Engine combustion puts New Horizons on the road to Ultima Thule

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is preparing for its journey to Ultima Thule. Image credit: NASA

A course correction of three and a half minutes maneuver completed on October 3rd has been fine-tuned New Horizons'Trajectory to its second target, the Kuiper belt object (KBO), Ultima Thule.

The combustion engine, which accelerated the speed of 2.1 meters per second (4.6 mph), was the first to use Ultima Thule's actual optical navigation photos taken with New Horizons" Long Range Recognition Imager (LORRI).

To complete the most distant course correction ever made by a spacecraft, mission scientists used the LORRI data to determine the position of the probe relative to its second target and to calculate the maneuver necessary to reach its overhead sighting point, at a distance of only 3,200 km (3,200 km) at the closest approach. If all goes as planned, it will be January 1, 2019 at 12:33 EST (4:33 GMT).

"With this maneuver, we are in the middle of the pike and at the time of the most distant exploration of the worlds of history – more than a billion kilometers beyond of Pluto, "said Alan Stern, lead investigator of the mission Southwestern Research Institute (SwRI) located in Boulder, Colorado.

At present, the spacecraft is about 6.35 billion km from Earth and is traveling at high speed to its second target at a speed of about 51,211 km / h.

"The latest sailings have helped us confirm that Ultima is about 500 km from its intended position, which is exceptionally good. We are excited for the overflight, "said New Horizons Fred Pelletier navigation team leader from KinetX Aerospace, Inc.

Over a distance of four billion kilometers, the mission team will have to steer the spacecraft to a 75 km by 200 km (120 km by 320 km) box for the closest approach and predict the weather. overflight to 140 seconds.

"As we fly very fast and close to the surface of Ultima, about four times closer than the flyby of Pluto in July 2015, the flyover time has to be very precise. The images help determine the position and timing of the flyby, but we also need to trust Ultima's pre-estimated position and speed to ensure a successful flyby. These first images give us confidence that Ultima is exactly what we expected and that the timing of the flyby will be accurate, "explained New Horizons optical navigation guide Derek Nelson, also from KinetX Aerospace, Inc.

Ultima Thule was discovered with the use of The Hubble Space Telescope (HST2014 HST was needed because ground-based telescopes did not find a second target for New Horizons spaceship after leaving the vicinity of Pluto. Three times in 2017 and once in 2018, mission scientists took advantage of the shadowing or passing of KBO in front of a star to clarify its position and obtain data that helped the team to refine its views. overflight shots.

Tagged: JHUAPL LORRI NASA New Horizons Ultima Thule Range

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Laurel Kornfeld

Laurel Kornfeld is an amateur astronomer and freelance writer from Highland Park, New Jersey, who loves writing about astronomy and planetary science. She studied journalism at Douglass College, Rutgers University, and earned a Graduate Certificate in Science from the Astronomy Online program at the University of Swinburne. His writings have been published online in The Atlantic, the Astronomy magazine's blog section, the British Space Conference, the 2009 IAU General Assembly Journal, The Space Reporter, and in the bulletins of various astronomy clubs. . She is a member of Amateur Astronomers, Inc., based in Cranford, New Jersey. Specially interested in the external solar system, Laurel made a short presentation at the Great World Debate 2008 held at Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Lab in Laurel, MD.