Model Download JPG Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute Mike Lynch of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and Benjamin Rodriguez of the Southwest Research Institute re-install the Solar Wind Around Pluto (SWAP) instrument on NASA's New Horizons spacecraft Oct. 5 at Kennedy Space Center, Fla. SWAP, one of seven instruments on the Pluto-bound New Horizons probe, had been removed for previously planned maintenance and installation of new detectors.

Visible above SWAP is the Pluto Energetic Particle Spectrometer Science Investigation (PEPSSI) instrument; to the right are the telescopic Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) and, with protective red covers, the spacecraft's star-tracking navigation cameras. Launch is scheduled during a 35-day window that opens on January 11, 2006. PEPSSI Operations Download JPG Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute Mike Lynch, Carlos Castillo and Jim Hutcheson of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory apply thermally insulating Kapton tape between the Pluto-bound New Horizons spacecraft and the Pluto Energetic Particle Spectrometer Science Investigation (PEPSSI) instrument during pre-launch operations at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., on Oct 5. Below PEPSSI is the slot for the Solar Wind Around Pluto (SWAP) instrument, which was re-installed following the PEPSSI operations, and atop the spacecraft is the nearly 7-foot diameter dish antenna New Horizons will use to send data back from the distant planet. Launch is scheduled during a 35-day window that opens on January 11, 2006.

Loading Into Cargo Plane Download JPG Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute Packed safely in a custom-built, pressurized shipping container, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is loaded into a C-17 cargo plane at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., for the flight to Kennedy Space Center, Fla., on Sept. 23. The spacecraft arrived at KSC early the next morning, and is undergoing final preparations for its scheduled January 2006 launch toward Pluto and the Kuiper Belt. Unloading Spacecraft Download JPG Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute The Air Force C-17 cargo plane carrying the New Horizons spacecraft awaits unloading at the Shuttle Landing Facility, Kennedy Space Center , Fla. , early on Sept. 24. The spacecraft and associated equipment had been transported from Maryland , where the probe was built and tested for its scheduled January 2006 launch and mission to Pluto.

Prepare to Unload Download JPG Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute Mission team members and ground crew prepare to unload the shipping "can" containing the New Horizons spacecraft at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., shortly after the Air Force C-17 cargo plane that carried the probe touched down at the Shuttle Landing Facility on Sept. 24. The custom-made, pressurized controlled shipping container is about 10 feet tall and 10 feet wide. Spacecraft Packed for Shipment Download JPG Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute Packed safely in a pressurized shipping container, the New Horizons spacecraft is loaded onto a flatbed truck at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt , Md. , on Sept. 23 for the trip to Andrews Air Force Base, where it was loaded onto a C-17 cargo plane and flown to Kennedy Space Center , Fla. The Pluto-bound probe recently completed three months of space-environment tests at Goddard; before then it was tested at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md., where it was designed and built.

New Horizons arrived at Kennedy Space Center in the early hours of Sept. 24 and is now being prepared for its scheduled January 2006 launch. Antenna Move Download JPG Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute (NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI) Team members at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, MD, move the high-gain antenna assembly toward the New Horizons spacecraft for installation on April 13, 2005. The spacecraft's most prominent design feature, the assembly includes high-, medium-, and low-gain antennas. The high-gain antenna consists of a 2.1-meter (nearly 7-foot) reflector dish mounted close to the spacecraft and a subreflector on the back side of the medium-gain reflector. Visible on the back of the spacecraft are (from left) the Solar Wind at Pluto (SWAP), Pluto Energetic Particle Spectrometer Science Investigation (PEPSSI) and LOng Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) instruments, as well as the star-tracking navigation cameras (with protective red caps).

According to mission plans, New Horizons would be about 5 billion kilometers (3.1 billion miles) from Earth when it reaches Pluto in summer 2015. This stacked design provides a clear field of view for the low-gain antenna, while providing structural support for the high- and medium-gain reflector antennas. The antenna is also a key component of the mission's Radio Science Experiment - called REX - which will help scientists understand the structure of Pluto's atmosphere by looking at how radio signals change as they're sent from Earth and move through Pluto's atmosphere. Attaching the Antenna 2 Download JPG Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute (NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI) Team members at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, MD, attach the high-gain antenna assembly to the New Horizons spacecraft on April 13, 2005. The spacecraft's most prominent design feature, the assembly includes high-, medium-, and low-gain antennas.

The high-gain antenna consists of a 2.1-meter (nearly 7-foot) reflector dish mounted close to the spacecraft and a subreflector on the back side of the medium-gain reflector. According to mission plans, New Horizons would be about 5 billion kilometers (3.1 billion miles) from Earth when it reaches Pluto in summer 2015. This stacked design provides a clear field of view for the low-gain antenna, while providing structural support for the high- and medium-gain reflector antennas. The antenna is also a key component of the mission's Radio Science Experiment - called REX - which will help scientists understand the structure of Pluto's atmosphere by looking at how radio signals change as they're sent from Earth and move through Pluto's atmosphere. Attaching the Antenna 1 Download JPG Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute (NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI) Team members at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, MD, attach the high-gain antenna assembly to the New Horizons spacecraft on April 13, 2005.

The spacecraft's most prominent design feature, the assembly includes high-, medium-, and low-gain antennas. The high-gain antenna consists of a 2.1-meter (nearly 7-foot) reflector dish mounted close to the spacecraft and a subreflector on the back side of the medium-gain reflector. Also visible on the left side of the spacecraft below the dish are (clockwise, from top) the Pluto Energetic Particle Spectrometer Science Investigation (PEPSSI), LOng Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) and Solar Wind at Pluto (SWAP) instruments. According to mission plans, New Horizons would be about 5 billion kilometers (3.1 billion miles) from Earth when it reaches Pluto in summer 2015. This stacked design provides a clear field of view for the low-gain antenna, while providing structural support for the high- and medium-gain reflector antennas. The antenna is also a key component of the mission's Radio Science Experiment - called REX - which will help scientists understand the structure of Pluto's atmosphere by looking at how radio signals change as they're sent from Earth and move through Pluto's atmosphere.

Antenna Fit Check 2 Download JPG Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute (NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI) New Horizons team members get a good look under the spacecraft during a "fit check" of the 2.1-meter (nearly 7-foot) dish antenna on Feb. 1, 2005, at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md. Visible on the spacecraft body are its star-tracking cameras (with protective red covers) and, at left, the Solar Wind at Pluto (SWAP) and Pluto Energetic Particle Spectrometer Science Investigation (PEPSSI) instruments. Antenna Fit Check 1 Download JPG Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute (NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI) The New Horizons spacecraft team conducts a "fit check" of the 2.1-meter (nearly 7-foot) dish antenna Feb. 1, 2005, at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md.

Also visible on the spacecraft body are its star-tracking cameras (with protective red covers), the Alice ultraviolet imaging spectrometer (at right) and the Solar Wind at Pluto (SWAP) and Pluto Energetic Particle Spectrometer Science Investigation (PEPSSI) instruments (at left). Launch of New Horizons, the first mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt, is planned for January 2006. System Check Download JPG Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute (NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI) A technician at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory checks the electronics on NASA's New Horizons spacecraft. Launch of the Pluto flyby mission is currently planned for January 2006. Alice Installation Download JPG Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute (NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI) Technicians at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, install the Alice ultraviolet imaging spectrometer on NASA's New Horizons spacecraft. Alice is one of seven science instruments designed for the Pluto flyby mission, which is planned for launch in January 2006.

LORRI Installation NASA Pluto Probe Begins Science Observations Ahead of Epic Flyby NASA Pluto Probe Begins Science Observations Ahead of Epic Flyby By Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer | January 15, 2015 07:00am ET MORE This artist's concept shows NASA's New Horizons spacecraft during its Pluto flyby on July 14, 2015. The probe began the six-month final approach to the dwarf planet on Jan. 15, 2015. Credit: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute (JHUAPL/SwRI) A NASA spacecraft's epic Pluto encounter is officially underway. NASA's New Horizons probe today (Jan. 15) began its six-month approach to Pluto , which will culminate with the first-ever close flyby of the dwarf planet on July 14. "We really are on Pluto's doorstep," New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern said last month during a news conference at the annual fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) in San Francisco.

[ Photos from NASA's New Horizons Pluto Probe ] A long journey The $700 million New Horizons mission blasted off in January 2006 with the aim of lifting the veil on Pluto. The dwarf planet has remained a mystery since its 1930 discovery because it's so small and so far away. (On average, Pluto orbits about 40 times farther from the sun than Earth does.) The piano-size spacecraft rocketed away from Earth at more than 36,000 mph (58,000 km/h), faster than any other probe. It has now covered about 3 billion miles (4.8 billion kilometers) during its nine-year journey through deep space. "In a very real sense, this is the Everest of planetary exploration," Stern said of New Horizons. "This mission represents the closing of the first era of planetary reconnaissance. We've made it to the farthest place, with the fastest spacecraft ever launched." New Horizons will use seven different science instruments to study Pluto and its five known moons .

The mission's chief objectives include mapping the surface composition and temperature of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon; characterizing the atmosphere of Pluto and the geology of Pluto and Charon; and hunting for rings and additional satellites in the Pluto system. In the 1990s, researchers began to realize that Pluto is not a lonely misfit; rather, it's just one of many dwarf planets and other icy denizens of the far-flung Kuiper Belt , which lies beyond Neptune's orbit. So New Horizons' observations should help researchers better understand an entire class of solar system bodies, mission team members said. "We are going to the archetypal Kuiper Belt planet," New Horizons co-investigator William McKinnon, of Washington University in St. Louis, said at the AGU news briefing. "This mission will revolutionize our understanding of how the planets in the Kuiper Belt work." Small, icy worlds like Pluto are probably the most common type of planet in the entire universe, McKinnon added.

The long encounter begins Though New Horizons remains about 134 million miles (216 million km) from Pluto, it has already begun taking the dwarf planet's measure: The science-observation campaign officially began today, marking the start of "Approach Phase 1." Many of the images New Horizons gathers during this phase will be used to keep the spacecraft on target toward Pluto, with the first course-correction maneuver, if necessary, possibly occurring as early as March. But some of the photos will be taken for scientific purposes, Stern said, and New Horizons will also characterize the Kuiper Belt environment using two different plasma sensors and a dust-counting instrument. The pace of scientific activity will really start picking up in April, Stern added. And by mid-May, New Horizons will be close enough to snap the best-ever images of Pluto. (The sharpest photos of the dwarf planet to date were taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope ; they show Pluto as a blur of pixels.) It will only get more exciting from there.

The most jaw-dropping images will be captured on and around July 14, when New Horizons zooms within about 6,000 miles (9,656 kilometers) of Pluto's surface. The closest-approach pictures will not all be available right away, however. As a result of budget constraints, New Horizons does not have an articulated high-gain antenna, meaning the spacecraft must orient itself toward Earth to beam data home. But New Horizons will of course be peering intently at Pluto during and immediately after the flyby. While some images will come down to mission control during this time, high-volume transmission of closest-approach data likely won't begin until early August, Stern said, and will continue for more than a year. "From a scientific standpoint, this is going to look a lot like an orbiter [mission]," he said.

"The spacecraft is long gone from Pluto, but new data is raining down every week, and every month, for 16 months." The Pluto flyby may not end New Horizons' scientific work in the dark depths of the outer solar system: Stern and his team want to send the probe on to observe another Kuiper Belt object , and they've already identified two good candidates. If NASA funds this extended mission, New Horizons would reach its second and final target in 2019. NASA - On to Pluto! On to Pluto! 02.02.06 Be the first to learn the new buzz words you'll be seeing in the news and on the Internet! Now you can familiarize yourself with terms like Charon, Kuiper Belt, and a group of friendly sounding names like Ralph, Alice, REX and LORRI. These terms are all part of the New Horizons mission to Pluto, which starts 2006 off with a blast of space exploration. Image to right: This drawing shows what scientists believe the New Horizons spacecraft may encounter on its journey. Credit: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory NASA's New Horizons spacecraft will give us our first close-up look of Pluto and its moon Charon.

No spacecraft has ever visited the planet, and not even the Hubble Space Telescope can spot details on Pluto's rocky, icy surface. With the New Horizons mission, NASA looks to unlock one of the solar system's great planetary secrets. Pluto is a different type of planet than the inner, rocky planets in our solar system (like Earth) or the outer gas giants. Pluto is an "ice dwarf," an object commonly found in the Kuiper Belt region, billions of miles from the sun. "Exploring Pluto and the Kuiper Belt is like conducting an archeological dig into the history of the outer solar system, a place where we can peek into the ancient era of planetary formation," said Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator, from the Southwest Research Institute Department of Space Studies, Boulder, Colo. New Horizons launched aboard an Atlas V rocket in late January 2006, and is expected to reach the Pluto system as early as mid-2015. The spacecraft will send back a beacon signal each week to give operators an instant read on the spacecraft's health. For much of the trip to Pluto, the spacecraft will "sleep" in electronic hibernation.

Operators will turn off all but the most critical electronic systems and will monitor the spacecraft to check out critical systems, calibrate instruments and perform any needed course corrections. New Horizons operates on less power than a pair of 100-watt household light bulbs. The mission will conduct a five-month-long study of the global geology of Pluto and Charon, map their surface compositions and temperatures, and examine Pluto's atmosphere. New Horizons also will study the small moons recently discovered in the Pluto system. Image to left: Workers attach a sophisticated antenna assembly to the New Horizons spacecraft. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory The New Horizons science payload includes seven different instruments with catchy names -- Ralph, Alice, REX, LORRI, SWAP, PEPSSI and SDC. Most of these are acronyms or abbreviations for the functions they perform. You can read the full description of these instruments at the New Horizons site: . "New Horizons will study a unique world, and we can only imagine what we may learn. This is a prime example of scientific missions that complement the Vision for Space Exploration," said Mary Cleave, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate.

The Vision for Space Exploration seeks to return the space shuttle safely to flight, complete the construction of the international space station, and take humans back to the moon and eventually to Mars and beyond. Although New Horizons is traveling to the distant reaches of our solar system, it can help you bring science concepts down to Earth for your students. The New Horizons Educator Page ( ) offers educational materials that will help you use New Horizons to excite your students about space science. Related Resources Sen - space television How New Horizons will look as it speeds past Pluto in 2015. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI How New Horizons will look as it speeds past Pluto in 2015. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI NASA's Pluto probe gets first look at Charon Paul Sutherland, Feature writer Jul 14, 2013, 0:00 UTC Sen—NASA’s New Horizons mission has logged a key moment on its race to Pluto by catching its first glimpse of the former planet’s largest moon Charon. The most powerful of its miniature cameras snapped a fuzzy image which nevertheless clearly shows the icy satellite as an object separate from the remote world that it orbits.

New Horizons was still 885 million km from Pluto, a distance that is greater than that of Jupiter from the Earth, when it took six images using its LOng Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) on July 1 and 3. Hal Weaver, New Horizons Project Scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, in Maryland, said: “The image itself might not look very impressive to the untrained eye, but compared to the discovery images of Charon from Earth, these ‘discovery’ images from New Horizons look great! We’re very excited to see Pluto and Charon as separate objects for the first time from New Horizons.” Charon, which was discovered in 1978, is the largest of five moons known to orbit Pluto. The fifth was only spotted last year in images taken in June and July 2012 by the Hubble Space Telescope. New Horizons, the fastest probe ever fired into deep space, was launched in January 2006 and accelerated to Solar System escape velocity of 55,500 km per hour by a solid-fuelled engine. It is flying so fast that it was already passing Jupiter by February 2007.

Even so, it will not reach Pluto - which lost its planet status while the probe was already en route - until 2015 after a nine-year journey. When it gets there, it will not have time to hang around as it gathers data because its high speed will carry it on into the Kuiper Belt. Six images of Pluto taken from New Horizons were combined to produe this image which is shown plain and with the bodies circled. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI But as it approaches and zips past, New Horizons will study Pluto and its moons as much as it can using its cameras, a radio science experiment, ultraviolet and infrared spectrometers and space plasma experiments. These will check out the global geology and geomorphology of Pluto and Charon, map their surface compositions and temperatures, and examine Pluto’s atmosphere in detail. The probe carries a large radio dish 2.1 metres in diameter to allow it to communicate with Earth from a distance of 7.5 billion km. The discovery of such a relatively large number of moons around Pluto has led mission scientists to wonder what other rocky debris might litter its neighbourhood.

Even a small object could pose a threat to New Horizons because of its incredible speed of 15.4 km per second. New Horizons’ principal investigator Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute, says that the team has a contingency plan, if the encounter looks too dangerous, in which they will send the probe at a greater distance than the 10,000 km currently planned for closest approach. Of his probe’s first glimpse of Pluto with Charon, Stern said: “We’re excited to have our first pixel on Charon, but two years from now, near closest approach, we’ll have almost a million pixels on Charon - and I expect we’ll be about a million times happier too!” Radioisotope Power Systems: New Horizons Launched on January 19, 2006 Performed gravity assist flyby of Jupiter in 2007 Spacecraft en route to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt, passing Pluto in July 2015 Powered by: one GPHS-RTG Goals: NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is designed to make the first close-up study of Pluto and its moons and other icy worlds in the distant Kuiper Belt.

The spacecraft has seven scientific instruments to study the atmospheres, surfaces, interiors and intriguing environments of Pluto and its distant neighbors. Accomplishments: The spacecraft is closing in on its primary science target, and started a long-distance observation campaign of the Pluto system in January 2015. On the way to Pluto, New Horizons completed a thrilling study of the Jupiter system during its gravity assist flyby of the giant planet in 2007. The spacecraft took pictures of the planet and its moons, and detected clumps in Jupiter's rings and lightning near its poles. As it departed Jupiter, New Horizons observed a unique space environment, traveling a long distance down the tadpole-shaped tail of Jupiter's magnetic field. About the Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator Electrical power for the New Horizons mission to Pluto is furnished by a single radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG), which transforms the heat from the natural radioactive decay of plutonium dioxide into electricity. The compact, rugged General Purpose Heat Source (GPHS)-RTG aboard New Horizons, developed and provided by the U.S. Department of Energy, carries approximately 11 kilograms (24 pounds) of plutonium dioxide fuel.

By the time of the Pluto flyby in July 2015, the GPHS-RTG aboard New Horizons will supply 202 watts of power, down from 240 watts at launch. Onboard systems manage the spacecraft's power consumption (at 30 volts of direct current) so that the load does not exceed the output from the RTG, which slowly decreases by about four watts per year. The GPHS-RTG has a rich history in space exploration, serving as the power system for the Cassini mission to Saturn, the Galileo mission to Jupiter, the Ulysses mission to polar orbit around the Sun. As with several of these past outer planet missions powered by RTGs, New Horizons does not carry a battery for storing power. The spacecraft's shunt regulator unit maintains a steady input from the RTG and dissipates power the spacecraft cannot use at a given time. New Horizons can ease the strain on its limited power source by cycling science instruments on and off during planetary encounters. An RTG has no moving parts.

The power system transforms the heat emitted by the plutonium dioxide fuel directly into electricity using solid-state thermoelectric converters, which generate electricity using the flow of heat from the large temperature difference between the hot nuclear fuel and the cold environment of space outside the generator. Radioisotope power systems enable spacecraft to operate at significant distances from the Sun or in other locations where solar power systems would not be feasible or effective; for example, sunlight is 1,000 times fainter at Pluto and in the Kuiper Belt compared to its brightness in Earth orbit. Used in space for more than 50 years, such power systems are reliable and durable, well matched to the challenging needs of New Horizons on its long, four billion-mile journey from Earth.

Read More: Pluto photographs thrill Nasa scientists after nine-year mission | Science | The Guardian Pluto Pluto photographs thrill Nasa scientists after nine-year mission Nasa spacecraft makes history as the first spacecraft to reach distant dwarf planet, the last unexplored world in solar system Tuesday 14 July 2015 17.54 EDT First published on Tuesday 14 July 2015 07.49 EDT Close This article is 1 year old Cheers, whoops and flag waving broke out at Nasa’s New Horizons control centre as scientists celebrated the spacecraft’s dramatic flyby of Pluto , considered the last unexplored world in the solar system. The probe shot past at more than 28,000mph (45,000 km/h) at 12.49pm BST (7.49am ET) on a trajectory that brought the fastest spacecraft ever to leave Earth’s orbit within 7,770 miles of Pluto’s surface.

The moment, played out on Tuesday to the sound of The Final Countdown by the 1980s glam metal band Europe, marked a historic achievement for the US, which can now claim to be the only nation to have visited every planet in the classical solar system. Pinterest Members of the New Horizons science team react to seeing the probe’s last and sharpest image of Pluto before its closest approach. Photograph: Bill Ingalls/AP “It feels good,” said Alan Stern, lead scientist on the mission. “So many people put so much work into this around the country. We’ve completed the initial reconnaissance of the solar system, an endeavour started under President Kennedy.” John Grunsfeld, head of Nasa’s science mission directorate, said that images beamed back from New Horizons on its approach showed Pluto to be an “extraordinarily interesting and complex world”. “It’s just amazing. It’s truly a hallmark in human history,” he said of the encounter with Pluto. “It’s been an incredible voyage.” Pluto graphic Stephen Hawking, the Cambridge cosmologist, joined in congratulating the New Horizons team in a recorded message.

“Billions of miles from Earth this little robotic spacecraft will show us that first glimpse of mysterious Pluto, a distant icy world on the edge of our solar system. The revelations of New Horizons may help us to understand better how our solar system was formed. We explore because we are human and we long to know,” he said. Pinterest Stephen Hawking congratulates Nasa’s New Horizons team on reaching Pluto Bristling with cameras and other instruments, the New Horizons probe was programmed to gather a wealth of images and data as it sped past Pluto and its five small moons, Charon, Styx, Nix, Hydra and Kerberos. Images beamed back from New Horizons have shown Pluto in shades of red and orange, with hints of valleys, mountains and craters. On Tuesday Nasa released a new image of Pluto. The picture was taken at about 9pm BST (4pm ET) on 13 July, about 16 hours before the moment of closest approach. The spacecraft was 476,000 miles from the surface.

Though Pluto has a varied terrain, with dark patches on the equator and brighter regions to the north, its surface looks younger and smoother than that of its largest moon, Charon. The reason may be geological activity, which refreshes the body’s surface. Sensors on New Horizons detected Pluto’s thin nitrogen atmosphere extending far out into space. Scientists believe it may shed snow, with flakes tumbling down to the surface before vaporising back into the atmosphere. Other measurements from the probe have found that Pluto is larger than previously thought, at 1,470 miles across. That means it contains more ice beneath its surface and less rock than scientists had anticipated. Pinterest Members of the New Horizons team view the spacecraft’s last and sharpest image of Pluto before its closest approach. Photograph: Bill Ingalls/AP Mission scientists at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore were out of contact with the spacecraft as it hurtled past the icy body 3bn miles from Earth. Instead the probe captured images and took measurements automatically and stored them on board to send back later. Alice Bowman, missions operations manager, said that when the spacecraft fell silent on Monday, as expected, scientists stayed in the operations centre. “We wanted to be with it,” she said.

“We always talk about the spacecraft being a child, a baby, a teenager. We lost signal as planned last night, and there was nothing anybody on the operations team could do but trust we’d prepared it well.” At such a great distance, direct control from the ground is impossible, because radio signals take more than nine hours to travel to the spacecraft and back again. It will take 16 months to beam all of New Horizon’s data back to Earth. Scientists now face an agonising wait for news from the spacecraft, which is due to call home at 2am BST Wednesday (9pm ET Tuesday). Only when that 15 minute-long signal is received will Nasa officials know whether New Horizons survived the flyby. One of the greatest hazards the spacecraft faces is dust that may form a hazy cloud around Pluto after being knocked off its moons by meteorite strikes. Hal Weaver, a scientist on the mission, said that colliding with a dust particle the size of a grain of rice could potentially destroy the mission. But the risk of such a catastrophic failure was low, at less than one in 10,000.

“I am feeling a little bit nervous, but I have absolute confidence it’s going to do what it needs to do, and turn around and send us that burst of data,” Bowman said. Stern was equally confident that New Horizons would survive the flyby: “I don’t think we’re going to lose the spacecraft.” The loss would be tremendous, should it happen. About 99% of the data is still on the spacecraft. “Some of the most important stuff is in that. It would be a great disappointment if New Horizons is lost,” Stern said. New Horizons blasted off in January 2006, carrying the ashes of Clyde Tombaugh, the astronomer who discovered Pluto in 1930. Several months later, astronomers at the International Astronomical Union voted to change the definition of the word “planet”, a move that downgraded Pluto to the more diminutive “dwarf planet”. The flyby may resurrect the debate and see Pluto restored to full planetary status. In a live interview on Nasa TV on Tuesday, Charles Bolden, Nasa’s chief administrator, said he hoped the scientists would reconsider the name.

“I call it a planet, but I’m not the rule maker,” he said, adding that arguments over Pluto’s status should not detract from the achievement. “It should be a day of incredible pride.” Pinterest Artist’s impression of the New Horizons spacecraft. Photograph: Johns Hopkins University/PA Pluto lies in a region of space at the edge of the solar system called the Kuiper belt. Astronomers call it the third zone of space. The first zone contains the rocky, terrestrial planets of Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. The second zone is home to the gas giants, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Alongside the Pluto system in the Kuiper belt are comets and more than 100,000 miniature worlds. New Horizons is expected to continue its mission into the Kuiper belt. The spacecraft is powered by a nuclear generator that runs on plutonium, a substance named after the dwarf planet. The generator should run until the 2030s, when New Horizons will be 100 times further away than Earth is from the sun.

Pluto Probe Sets a Distance Record for Course Correction - NBC News Mar 13 2015, 7:50 pm ET Pluto Probe Sets a Distance Record for Course Correction Share advertisement NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has performed a record-setting maneuver to adjust its approach to Pluto ahead of this summer's historic flyby. The New Horizons probe, which will zoom through the Pluto system on July 14, fired its engines for 93 seconds on Tuesday when it was about 3 billion miles (4.83 billion kilometers) from Earth. No spacecraft had ever conducted an engine burn at so great a distance from its handlers, New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern said. "Today's engine burn by New Horizons set an ALL TIME record for the most distant by ANY spacecraft in history!" Stern, who's based at the Southwest Research Institute, tweeted Tuesday via the account @NewHorizons2015. [ Photos of Pluto and Its Moons ] "We set another ALL TIME record today too — 1 AU to Pluto — closer now than the sun is to Earth!" Stern added in another tweet.

(One AU, or astronomical unit, is the average distance from Earth to the sun — about 93 million miles, or 150 million kilometers.) Tuesday's engine burn was designed to slow New Horizons down by about 2.55 mph (4.1 kilometers per hour). The probe is currently traveling about 32,400 mph (52,140 kilometers per hour), mission officials said. The burn was the first maneuver of New Horizons' Pluto approach phase, which began in January. The trajectory correction should delay the spacecraft's arrival in the Pluto system by 14 minutes and 30 seconds. An artist's illustration shows NASA's New Horizons spacecraft flying through the Pluto system. New Horizons performed a 93-second engine burn on March 10 to prepare for the flyby.

JHUAPL / SwRI "It will also shift the course 'sideways' (if looking from Earth) by 3,442 kilometers (2,139 miles) by July 14, sending the spacecraft toward a desired flyby close-approach target point," mission officials wrote in an update ." The $700 million New Horizons mission launched in January 2006, tasked with returning the first-ever good look at Pluto and its five known moons. The spacecraft will come within about 8,500 miles (13,600 kilometers) of Pluto's surface. — Mike Wall, Space.com This is a condensed version of a report from Space.com. Read the full report. Follow Mike Wall on Twitter and Google+ . Follow Space.com on Twitter , Facebook and Google+ .

Question: In January 2006, what space probe was sent to investigate Pluto?
Answer: New Horizon