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Space Forum / Space Flight / January 2006just how "close" does New Horizons get to the Moon?
So, much of the press coverage of the New Horizons probe is breathless about how the probe will "pass the Moon in 9 hours." Does the probe actually go anywhere near the Moon, or should the press really be saying that the probe will pass beyond the Moon's orbital distance in 9 hours? rick jones  SignatureProcess shall set you free from the need for rational thought. these opinions are mine, all mine; HP might not want them anyway... :) feel free to post, OR email to rick.jones2 in hp.com but NOT BOTH... > So, much of the press coverage of the New Horizons probe is breathless > about how the probe will "pass the Moon in 9 hours." Does the probe > actually go anywhere near the Moon, or should the press really be > saying that the probe will pass beyond the Moon's orbital distance in > 9 hours? It passes lunar >orbit< in nine hours, but not the Moon itself. The only enroute planetary encounter will be with Jupiter, but that was intended for the helpful gravity boost. (Science will be a bonus. Had NH passed close to the Moon, I could its instruments be configured in time to do any useful observations? No loss there.) Doubtless some news articles fail to clearly make the distinction. --Damon > So, much of the press coverage of the New Horizons probe is breathless > about how the probe will "pass the Moon in 9 hours." Does the probe > actually go anywhere near the Moon, or should the press really be > saying that the probe will pass beyond the Moon's orbital distance in > 9 hours? The latter. The planned launch window was 29 days, so it could not have been the case that a lunar fly-by was intended as part of the mission. Here is a quote from the New Horizons press kit: New Horizons will reach lunar orbit distance (about 384,000 kilometers or 238,600 miles from Earth) approximately nine hours after launch http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/images/mainPage/NHLaunchPressKit1_06.pdf |
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