"Space travel" has a deeper meaning these days. Celebrities and businessmen are dishing out their millions for a trip to space, while mention of space travel agencies and even talk of tourist trips going around the moon starting in 2008 seem to be the wave of the future. But on the other side of the spectrum, scientists at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) are looking farther into space -- not to the Earth's moon, but to Pluto and its largest moon, Charon.
While a trip to our moon takes a few days depending upon the spacecraft, the four-billion-mile journey to reach the ninth planet and its moon will take a total of 10 years.
The New Horizons spacecraft, which is the first mission of NASA's New Frontiers program to explore other planets, was launched Jan. 19 at 2 p.m. EST. The spacecraft is controlled by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland.
Aerospace Engineering Prof. Jim Andary is the Chief System Engineer for the Missions System Engineering Branch at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.
"The New Horizons spacecraft was the fastest spacecraft to leave the earth ... it set a record," Andary said."It went past the moon in nine hours."
According to Andary, the Atlas V rocket chosen for the New Horizons spacecraft is one of the most powerful of NASA's rockets. The spacecraft itself is the size of a grand piano and weighs a total of over 1,000 pounds, as indicated on NASA's Web site. Unlike many of NASA's space missions that return to earth, the New Horizons is a "flyby" mission making a one-way journey into our solar system.
"The spacecraft can use Jupiter as a gravity assist," Andary said, which will allow the spacecraft to reach Pluto by 2015.
Fourth-Year Aerospace Engineering student Joshua King is one of many people across the world who is excited about the prospects of the mission.
King said the spacecraft "should reach Pluto before a lot of the thin-methane atmosphere freezes."
Andary said he is optimistic about the mission's prospects.
"The coast phase of the mission is going to be interesting," he said. "It's somewhat risky to leave the thing on its own."
However, Andary said, the spacecraft will be monitored regularly, and it is not the first time a mission has involved a "coast phase."
The spacecraft itself contains seven instruments that will gather information about the geology, atmosphere and other surface and interior properties of Pluto and Charon. Two imaging spectrometers called Alice and Ralph will collectively gather visual, structural and compositional information and provide maps.
"The spacecraft can't use the power of the sun because it's so far away," Andary said.
As a result, one of the spacecraft's crucial parts is a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) that consists of two major elements, a heat source and thermocouples that convert heat energy to electricity, according to the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory Web site.
While over 40 years of research has been dedicated to developing and testing RTGs, of some concern to anti-nuclear activists is the fact that the heat source contains 24 pounds of radioactive plutonium. However, two other plutonium-powered spacecrafts have been launched from Cape Canaveral in the past, and NASA and U.S. Department of Energy officials continue to ensure the public that RTGs are safe and reliable sources of power.
Along with information about Pluto and Charon, scientists are hoping to learn more about the Kuiper Belt, the icy region beyond Neptune often known as "the final frontier" of our solar system.
"The Kuiper Belt is an area where comets are formed," Andary said, also indicating that some of the "loose junk" of our solar system originates there.
In particular, the mission will cast light onto whether or not Pluto can really be classified as a planet, which is currently a subject of scientific debate.
Two other NASA spacecrafts, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, could have been aimed at Pluto in the past. Instead, Voyager 2 was launched in August 1977 and flew past Uranus in 1986 and Neptune in 1989, while Voyager 1 was launched in September 1979 and reached its final destination of Saturn and its largest moon, Titan, in 1980. After 17 years of planning, the New Horizons spacecraft marks the first mission specifically aimed for Pluto.
At least for now, space travel agencies and tourist trips to the moon seem to be nearer in time than 2015, when New Horizons is expected to begin its exploration of Pluto and the Kuiper Belt region.
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