2015 : The Exploration of the Pluto System by New Horizons

Séminaire IPAG de Alan Stern (Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, Texas), jeudi 31 mai 2012 à 11h00, IPAG seminar room

In mid-2015, about 3 years from now, NASA’s New Horizons mission will culminate its journey across the inner and middle zones of the planetary system to reach Pluto. Beginning in January 2015 and extending until August 2015, New Horizons will explore this system. Aboard New Horizons are 7 scientific instruments including UV and IR mapping spectrometers, color and panchromatic imagers, a dust counter, two plasma instruments, and radio science. I will discuss the scientific objectives of the mission, the detailed plans for the encounter, the datasets to be obtained, and our ambitions for an extended mission to explore one or more small KBOs after exploring planet Pluto and it’s rich system of satellites.