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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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S. Alan Stern
Mission PI, New Horizons
Southwest Research Institute and the Florida Space Institute
New Horizons is NASA's mission to explore the Pluto system and the Kuiper Belt. The spacecraft was launched on 19 January 2006 and will begin its encounter studies of Pluto in early 2015, culminating on 14 July 2015 with a close approach just 12,500 km from Pluto. The spacecraft carries sophisticated panchromatic and color images, IR and UV mapping spectrometers, a radio science package, two in situ plasma instruments, and a dust counter. This presentation will provide an overview of the history of this mission, the science behind it, the capabilities of the spacecraft and payload, the plans for our encounter with planet Pluto, and briefly outline the extended mission we hope to fly across the Kuiper Belt.
