Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. 24/7 Space News .




OUTER PLANETS
New Horizons Gets a New Year's Workout
by Staff Writers
Laurel MD (SPX) Jan 15, 2013


Downloads this month include interplanetary plasma data gathered by the Pluto Energetic Particle Spectrometer Science Investigation (PEPSSI) and Solar Wind Around Pluto (SWAP) instruments, shown above during prelaunch testing.

Like many of us, New Horizons is starting the new year with a workout regimen. After six months of cruising quietly through the outer solar system, NASA's Pluto-bound spacecraft came out of hibernation last weekend for three weeks of activity that include system checks, a new flight software upload and science data downloads.

The mission operations team at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Maryland "woke" New Horizons from electronic slumber on Jan. 6.

First tasks included evaluating real-time spacecraft data (which indicated New Horizons was in good health), sending operating commands to the spacecraft's main computer, and gathering tracking data that will help the navigation team keep New Horizons on course toward the Pluto system.

Operators are communicating with New Horizons through NASA's largest Deep Space Network antennas in Spain, Australia and the U.S. (California).

If you can't wait mere minutes to download a new app, this will make you cringe: With radio signals needing nearly 3 hours and 40 minutes to reach the spacecraft - which is about 2.4 billion miles (3.9 billion kilometers) from Earth, between the orbits of Uranus and Neptune - the full software upload will take about 44 continuous hours, says New Horizons Mission Operations Manager Alice Bowman, of APL.

"The Mission Operations Center must remain in constant contact with New Horizons in case the unexpected happens, despite the numerous preparations and precautions the team has taken," Bowman says.

"I think of the C and DH system software update as a 'tune-up' at the 2.4 billion-mile marker," says APL's Glen Fountain, New Horizons project manager.

Other activities planned over the next 20 days include radio frequency system and Radio Science Experiment checkouts, and a download of cruise science data from New Horizons' space plasma instruments - SWAP and PEPSSI - which have been studying the charged-particle populations of the outer solar system.

Additionally, New Horizons' solid-state digital recorders (filled with data from last summer's near-Pluto encounter rehearsal) will be erased in preparation for this summer's rehearsal of the nine days surrounding Pluto close approach. The spacecraft will be put back into hibernation on Jan 30.

C and DH: The Brains 'Inside' New Horizons
The command and data handling system - a radiation-hardened 12-megahertz Mongoose V processor guided by intricate flight software - is the spacecraft's "brain."

The processor distributes operating commands to each subsystem, collects and processes instrument data, and sequences information sent back to Earth. It also runs the advanced "autonomy" algorithms that allow the spacecraft to check the status of each system and, if necessary, correct any problems, switch to backup systems or contact operators on Earth for help.

Hibernating Spacecraft:
New Horizons has spent about 80 percent of the past five years in hibernation, a low-power mode that reduces operation costs, frees up Deep Space Network tracking resources for other missions and lessens wear and tear on spacecraft electronics. During the past two years, this hibernation mode has been enhanced to enable New Horizons to collect plasma science data in interplanetary space.

The team wakes New Horizons two or three times a year to check systems and run tests, but after May 2014 the spacecraft will remain "on" without hibernating through the 2015 Pluto encounter.

.


Related Links
New Horizons
The million outer planets of a star called Sol






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle








OUTER PLANETS
Halfway Between Uranus and Neptune, New Horizons Cruises On
Laurel MD (SPX) Nov 30, 2012
Today the Pluto-bound New Horizons spacecraft passed the halfway point between the orbits of Uranus and Neptune, zooming past another milepost on its historic trek to the planetary frontier. New Horizons, launched in January 2006 and set to visit the Pluto system in July 2015, is the first spacecraft to cross this distant region since NASA's Voyager probes in the late 1980s. New Horizons i ... read more


OUTER PLANETS
Mission would drag asteroid to the moon

Russia designs manned lunar spacecraft

GRAIL Lunar Impact Site Named for Astronaut Sally Ride

NASA probes crash into the moon

OUTER PLANETS
Mars One announces requirements for Red Planet colonists

Opportunity Heading Toward Light-Toned Veins

Bacteria In Rio Tinto Could Be Like Those On Mars

Mars500 project - salt balance of the Mars 'astronauts'

OUTER PLANETS
Unilever Buys 22 Flights On XCOR Lynx Suborbiter For AXE Campaign

Iran renews plan to send monkey into space: reports

AXE to Send 22 Guys to Space with New Apollo Campaign

IBM tops as tech titans scramble for US patents

OUTER PLANETS
Mr Xi in Space

China plans manned space launch in 2013: state media

China to launch manned spacecraft

Tiangong 1 Parked And Waiting As Shenzhou 10 Mission Prep Continues

OUTER PLANETS
Crew Wraps Up Robonaut Testing

Station Crew Ringing in New Year

Expedition 34 Ready to Ring in New Year

New ISS crew docked at Space Station

OUTER PLANETS
Roscosmos Releases Report On Proton Launch Anomaly

Russia plans replacement for Soyuz rocket

Arianespace's industry leadership will continue with 12 launcher family missions planned in 2013

Arianespace addresses The Insurance Institute of London

OUTER PLANETS
Earth-size planets common in galaxy

NASA's Hubble Reveals Rogue Planetary Orbit For Fomalhaut B

NASA, ESA Telescopes Find Evidence for Asteroid Belt Around Vega

Kepler Gets a Little Help From Its Friends

OUTER PLANETS
Molecular machine could hold key to more efficient manufacturing

Study reveals ordinary glass's extraordinary properties

Bottom-up approach provides first characterization of pyroelectric nanomaterials

Chemical modules that mimic predator-prey and other behaviors




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement