- On passing Pluto the New Horizons spacecraft will have travelled 4.76 billion kilometres, the equivalent of 32 trips between the Earth and the Sun.
- The spacecraft itself holds seven scientific instruments to capture and record data about Pluto, including information about its surface, atmosphere and interior.
- The instruments carried by New Horizons include Ralph, which will help provide thermal maps of the dwarf planet, Alice, which is an ultraviolet imaging spectrometer and will analyse the atmosphere around Pluto and its moons and LORRI (LOng Range Reconnaissance Imager) which is a powerful telescopic camera that can obtain images and data from great distances.
- As well as the scientific equipment and instruments carried by New Horizons, the spacecraft also carries several artefacts, including a U.S. flag, and an ounce of Clyde Tombaugh’s ashes. He is the man who discovered Pluto in 1930.
- To reduce wear the spacecraft has spent much of its nine year journey in hibernation with checks to ensure the instruments still function and that it is on course.
- Because the spacecraft is so far from the Sun, it cannot rely on sunlight to power itself. Instead, its power supply comes from what is called a radioisotope thermal generator.
More information:
NASA Site: http://www.nasa.gov/newhorizons
Official Site: http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/