The New Horizons Spacecraft

TL;DR

The New Horizons spacecraft, launched in 2006, is a highly engineered mission platform designed to explore Pluto with advanced instruments, optimized for long-duration, deep-space operation, and equipped with a reliable power and communication system.

Contribution

This paper details the design, engineering, and mission planning of the New Horizons spacecraft, highlighting innovations for deep-space exploration and mission reliability.

Findings

Successful launch and trajectory design for Pluto mission

In-flight tests confirm design requirements are met

High mission success probability (>85%) over 10+ years

Abstract

The New Horizons spacecraft was launched on 19 January 2006. The spacecraft was designed to provide a platform for seven instruments that will collect and return data from Pluto in 2015. The design drew on heritage from previous missions developed at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) and other missions such as Ulysses. The trajectory design imposed constraints on mass and structural strength to meet the high launch acceleration needed to reach the Pluto system prior to the year 2020. The spacecraft subsystems were designed to meet tight mass and power allocations, yet provide the necessary control and data handling finesse to support data collection and return when the one-way light time during the Pluto flyby is 4.5 hours. Missions to the outer solar system require a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) to supply electrical power, and a single RTG is used by New Horizons. To accommodate this constraint, the spacecraft electronics were designed to operate on less than 200 W. The spacecraft system architecture provides sufficient redundancy to provide a probability of mission success of greater than 0.85, even with a mission duration of over 10 years. The spacecraft is now on its way to Pluto, with an arrival date of 14 July 2015. Initial inflight tests have verified that the spacecraft will meet the design requirements.