Updates NASA New Horizons Mission Updates

[Artlav]

Wait, it's two weeks until flyby already...?

 

[GLS]

Wait, it's two weeks until flyby already...?

Don't panic yet, the data will take much longer to get here: http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2018/what-to-expect-new-horizons-mu69-ultima-thule.html

 

[Notebook]

ecember 20, 2018
Ultima Thule's First Mystery
New Horizons scientists puzzled by lack of a 'light curve' from their Kuiper Belt flyby target

Ultima's shape was measured in July 2017 as its silhouette passed in front of a star – what's known as a stellar occultation.
View a animated version of this occultation »
Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI
NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is bearing down on Ultima Thule, its New Year's flyby target in the far away Kuiper Belt. Among its approach observations over the past three months, the spacecraft has been taking hundreds of images to measure Ultima's brightness and how it varies as the object rotates.
Those measurements have produced the mission's first mystery about Ultima. Even though scientists determined in 2017 that the Kuiper Belt object isn't shaped like a sphere – that it is probably elongated or maybe even two objects – they haven't seen the repeated pulsations in brightness that they'd expect from a rotating object of that shape. The periodic variation in brightness during every rotation produces what scientists refer to as a light curve.

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/News-Article.php?page=20181220

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/PI-Perspectives.php?page=piPerspective_12_20_2018

 

[Notebook]

December 22, 2018
New Horizons Notebook: On Ultima's Doorstep
Final Maneuver Guides New Horizons Precisely to Ultima
New Horizons carried out its last trajectory correction maneuver on approach to Ultima Thule last week, a short thruster burst to direct the spacecraft closer to its precise flyby aim point just 2,200 miles (3,500) above the mysterious Kuiper Belt object at 12:33 am EST on Jan. 1.

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/News-Article.php?page=20181222

 

[Notebook]

December 26, 2018
All About Ultima: New Horizons Flyby Target is Unlike Anything Explored in Space
NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is set to fly by a distant "worldlet" 4 billion miles from the Sun in just six days, on New Year's Day 2019. The target, officially designated 2014 MU69, was nicknamed "Ultima Thule," a Latin phrase meaning "a place beyond the known world," after a public call for name recommendations. No spacecraft has ever explored such a distant world.

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/News-Article.php?page=20181226

Where to Watch
A schedule of televised events is below; all times EST and subject to change according to mission timelines and activities. Keep checking back for updates and additions!

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/Where-to-Watch.php

Get the facts and figures on the Ultima flyby in one place!

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/Resources/Press-Kits/NewHorizonsPressKit__UT.pdf

 

[GLS]

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2018/new-horizons-approaching-mu69-ultima-thule.html

 

[Notebook]

History will be made on Tuesday when Nasa's New Horizons probe sweeps past the icy world known as Ultima Thule.
Occurring some 6.5 billion km (4 billion miles) from Earth, the flyby will set a new record for the most distant ever exploration of a Solar System object by a spacecraft.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-46699737

 

[mahdavi3d]

 

[emin2004]

made this up

New Horizon: Requesting to buzz the Tower Of Ultima Thule?

Tower Of Ultima Thule: your request is Accepted. Buzzing the Tower of Ultima Thule is accepted and appreciated

New Horizon: "Buzzes the Tower of Ultima Thule"

 

[MaverickSawyer]

Godspeed, New Horizons.

 

[IronRain]

Fly-by should have been at 06:33 UTC this morning. Right now, NH should be sending the "I'm okay and I did it!" signal, sending it for 17 minutes. It will take about 6 hours to reach Earth.

 

[GLS]

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2018/new-horizons-approaching-mu69-ultima-thule.html

They should have received a slightly better image last night. Anyway, late today/early tomorrow the best ones should be received. Before that there's the "phone home", which should arrive at 1528UTC, live on NASATV.

---------- Post added at 03:25 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:27 AM ----------

Phone-home reception coming up:

Look to the DSN antennas in Madrid: https://eyes.nasa.gov/dsn/dsn.html

---------- Post added at 03:32 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:25 PM ----------

It's alive!!!!

---------- Post added at 03:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:32 PM ----------

SOURCE
NEW HORIZONS

TYPE
DATA

DATA RATE
501.00 b/sec

FREQUENCY
8.44 GHz

POWER RECEIVED
-148.38 dBm
(1.45 x 10-21 kW)

---------- Post added at 03:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:37 PM ----------

Memory full of data!!!!!

---------- Post added at 03:40 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:37 PM ----------

So far so good, it survived the flyby intact, now it only needs to send the data down.

 

[llarian]

Healthy spacecraft. Now let's go for imagery.

 

[dbeachy1]

New Horizons: Nasa probe survives flyby of Ultima Thule

The US space agency's New Horizons probe has made contact with Earth to confirm its successful flyby of the icy world known as Ultima Thule.

The encounter occurred some 6.5bn km (4bn miles) away, making it the most distant ever exploration of an object in our Solar System.

New Horizons acquired gigabytes of photos and other observations during the pass.

It will now send these home over the coming months.

The radio message from the robotic craft was picked up by one of Nasa's big antennas, in Madrid, Spain.

It had taken fully six hours and eight minutes to traverse the great expanse of space between Ultima and Earth.

More details in the article. :thumbup:

 

[IronRain]

New Horizons succeeds in daring, historic flyby of 2014 MU69

New Horizons scientists elated as Ultima Thule’s shape comes into view

 

[GLS]

Live press conference now:

 

[llarian]

Glad to see someone else is watching the press briefing ... and reading BBC.

 

[Topper]

wow

 

[4throck]

Indeed it was a great press conference and great results to show, even with just a few images on the ground!

 

[Notebook]

January 15, 2019
New Movie Shows Ultima Thule from an Approaching New Horizons
NASA Spacecraft Begins Returning New Images, Other Data from Historic New Year's Flyby
This movie shows the propeller-like rotation of Ultima Thule in the seven hours between 20:00 UT (3 p.m. ET) on Dec. 31, 2018, and 05:01 UT (12:01 a.m.) on Jan. 1, 2019, as seen by the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) aboard NASA's New Horizons as the spacecraft sped toward its close encounter with the Kuiper Belt object at 05:33 UT (12:33 a.m. ET) on Jan. 1.

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/News-Article.php?page=20190115