The SwRI team makes breakthroughs in the study of the Pluto Orbiter mission

A team from the Southwest Research Institute using internal research funds has made several discoveries that expand the scope and value of a future Pluto orbiter mission. The discoveries define an orbital fuel-saving circuit and demonstrate that an orbiter can continue exploration in the Kuiper Belt after inspecting Pluto. These results, along with other findings from the study, will be presented this week at a workshop on the future exploration of Pluto and the Kuiper Belt as part of the Global Planetary Science Division meeting. American Astronomical Society in Knoxville, Tennessee.

NASA's New Horizons mission carried out the first exploration of Pluto-Charon and its system of small moons in 2015. These scientific discoveries prompted the scientific community to request a return to Pluto with an orbiter or to explore the planet. other dwarf planets in the Kuiper belt. Image courtesy of NASA / JHUAPL / SwRI

Dr. Alan Stern, Associate Vice President and Global Science Specialist, is leading the SwRI study. The team first discovered that many key scientific objectives could be achieved through the gravitational assistance of Pluto's giant satellite, Charon, rather than a thruster, thus allowing the orbiter to change its orbit to several times to study various aspects of Pluto, its atmosphere, its five moons and solar wind interactions for several years. The second realization shows that after reaching its scientific objectives at Pluto, the orbiter can then use Charon's gravity to escape the system without using fuel, launching the spacecraft into the Kuiper belt in order to use the same electric propulsion system that he had usually come into orbit at Pluto. Then explore other dwarf planets and smaller bodies of the Kuiper Belt.

"It's revolutionary," Stern said. "Previously, NASA and the global scientific community thought that the next step in exploring the Kuiper Belt would be to choose between" deepening "the study of Pluto and its moons or" expanding "by examining smaller objects from the Kuiper belt and another dwarf planet. comparison to Pluto. The global scientific community has been discussing the next step. Our studies show that you can do both in one mission: it's a game that changes. "

The team also includes Dr. Mark Tapley, space flight engineer and mission designer, Dr. Amanda Zangari, global science scientist, and project leader John Scherrer and software manager Tiffany Finley, all of whom are members of the team. Space Science and Engineering Division of SwRI.

Finley designed the Pluto orbital tour around dozens of Gravon gravitational assistance maneuvers. "This circuit is far from being optimized, but it is capable of making at least five flyovers of each of Pluto's four small moons, while examining the polar and equatorial regions of Pluto using plane shifts. The plan also allows for a close encounter with Charon before diving into Pluto's atmosphere for sampling before the boat uses Charon one last time to escape into the Kuiper Belt. for new missions, "she said.

Tapley's work has shown that an electric propulsion system similar to that used by NASA's Dawn mission could power the orbiter to allow it to fly to other known objects in the Kuiper belt, including the one of the dwarf planets. "In fact, we have discovered that it is even possible to reach and enter into orbit around a second dwarf planet in the Kuiper Belt after studying Pluto!", A said Tapley.

The design of the Pluto tour developed by SwRI shows that scientific objectives can only be achieved with tiny fuel resources and that many gravitational aids use the giant Charon moon of Pluto. Image courtesy of Southwest Research Institute

In addition, Zangari led a separate study of missions on the 45 largest objects in the Kuiper belt and dwarf planets, with possible launches between 2025 and 2040. His work describes possible missions of 25 years or less on the dwarf planets Eris and Sedna via Jupiter-Neptune. swingbys, Quaoar, Makemake, Haumea via Jupiter-Saturn, and Varuna after an overview of Jupiter-Uranus. A journal detailing this work has been accepted by the Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets.

"Who would have thought that a single mission using electric propulsion engines already available could do all that?" Stern said. "Now that our team has shown that the global scientific community did not have to choose between a Pluto orbiter or flybys of other bodies of the Kuiper belt, but could have both, I'm calling this mission combined the "gold standard" for the future of Pluto. and exploring the Kuiper Belt.

The team will spend the next few months publishing more results and determining the attributes of the spacecraft system required to complete the "mission of reference" for the exploration of the Pluto Orbiter orbiter and belt. Kuiper.