When NASA’s new horizon spacecraft surged by Plput in 2015, it revealed an incredible world of ice and haze carved by various geological processes. With the bounty of scientific wealth, researchers worked to solve some of the small world mysteries ten years after the spaceship flyby.
“There are still many questions,” Carly Howet, a planetary scientist at Oxford University and a member of the New Horizons team, said last month on his progress to understand PL Pun’s mission. As questions like this drag on, Howet and her colleagues designed a follow-up mission in the hopes of eventually solving some of the mysteries of Pltune.
Such missions sent to investigate the suburbs of the solar system spanned decades. But it’s far from being approved. “This mission has been running for over 50 years and can challenge engineering, mission operations and data analysis in a way that has never been done before,” writes Howett in a 2021 study published in the Planetary Science Journal detailing the concept of missions.
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Underground sea?
In Roman mythology, UT tune is the god and ruler of the dead. For the mission to return to the dwarf planet, Howet and her colleagues chose the name Persephone, following the Greek mythical wife of Plpun and the “Queen of the Underworld.”
“Plus is named after the Roman God of the Underworld, and this name seemed appropriate given that we wanted women to name them to reflect diverse teams with many women in their leadership roles,” Howett wrote.
The Persephone will carry 11 instruments based on the tools that have been fed on all missions, but there are some changes. The main question it tries to answer is whether Pltune has underground oceans today.
If that question had been asked before New Horizons had a liven up, most scientists would have said it was unlikely. Many ice worlds may start with watery layers, but they freeze over time. To maintain liquids for the solar system’s 4.5 billion years of life, its oceans must be kept warm.
Related: Methane Ice Skyscraper-Size Spikes May Surround the Equator of Pluto
Some moons interact with host planets and adjacent satellites by gravity, constantly bending to prevent the ocean from freezing. Charon, the largest moon of Pluto, is about as large as Pluto. They are often referred to as “double planets” (although neither meets the planet’s standards). Scientists believe that if the ocean has nonaqueous components high enough to lower the freezing point, it could keep ut tune warm.
Until New Horizons revealed the surprisingly young and light surface of the ut tune, which most scientists began to consider the ocean potential (though some did it before the spacecraft arrived). New Horizons only studied UTO Pun for a few hours, but continued to observe the dwarf planets for several months before and after the closest approach.
In contrast, Persephone aims to get into orbit around a small world for over three years, allowing for longer close-up views. “There’s no alternative to proximity,” New Horizons’ principal investigator Alan Stern said at the same meeting.
What Persephone Study
Persepon studies the shape of ut tunes to look for signs of round fossil bulge. This is the “beer belly” that occurs when gravity is pulled by the mass of the world. The layers are liquid and freezing them in place makes bulge more easily form. The new horizon did not observe such stakes, but Persephone sends a more sensitive instrument that can be conducted in more detail.
“This mission should allow us to image the entire Pluto,” Howett told the meeting. “It has to be phenomenal.”
Persephone also attempts to determine the composition of Pltune and chalon using similar gravity and topographical measurements to those taken by Enceladus on Saturn’s moon, and calculates the thickness of the potential inner ice layer.
Pluton suffers from a century of winter, and Persephone arrives at its thickness. Many dwarf planets are protected in the dark, so missions require instruments that allow you to peer into the veil. The camera maps surfaces around the world at deeper and at various wavelengths, including the half that was covered when New Horizon sailed in the past. They searched for hot spots that could indicate warm interiors, signs of ongoing activity, and eruptions, and showed that the surface had changed since observation in 2015. It also provides more detailed crater counts on both Pltune and Charon, helping scientists to better understand how active Kuiper Belt has been over the years.
The solar system has many ice worlds, but both Pltune and Charon have unusual surface features. In the Tartarus Dorsa area of Pluto, methane ice blades cover the surface. Scientists suspect these spikes formed by sublimation, as methane was instantly skipped from solids to gas, but that’s not conclusive. And in Chalong there is a strange ice mountain submerged in a frozen moat. This is a unique feature in an icy peak. Both surfaces are covered in exotic ice, and understanding the properties of Pltune at frigid temperatures is a key component of the mission.
Related: James Webbspace Telescope Deciphers the Origin of Pltune’s Ice Mooncaron
In 1988, astronomers discovered faint atmospheres around Pltune, but their composition escaped them. New Horizon answered the question even if it went up further. Strangely, Pltune slowly dumps a portion of its atmosphere into Charon, apparently creating a distinctive red pole that can change the hemisphere over time. One of the important objectives of Persephone is to directly detect the composition of the atmosphere via mass spectrometry.
Persephone also studies the spaces around a small world. UTO Pun is far away, so light from the sun takes more than 5.5 hours to reach it. From Pluto, the Sun is a place like a point in the sky.
Caron is not the only moon targeted for the mission. The launch time of the Persephone will determine the number of small moons it can observe, but the other four satellites will also be common.
New Horizons revealed tips for Nix, Hydra, and Kerberos Water Ice bands, as well as the ammonia of Nix and Hydra. The Persephone employs not only Styx, but these three more detailed spectra, and tries to determine how much debris from the collision is scattered along with the Charon surface. The best observation of a small satellite is probably the moonsticks, which is in orbit nearby, and the outermost moon of the worst tune, but depending on when the mission begins and arrives at Pluto, Hydra, a flyby of Kerberos or Hydra, may be possible.
Persephone remains on Pltune for just over three years. Meanwhile, the spacecraft was able to use orbits around the binary system to eventually cast it from the pair.
By extending the mission by a year, the spacecraft can visit another Kuiper Belt object, just as New Horizon visited Arocos after the flyby of Pltune. Such expansions depend on when the mission activates and arrives, but they may provide important insight into the fragments left behind from the formation of the solar system. This provides a great scientific return as the distance of the Kuiper Belt object challenges studying from Earth.
Pluto: Next Generation
Returning to Pluton is not a casual job. The original trip required a new field of view within 10 years, but due to changes in the planetary alignment, the next flight alone will take 27. It takes over five years and requires five Next Generation Radiation Thermoelectric Generators (NGRTGs). A rich life of travel requires some NGRTG to keep things warm at the freezing temperatures of the universe. That’s a big question when plutonium for spaceflight is still at premium. Currently, NASA’s goal is to create 1.5 kilograms of plutonium per year. RTG currently uses 4.8 kilograms.
That requires a significant investment in plutonium for outer planetary exploration. Financial investment is also necessary. The estimated tag for the Persephone mission is $3 billion, Howett said in her presentation.
Due to the possibility of a half-century mission, the spacecraft has several backup systems. However, Stern pointed out that although the timescale is long, it is not unheard of. NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope remains in operation 35 years later, and NASA’s Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft, which were launched 48 years ago, is also working.
Another challenge with the Persepon mission relates to those working on it. With the potential of a 50-year mission, researchers estimate that Persephone is a three-generation mission that cycles through three sets of scientists throughout the life of his career. Information and training must be passed from one generation to the next. In fact, Stern said that engagement delays are one of the most difficult parts of planning a new horizon mission.
“We know how to do these things,” Stern said. “You have to be patient and you have to plan it.”
Spaceship launch opportunities will be available annually from 2029 to 2032. Jupiter’s orbit then prevents subsequent opportunities for ten years.
Persephone is part of NASA’s Planetary Mission Concept Study, funding a variety of projects that allow you to make informed decisions about potential future missions.
“I think missions that require multiple RTGs are struggling to be selected at this point, but I think the process of making mission proposals was useful,” Howett said. The proposal not only shows that such a mission is effective, but also indicates that some of its parts, such as orbital tours, can be used in other missions.
But don’t look for Persephone to fly in the near future. Power Requests alone can avoid it from the official book. Howett’s mission proposal was one of several requested to inform NASA’s 10-year investigation into future mission priorities and viality.
However, the space agency continues to work to improve RTG and its support technology. Howett hopes that ongoing technology development will improve the mission potential.
“One thing that Persephone showed was that it was possible to return to orbit to Pltune, but that wasn’t cheap,” she said. “It must be a flagship-level mission.”
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