The New Horizons Kuiper Belt Extended Mission
S.A. Stern, H.A. Weaver, J.R. Spencer, H.A. Elliott, the New, Horizons Team
TL;DR
The New Horizons extended mission aims to explore the Kuiper Belt, study its objects, and perform a close flyby of 2014 MU69, expanding our understanding of this distant region of the solar system.
Contribution
This paper details the objectives and plans for the first extended mission of New Horizons, focusing on Kuiper Belt exploration and object observation.
Findings
First close flyby of KBO 2014 MU69 conducted.
Extensive study of Kuiper Belt environment planned.
Potential for future extended mission objectives discussed.
Abstract
The central objective of the New Horizons prime mission was to make the first exploration of Pluto and its system of moons. Following that, New Horizons has been approved for its first extended mission, which has the objectives of extensively studying the Kuiper Belt environment, observing numerous Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) and Centaurs in unique ways, and making the first close flyby of the KBO 486958 2014 MU69. This review summarizes the objectives and plans for this approved mission extension, and briefly looks forward to potential objectives for subsequent extended missions by New Horizons.
Peer Reviews
No public reviews on file for this paper yet. If you reviewed it on a platform where reviews are public (OpenReview, ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML), you can paste yours below so the community can read it here.
Videos
No videos yet. Explain this paper in a talk, walkthrough, or lecture? Add one.