NEW HORIZON 
Flyby Probe to the Pluto-Charon system and the Kuiper Belt


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November 4, 2005

The Pluto New Horizons spacecraft is scheduled to launch on an Atlas V rocket in January 2006. Designed to help us understand worlds at the edge of our solar system, New Horizons will make the first reconnaissance of Pluto and its multiple moons. In addition to observing the last planet in our solar system to be visited by spacecraft, the mission will also visit one or more objects in the Kuiper Belt region beyond Neptune. To reach its intended destination, the spacecraft will first swing past Jupiter for a gravity boost, conduct related scientific studies through February or March 2007 and eventually reach Pluto by July 2015.

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The instrument that provides the highest spatial resolution on New Horizons is LORRI -Long Range Reconnaissance Imager - it consists of a telescope with a 8.2-inch (20.8-centimeter) aperture that focuses visible light onto a charge coupled device (CCD). Two of the hydrazine thrusters near final thermal blanket work. Four of the 16 hydrazine thrusters
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Shown is the science instrument Alice as it is assembled for flight. Alice is an ultraviolet imaging spectrometer that will probe the atmospheric composition of Pluto. Closeup of the science instrument Ralph. Ralph's main objectives are to obtain high resolution color maps and surface composition maps of the surfaces of Pluto and Charon. Shown is PEPSSI, the plasma-sensing instrument. The Pluto Energetic Particle Spectrometer Investigation (PEPSSI) will search for neutral atoms that escape Pluto's atmosphere and subsequently become charged by their interaction with the solar wind.
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The Solar Wind Analyzer around Pluto (SWAP) instrument will measure charged particles from the solar wind near Pluto to determine whether Pluto has a magnetosphere and how fast its atmosphere is escaping. One half of the flight fairing. The silver panels are for acoustical insulation. The other half of the flight fairing