Re: New Horizons Mission Two Pluto

On Wed, 18 Jan 2006 13:46:52 -0600, JUSTIN PENNELLA wrote
(in article <MWwzf.18990$US3.4767@trnddc04>):

> I have a question: Why only do a fly-by with the New Horizons spacecraft? I
> know the capabilities of this spacecraft are light years beyond the Voyagers
> and Pioneers (in terms of fly-bys), but why not just go ahead and put the
> craft into orbit around Pluto for long term study?

Because the spacecraft would have to take a substantial propulsion
system and propellants to perform the orbital insertion. That would
drive up the mass of the mission to such an extent that it couldn't be
launched to Pluto for arrival in a reasonable period of time (bearing
in mind it's already going to take 9 years). You'd have to launch it
on a much slower, much longer-term mission. That, in turn, means that
the RTG would have to be either bigger or will be that much less
powerful on arrival at Pluto.

The mission is one of pretty serious tradeoffs, no question.

--
Herb

There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.
~ RAH

.

Relevant Pages

  • New Horizons Update - December 2005
    ... I have been working on seeing the United States fly a mission to Pluto ... flight hardware at the launch pad, we probably would not have had the ... * We conducted our final mission simulations and final spacecraft ...
    (sci.space.news)
  • NASAs Pluto Mission Launched Toward New Horizons
    ... NASA'S PLUTO MISSION LAUNCHED TOWARD NEW HORIZONS ... Md., where the spacecraft was designed and built, received the first ...
    (sci.space.news)
  • Re: cost of probe to Pluto?
    ... > small meteor during the 9-year cruise to Pluto. ... > Tom Rauschenbach wrote: ... >>>It's too bad they didn't build any redundancy into this mission. ... developing a spacecraft to haul all that out ...
    (sci.astro.amateur)
  • Re: new horizons
    ... Pluto is a long way from the Earth, so to get a spacecraft ... To go into orbit around Pluto would require a braking rocket to ... you could probably do a very nice Pluto orbit mission. ...
    (sci.space.science)
  • Re: new horizons
    ... > Why only do a fly-by with the New Horizons spacecraft? ... to set one kilo of spacecraft on its way to Pluto. ... Putting a 500 kilo spacecraft into orbit around Pluto would thus require ...
    (sci.space.science)