– We are on the edge of new discoveries, says Alan Stern, Mr. Pluto, in his office in Boulder, Colorado, with a view of the Rocky Mountains.
The unmanned New Horizons spacecraft was launched in 2006 and has been traveling for over nine years to reach Pluto. But Alan Stern began working on the project back in 1989. It was he who suggested the arrangement of the expedition of NASA.
He is very excited about To reap the rewards of the work. The spacecraft is approaching Pluto and has already begun to send information to Earth.
– It is very exciting. And we are very, very busy, he said.
One of the goals of the trip was to New Horizons would take better images of Pluto than what the Hubble telescope handle. Therefore speaking, the project of Technology, Better Than Hubble. That goal has already been reached.
– Now we talk about the BTE, Better Than Ever. We have beaten everyone, said Alan Stern.
The images from New Horizons has provided new knowledge about Pluto. They show that dwarf planet surface is rich in contrast and that there is a white field, which is believed to be covered with ice, on the north pole.
– An ice sheet is a good guess. But we will not be able to confirm it until the end of June, when our spectrometers are close enough to work, says Alan Stern.
He hopes that New Horizons will make fantastic detects the edge of our solar system. Exactly what it could be, he reveals not.
– The lesson we have learned from previous planetary explorations is that it is best to do not make any predictions. We go not only to a new place, but also to a new class of planets. No one has been at the small planets in the Kuiper Belt. It is better to let the data talk about what’s there, he says.
On board the vessel are seven scientific instruments that will collect information on Pluto and its largest moon Charon. One of the instruments developed by students at the University of Colorado in Boulder.
It’s called the Student Dust Counter, measuring the number of dust particles that strikes Received panels on the vehicle exterior. Space dust is studied because it can provide valuable clues as to how stars and space clouds are formed.
Student Dust Counter has been on most of the trip, while the other instruments have been in sleep mode to save energy. Every fifth month, sending the spacecraft home computer from dust counter that the students then processes.
The information has made it possible for the researchers to calculate how much dust created in the Kuiper Belt, a belt of small bodies at Pluto, when objects collide with each other. The calculations show that it is about one ton of dust per second. The task can then be used to estimate the number of large objects in the Kuiper belt.
– Kuiper belt consists of leftovers from when the solar system was created, so by To learn more about the Kuiper Belt, we can understand how the solar system was in its earliest stages. When we go to Pluto we go back in time, that’s pretty cool, says Jamey Szalay, one of the students who work with dust counter.
Boulder Student instruments are the dust counter that has traveled far, a record which was proposed already in 2010.
– We have already been very successful and breaking records every day, says Jamey Szalay.
One of the students who participated in the work of the dust counter before it was postponed David James, who still works remain at the University of Colorado as a research assistant. When new technology visit the lab he calibrates the accelerator where similar dust counters tested.
– To be part of the New Horizons project was a unique experience. We had regular meetings where we presented our work for NASA. Every day was all about solving problems, otherwise it felt as if we would betray the whole world, he says.
When New Horizons has passed Pluto will continue to report information to the earth during the remainder of the year and most of 2016. Subsequently, the plan is that the craft should take a closer look at another celestial object in the Kuiper belt. Two objects in the belt has been identified as achievable.
But it takes more money than the $ 723 million, almost 6 billion crowns, as the journey has already cost. Alan Stern is fairly certain that NASA will award extra money, because the craft is still in good shape and can do some good. And according to him, the equipment on board to continue to deliver the information to the end of the 2030s.
However, it is not only scientific instruments available board. A small amount of ashes of the man who discovered Pluto in 1930, Clyde Tombaugh, is also along for the ride.
– the reason is he wanted it. He said that in the 1990s, and when we were close to launch, I asked his family if they wanted to fulfill his wish. A small amount of ashes had been saved if the space mission would ever get rid of and sent to this office. I took it personally to Florida where the spacecraft was, says Alan Stern.
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