Pluto in a Minute: Why A Flyby?

What’s cool about Pluto? Get a quick peek at the latest science in this daily update from NASA’s New Horizons mission, on track for a flight past Pluto on July 14, 2015.

Why are we going all the way to Pluto only to fly by it and not go into orbit? This is Pluto in a Minute.

It takes a lot of energy to get a rocket off the ground, and that's even with a spacecraft as small as New Horizons, which is roughly the size of a baby grand piano. The rocket isn't just launching the spacecraft, it's launching all the fuel needed to get going on its way to Pluto as well. That is a really heavy load.

The velocity of that launching rocket was transferred into the New Horizons spacecraft, and, fast forward nine years to today, the spacecraft is currently whizzing along towards Pluto at 31,000 mph.

The other thing to consider is that Pluto is quote small. The force of gravity on Earth is 1g; the force of gravity on Pluto is 0.067gs.

To get New Horizons into orbit around Pluto, we would almost need to completely stop its currently velocity, which means we would need another Atlas V burning against its direction of travel to let it be captured by Pluto, and unfortunately, it's impossible to launch an Atlas V with an Atlas V. If New Horizons had that much fuel, the spacecraft would be almost impossible to launch from the Earth.

But let's pretend for a second that New Horizons does have some magic weightless fuel on board. If we were to use the spacecraft's existing propulsion system to slow it into orbit around Pluto, the burn would last more than 17 days.

For more news from Pluto be sure to check out the New Horizons websites, tweet your questions using the hashtag #PlutoFlyby, and be sure to come back tomorrow for more Pluto in a Minute.

[trulahn]

What we need is to have a space-shipyard and launch site on the Moon or in Earth orbit.

[gunnar-lennartlok]

The hype for this makes me want to play Kerbal Space Program all day long!

[huyked]

Thank you!  I was wondering about this.

[Boweavel]

Just hit ALT F12 and turn on unlimited fuel and no crash damage...

Why is a 17 days burn a bad thing ? apart from the fact you dont have the fuel for it...

[bloodymario]

The answer is obvious to any half-decent KSP player :)

[stevej]

The big question on my mind is where to next ? Surely there is another place we can send it from there that could use a good look see .

[FallenShadowNinja]

This is why I can't wait until technology has advanced enough that we can launch probes like this from Earth orbit. It would require so much less fuel and we could actually orbit Pluto. I'm sure it will happen eventually, just not anytime soon. :(

[freeinformation]

Well, we can't slow down this space craft, but what about the speaker? I would rather like to see "Pluto in two minutes", instead of watching this thing twice to get the points.

[seraphimvalkyrin]

So what does New Horizon do now? Is it just meant to keep going out into space?

[trailkeeper]

It would be nice if it can go to another distant object, see if there are any planetoids out there.

[fidrack]

Ah, but why not launch an Atlas 5 with two Atlas 5? :D

[doubledee]

Wasn't New Horizons supposed to be a Pluto only mission?

[Rakanishu]

But how did that work with the Dawn mission then  - that one is orbiting right?

[AlanBeckett]

What if a hybrid system were used that was sent to try to match Pluto's trajectory using a standard rocket to get things going then using a ion drive to slow things down and bring it into orbit.  Additionally could more fuel be on board if it another rocket had prepositioned a fuel tank/engine module to be combined with the instrument package?

[JROwensPhotos]

Would the recent improvements in ion engines make a stop at Pluto possible in the near future? (I'm guessing the RTG can put out enough power for one of those.) Of course, they weren't so advanced when Pluto Express was on the drawing board.

[Tautoru]

Can someone calculate how much fuel it would require to take it to Pluto and then slow it down again? Certainly not another Atlas V, that seems untrue. I was thinking double the fuel but of course then you need to accelerate and decelerate the extra fuel as well. Also, if the Earth was moving towards Pluto when it launched (at 30km/s), that gives the spacecraft a speed boost without requiring fuel. If you went slower, it would require less fuel too.

[williamgalaini]

Shame we just can't launch from space with inflatable ships.

[saquist]

OMG AMY. I've never seen you say something so utterly wrong.
YOU DON"T NEED ANOTHER ATLAS V to launch on another Atlas V.
YOU ALSO DON"T NEED TO SEND IT ALL UP AT ONE TIME.
All you have to do is send two Atlas Five launches into orbit.
You don't need need to cancel out the velocity at launch, only the escape velocity achieved from Earth.
That velocity was given by the Centaur Engined Second Stage. SO you need two of those plus a little more for the extra weight
New Horizons gets there in nearly the same amount of time and we get a full Pluto Rendezvous.

[ashleycasey]

NASA New Horizons  One wonders if NASA had more money if they would be able to put the probe into orbit.

[pdruff]

acually to get a atlas 5 to pluto would take a lift off weight of over 720 million pounds.  look at the weight of the probe vs its takeoff weight.  about 1200 to 1....