NEW HORIZONS MISSION TO PLUTO/CHARON: REDUCING COSTS OF A LONG-DURATION MISSION

摘要

The long-duration and long light-time delay of NASA's planned New Horizons mission to Pluto, its moon Charon, and the extended mission to one or more Kuiper Belt Objects poses unique challenges to mission operations, especially in this time of limited space exploration budgets. A number of courses of action can be followed to reduce wear on Observatory hardware, reduce operations staffing costs, and reduce Deep Space Network usage and costs without sacrificing the health and safety of the Observatory or risking the successful completion of the primary mission. Major components in this system are an autonomy subsystem that can react quickly enough to safe the Observatory when it is out of contact with the ground station; the use of a beacon to indicate the health of the Observatory during the dormant phases of the mission; command loading and verification strategies to accommodate the long light-time delays; and the combining of operations personnel to take advantage of similarities of Observatories, supporting ground station setup, and procedures. When planned early in the mission development phase, these components are easily integrated into the operations concept and Observatory hardware to form a cohesive plan to mitigate cost and risk. Cost reduction measures for long-duration missions, such as those planned for New Horizons, enable funding for a greater number of equally important space exploration missions from a limited space exploration budget.