START DATE : 2006-01-19

This material has been adapted from the New Horizons web site.


Mission Overview
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The primary science goals of the NEW HORIZONS mission are to characterize the global geology and morphology of Pluto and Charon, to map the surface composition of Pluto and Charon, and to characterize the neutral atmosphere of Pluto and its escape rate (NASA AO, 2001 [NASAAO2001]; Stern & Spencer, 2004 [STERN&SPENCER2004A]).


Mission Design
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The New Horizons spacecraft trajectory was designed to have as early an arrival time at Pluto as practicable.

There are two reasons why the New Horizons science team wanted to reach Pluto and Charon quickly. The first has to do with the Pluto atmosphere: Since 1989, Pluto has been moving farther from the Sun, getting less heat every year [LUNINEETAL1995]. As Pluto gets colder scientists expect its atmosphere will freeze out, so the team wanted to arrive while there is a chance to see a thicker atmosphere.

The second reason is to map as much of Pluto and Charon as possible.
As New Horizons approaches and flies by the Pluto system, parts of Pluto or Charon will be in constant darkness, and, the later the flyby, the more of Pluto and Charon that will be unlit.

In addition, the trajectory was designed to enable all of the science goals, including Solar and Earth occultations by Pluto and Charon.


Prime Opportunity: Jupiter
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By launching in January 2006, New Horizons took advantage of a gravity assist from Jupiter. In February 2007, New Horizons passed through the Jupiter system at about 80,000 kmph, ending up on a path that gets it to Pluto on July 14, 2015.

Science Opportunities at Jupiter included meteorology, aurora studies, magnetospheric sampling, and dust sampling and ultraviolet mapping of the torus around Io. Surface mapping, compositional mapping and atmospheric studies of the Jovian moons were possible, as was a close encounter with a small Jovian satellite.


Cruise from Jupiter to Pluto
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During the PLUTOCRUISE mission phase from Jupiter to Pluto, the mission team monitored the health of the spacecraft while planning and practicing for the encounter with Pluto and Charon. At the same
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Available Data

External Reference

Lunine, J.I., et al., Report of the Pluto-Kuiper Express Science Definition Team (NASA; unpublished; reconstructed and provided with the New Horizons data sets starting in 2014), 1995. NASA, Pluto Kuiper Belt Mission Announcement of Opportunity. AO 01-OSS-01, 2001. Stern, A., and J. Spencer, New Horizons: The first reconnaissance mission to bodies in the Kuiper Belt, Proceedings of the First Decadal Review of the Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt, A. Davies Ed., ISBN 1-4020-1781-2, reprinted from Earth Moon and Planets 92, 2004.