NASA's Pluto Probe Sets to Fly
Posted on: Wednesday, 18 January 2006, 09:01 CST
NASA's Pluto probe sets to fly
WASHINGTON, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- NASA is set to launch a probe Tuesday afternoon on a nine-year one-way trip to explore Pluto, the most remote and smallest planet of the Solar system that has never been visited by a spacecraft.
The piano-sized New Horizons was scheduled for a liftoff at 1:24 p.m. EST (1824 GMT) from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Scientists expect the 700 million-U.S. dollar mission could help them further understand how the Solar system formed.
The probe, lifted up to the sky by an Atlas 5 rocket, which is one of the largest rockets in the United States, will fly into space at a speed of about 58,400 kph, the highest for a spacecraft ever launched from the earth.
New Horizons, of 454 kg in weight, is expected to reach the Moon in about nine hours and arrive at Jupiter in 13 months. It will approach the icy Pluto around mid-2015 after the 4.8 billion km space trip.
Its tasks also include studying Pluto's large moon Charon and two other newly discovered moons orbiting the planet. The fast flying New Horizons does not carry enough fuel to make slowdowns that allow it to enter the orbit of Pluto.
After the flybys to Pluto and its moons, the probe will visit the surrounding Kuiper Belt, and continue to fly and will not come back. The Kuiper Belt is believed to consist of remainders from the early formation of the Solar system.
The probe is equipped with seven scientific instruments that together consume less energy than a night light. Since Pluto is too far away from the sun, the probe cannot use solar energy and will rely on the power from the radioactive decay of 24 pounds of plutonium pellets.
If the probe cannot be launched by Feb. 2, it will miss the opportunity to get a boost in its velocity from Jupiter's gravity field. Scientists estimate a direct flight to Pluto would take at least three more years.
Source: Xinhua News Agency - CEIS
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