LONDON: After its historic Pluto flyby, New Horizons pushes onwards toward its next target – a Pluto-like planet in the outer solar system
NASA announces that New Horizons’ next mission will be a small Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) in the outer solar system, known as 2014 MU69.
This is assuming that the team gets the permission and the fund for the “Potential Target 1” mission.
“While discussions whether to approve this extended mission will take place in the larger context of the planetary science portfolio, we expect it to be much less expensive than the prime mission while still providing new and exciting science,” said John Grunsfeld, chief of NASA’s Science Mission directorate, according to the official news release on NASA’s website.
The estimated size of the targeted KBO is 30 miles and is 0.5 to one percent of the size of Pluto.
There were two targets considered, but this KBO was chosen based on its reachability and on the fuel supply of the space probe.
“2014 MU69 is a great choice because it is just the kind of ancient KBO, formed where it orbits now, that the Decadal Survey desired us to fly by. Moreover, this KBO costs less fuel to reach, leaving more fuel for the flyby, for ancillary science, and greater fuel reserves to protect against the unforeseen,” Alan Stern said, according to IGN.
Late October to early November, New Horizons is going to adjust course through four thruster firings, enabling it to take more distant measurements of 20 other KBOs that it will encounter as it heads to 2014 MU69.
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