Posted on by Bob King

New Horizons Phones Home, Flyby a Success


Watch Pluto grow in this series of photos taken during New Horizons’ approach

Whew! We’re out of the woods. On schedule at 9 p.m. EDT, New Horizons phoned home telling the mission team and the rest of the on-edge world that all went well. The preprogrammed “phone call” —  a 15-minute series of status messages beamed back to mission operations at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland through NASA’s Deep Space Network — ended a tense 21-hour waiting period. 

The team deliberately suspended communications with New Horizons until it was beyond the Pluto system, so the spacecraft could focus solely on data gathering. With a mountain of information now queued up, it’s estimated it will take 16 months to get it all back home. As the precious morsels arrive bit by byte, New Horizons will sail deeper into the Kuiper Belt looking for new targets until it ultimately departs the Solar System.

After Pluto, NASA hopes to send New Horizons to another asteroid or two in the Kuiper Belt and perform a flyby and reconnaissance similar to the Pluto mission. Credt: Alex Parker / SwRI
After Pluto, NASA hopes to send New Horizons to another asteroid or two in the Kuiper Belt to perform a flyby and reconnaissance similar to the Pluto mission. Credit: Alex Parker / SwRI

Assuming NASA funds a continuing mission, the team hopes to direct the spacecraft to one or two additional Kuiper Belt objects (KBO) over the next five to seven years. There are presently three possible targets – PT1, PT2, and PT3. (PT = potential target). PT1, imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope, looks like the best option at the moment and could by reached by January 2019. If you thought Pluto was small, PT 1 is only about 25 miles (40 km) across. Much lies ahead.

The image at left shows a KBO at an estimated distance of approximately 4 billion miles from Earth. Its position noticeably shifts between exposures taken approximately 10 minutes apart. The image at right shows a second KBO at roughly a similar distance.
The image at left shows a KBO at an estimated distance of approximately 4 billion miles from Earth. Its position noticeably shifts between exposures taken approximately 10 minutes apart. The image at right shows a second KBO at roughly a similar distance. Credit: NASA, ESA, SwRI, JHU/APL, and the New Horizons KBO Search Team

15 Replies to “New Horizons Phones Home, Flyby a Success”

  1. Wait, what?
    ” … Assuming money is approved …”

    Is this “it”? I am going, money approved for … Did I miss something? Was the $$$ only there to get it to Pluto, or are there other areas this Work Horse is headed for???

    1. jjb,
      NASA will have to fund the extended mission. That would seem like a foregone conclusion, but the extension has to be approved.

      1. I admit, must have missed the the ‘memo’ – since it was understood NH would not be stopping at Pluto but moving “further along” – I thought, wrongly, apparently …. that there was a ‘mission’ beyond just a fly-by of Pluto ….

      2. jjb,
        No, you thought correctly. Hubble was directed to search for possible targets beyond Pluto. It now has several, and missions to one or two are possible, but from all I’ve read (several sources like the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune) the mission has to be funded. It makes sense to gather the information first to see if another visit is feasible and then estimate possible costs before deciding on how much money is needed.

      3. Thanks … 🙂

        Not that I expect you to remember this:

        Friends call me Jj .. feel free to call me Jj …

  2. OK! we can all take a breath a sigh of relief and thank you Bob for taking us through this Great Trek I can not wait for the next series of photo shots from this Fantastic Flyby…

  3. What? It needs more funding? But it’s already on it’s way. Isn’t the hardest and most expensive part done? Seems like a little late to stop now. I bet there are plenty of scientists and astronomers or interns, what have you, who would be glad to volunteer their time now that it’s in uncharted territory, boldly going on to explore the scary Kaiper belt, Oort cloud and the possible doomsday Nemesis and the like.

    1. fowlow,
      The mission to Pluto (hardware, staffing, etc.) was funded, and yes, that was the hardest and most expensive part. I can’t imagine after this week’s success they won’t fund the extended mission.

  4. It would be crazy not to fund the extended KBO mission.

    New Horizons now amounts to a *FREE* probe, tested and in perfect working order, with with a 10 year head start. It would be an incredible squandering of resources not to take full advantage of it.

    OTOH, it would have been unwise to fund it before yesterday, when the probe might well have been vaporized on impact with an unseen rock.

    So it’s a no brainer. I’m sure we can count on NASA and Congress to do the only rational thing and extend the mission. Right?!?

  6. They could bring gravity assist to an all high level. Look around for some pebbles that would push you in a different orbit that is also slow enough to not damage the space craft.

    At this distance delta V requires minimal amount of energy and the pebbles or small objects also travel much slower than near Earth.

  7. Most of the funding would be used for what? DSN access? Data storage and dispersal/dissemination? Paying scientists and engineers to do research and maintain systems? How many undergrads could do their disertations with that research? Can we afford to pass up this opportunity after investing all the time, energy and money? What other research could be done with this probe? Perhaps something no one anticipated?

    Sheesh… Will we once again find that our ‘paid for’ politicians represent those who are more interested in accumulating wealth over knowledge? Where’s the wisdom in that?

    Seriously you billionaires, don’t you want your name permanently written in human history?

    1. Brilliant idea, and I know just the person to contact. Imagine the headlines:

      “Intrepid NASA Probe To Unveil Subplanet Trump”.

      And don’t forget the corporations! If it works for stadiums why not KBOs?

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