New Horizons: Continuing The Jovian Journey
- From: baalke@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: 11 May 2007 09:21:43 -0700
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/overview/piPerspectives/piPerspective_current.php
The PI's Perspective
Continuing Our Jovian Journey
Alan Stern
May 10, 2007
This will be a short update, but I didn't want you to think we've
folded
our tent at Jupiter yet. The image illustration at right is amazing,
isn't it? If you haven't been to Jupiter yourself, I think now you can
say you almost have been!
New Horizons is now beyond 6 astronomical units from the Sun and
about
1 AU from Jupiter, which is, of course, moving too. We continue to
transmit data from close-approach observations made in late February
and
early March. As of late this week, we have 80% of the mother lode
from
Jupiter here in computers on terra firma.
We also continue to take data as we fly down the Jovian magnetotail.
Our
Solar Wind at Pluto (SWAP) and Pluto Energetic Particle Spectrometer
Science Investigation (PEPSSI) teams are discovering structures in the
tail they never dreamed of, including some fascinating periodicities
and
sulfur ions that originated as neutral sulfur back at the volcanic
moon
Io. You'll hear more about this exciting exploration when those teams
figure out what it all means.
Meanwhile, our spacecraft team is conducting a series of tests to
ready
us for our first stint of hibernation, which begins at the June-July
boundary. We must update our autonomy/fault protection software to
ready
it for hibernating through most of July and August, before we wake up
the bird for instrument calibrations. The team is also carrying out
various spacecraft propulsion and other subsystem tests and some
further
instrument calibrations.
And while the spacecraft team is busy with hibernation preps, our
science team is closing in on a decision about which day in mid-July
2015 we want to arrive at Pluto. We had planned on July 14, but
decided
to look at surrounding dates for potential, additional science
opportunities at Pluto. Considerations range from what terrain we see
best on Pluto (each day is different as Pluto rotates over 6.4 days),
to
where Charon is located relative to Pluto, and where Nix and Hydra
will
be as well. We plan to make a final decision at a full science team
meeting on May 30-31. I'll let you know what we decide, but I can tell
you that after a close look, July 14 is still an awfully good choice.
If
we move off July 14, we'll execute a burn this fall to change our
speed
by 3 to perhaps 30 meters per second (depending on how many days we
move
the date).
Well, that's all I wanted to tell you about this time. I'll be back
with
more news soon. In the meantime, keep on exploring, just as we do.
.
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