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Pluto Discovery
So far no exploratory spacecraft
have visited Pluto so we know only a little about
Pluto. In 2001, NASA approved prelude studies
for a mission named New Horizons to Pluto, and
the mission was formally announced in November
2003. It is led by the Southwest Research Institute
and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.
The mission's launch window is
between January 11 and February 14, 2006. Assuming
it launches within the first 23 days of the window,
it will benefit from a gravity assist from Jupiter,
and arrive at Pluto in July 2015.
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It weighs up half a ton and will travel
at speeds reaching 43,000 km/h (27,000 mph).
The spacecraft would use a remote sensing
package that includes imaging instruments
and a radio science investigation, as well
as spectroscopic and other experiments, to
describe the global geology and morphology
of Pluto and its moon Charon, map their surface
composition and characterize Pluto's neutral
atmosphere and its escape rate. The mission
plan also calls for a flyby of one or more
Kuiper belt objects by 2022. |
The New Horizons mission replaces
the Pluto Kuiper Express mission, which was cancelled
in 2000 since the increasing costs and launch
vehicle delays. Former, the Voyager 1 probe was
projected to visit Pluto, but due to budget cuts
and lack of interest — before the discovery
of Pluto's moon, size, and atmosphere —
the flyby was redirected for Saturn's moon Titan.
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