NASA decides where New Horizons will fly after Pluto (+ animation of approaching a planetoid)

On July 14, 2015, the New Horizons interplanetary station reached Pluto, flying from a dwarf planet at a minimum distance. After that, the probe began to gradually move away from the planetoid, and NASA experts at this time decided where to send the station to continue the scientific mission. Previously it was assumed that the second destination would be one of the objects in the Kuiper belt. Recently, scientists have decided on what object will be the next goal of the mission.



This object has a serial number 2014 MU69 , its size is much smaller than that of Pluto. From the Sun, 2014 MU69 is another 1.6 billion kilometers farther away than Pluto. According to the experts who determined the new destination for New Horizons, the 2014 MU69 is a very convenient object, since it will take much less fuel to fly to it than to fly to other objects from the Kuiper belt. 2014 MU69 has a diameter of about 45 km and an orbital period of 294 years. This object is drawn in an almost circular orbit close to the ecliptic plane at a distance of about 44 a. e. from the sun.



And since the fuel will be spent a little, then more energy will remain to ensure the work of the scientific instruments of the station. The images and scientific information gathered by New horizons will help scientists better understand what is on the edge of the solar system. The space probe of the New Horizons does not have sufficient power of the onboard energy source to be able to produce stabilization by means of flywheels. Therefore, the task of orientation and stabilization is completely entrusted to the corrective propulsion system. Methylhydrazine is used as a fuel. Being a monofuel, methylhydrazine has slightly worse energy characteristics and requires a certain performance culture of the system to prevent premature decomposition, compared to traditional two-component fuels.

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The choice of the 2014 MU69 object is not final - it will become so after the official NASA commission approves it. The New Horizons team must submit the project application to the appropriate NASA commission to receive further funding for the mission. Consideration of the application and making a decision on it will not happen in 2016.



However, the team should already start working on convergence with 2014 MU69, otherwise the device simply will not reach the object. In October and November of this year, maneuvers will be performed to change the trajectory of the system so that the probe can get to 2014 MU69. To achieve the 2014 MU69 at the end of September and the beginning of October 2015, four corrections of the trajectory of the space probe will be made. This is the only way to be sure that New Horizons will fly to 2014 MU69 if this decision is approved. If all goes well, then on January 1, 2019, we will learn about what 2014 MU69 represents.



The discovery of this object was a “salvation” for the expanded part of the mission of the New Horizons apparatus. At the time of launching the device, objects that the device could have visited after the flight of Pluto were not yet known; the search for such objects was already conducted during the flight. At the beginning of 2015, 2014 MU69 was the only object detected that New Horizons could achieve (taking into account possible errors). The probability of attainability for the slightly larger candidate 2014 PN70 (PT3, G12000JZ) was estimated at 97%, while for 2014 OS393 (PT2, E31007AI) the estimate was only 7%, and it was no longer considered as a possible target. In addition, a visit to any of these two objects would require a twice as large change in speed (and, consequently, more fuel consumption) than for 2014 MU69. Earlier, at the end of 2014, the object of 2014 MT69 (PT7) was excluded from the list of potential targets. As of June 2015, only 2014 PN70 (PT3) was considered as a potential target, but in August 2015, the selection of an additional target was made in favor of 2014 MU69.



And here is the video of the interplanetary space mission past Pluto.







The animation is made up of real photos taken by the probe. After flying a minimum distance from Pluto, the probe was able to take pictures of the dwarf planet from the back side, which allowed to see the atmosphere of Pluto.



Time in the video slows down and accelerates . So, at the beginning and end of 1 second video is approximately 30 hours of real time. In the place where the device flies past Pluto, 1 second equals 30 minutes of real time.