|
Posted by baalke on March 7, 2007, 5:09 pm
Please log in for more thread options
The PI's Perspective
The Tip of the Iceberg
Alan Stern
March 5, 2007
The intensive phase of Jupiter encounter operations is winding down,
but
it's not yet over. In the first days of this week, we still have Radio
Science Experiment (REX) and Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI)
calibrations using Jupiter system targets, and some imaging to better
determine the shapes and photometric phase curves of Jupiter's
satellites Elara and Himalia. After that, the encounter becomes almost
entirely magnetotail exploration using the Solar Wind at Pluto (SWAP),
Pluto Energetic Particle Spectrometer Science Investigation (PEPSSI),
and Venetia (Student Dust Counter) instruments; this final phase of
the
encounter lasts until mid-June.
In the past week, we conducted more than 98 separate observing
sequences
comprising several hundred observations. I am sure that if you're
reading this, you've seen some or the entire handful of images we
released in the past week - such as the beautiful LORRI imagery of
Jupiter's Little Red Spot and Io's Tvashtar volcano. Well, those
data represent less than 1/1000th of what we still have to send down,
including color imager, more high-resolution LORRI shots, ultraviolet
and infrared spectra galore, and, of course, plasma data. So while the
"tip of the tip" of the iceberg is now on the ground to whet
appetites,
we won't have the entire dataset we've taken - all 36 gigabits! - on
the
ground until at least late April. But don't despair, we will begin
downlinking operations this Wednesday, March 7, and will be sending
back
a few gigabits each week. So you should expect to see nearly weekly
data
releases coming from New Horizons throughout March and April.
As things settle down on the spacecraft, we've already begun planning
the last portions of our instrument payload commissioning tests -
things
we put off until after the rush of the Jupiter encounter. We're also
planning some hibernation-mode testing for April and a tiny, "jogging
speed" course-correction maneuver on May 23 to trim up our trajectory.
That's it for now, but I'll be back with more news and views soon.
Meanwhile, keep on exploring, as we do!
|
| Similar Threads | Posted | | Making Old Horizons New | November 5, 2006, 8:53 pm |
| New Horizons: Nap Before You Sleep | June 20, 2007, 12:34 pm |
| New Horizons: Outbound at 7 AU | August 1, 2007, 6:32 pm |
| New Horizons Setting Course for Jupiter | January 30, 2006, 11:50 am |
| New Horizons Adjusts Course Toward Jupiter | March 9, 2006, 5:52 pm |
| New Horizons Update - May 24, 2005 | May 25, 2005, 5:45 pm |
| New Horizons Update - May 24, 2005 | May 25, 2005, 9:17 pm |
| Re: New Horizons Update - May 24, 2005 | May 26, 2005, 10:54 am |
| New Horizons in Space: The First 100 Days | April 28, 2006, 6:32 pm |
| New Horizons Salutes Voyager | August 17, 2006, 11:42 am |
|
XML Sitemap