New Horizons goes back to sleep
Please consider donating to Behind the Black, by giving either a one-time contribution or a regular subscription, as outlined in the tip jar to the right or below. Your support will allow me to continue covering science and culture as I have for the past twenty years, independent and free from any outside influence.
The New Horizons science and engineering team has placed the spacecraft back in hibernation mode for the first time since prior to its fly-by of Pluto in 2014.
During hibernation mode, much of the New Horizons spacecraft is unpowered. The onboard flight computer monitors system health and broadcasts a weekly beacon-status tone back to Earth, and about once a month sends home data on spacecraft health and safety. Onboard sequences sent in advance by mission controllers will eventually wake New Horizons to check out critical systems, gather new Kuiper Belt science data, and perform course corrections (if necessary).
This hibernation period will last until September, when they will wake the spacecraft so that they can make a mid-course correction in preparation for the January 1, 2019 flyby of Kuiper Belt Object 2014 MU69.
Please consider donating to Behind the Black, by giving either a one-time contribution or a regular subscription, as outlined in the tip jar to the right or below. Your support will allow me to continue covering science and culture as I have for the past twenty years, independent and free from any outside influence.
The New Horizons science and engineering team has placed the spacecraft back in hibernation mode for the first time since prior to its fly-by of Pluto in 2014.
During hibernation mode, much of the New Horizons spacecraft is unpowered. The onboard flight computer monitors system health and broadcasts a weekly beacon-status tone back to Earth, and about once a month sends home data on spacecraft health and safety. Onboard sequences sent in advance by mission controllers will eventually wake New Horizons to check out critical systems, gather new Kuiper Belt science data, and perform course corrections (if necessary).
This hibernation period will last until September, when they will wake the spacecraft so that they can make a mid-course correction in preparation for the January 1, 2019 flyby of Kuiper Belt Object 2014 MU69.
