New Horizons Spacecraft & My Model of It

“We Support a Mission to Pluto” Campaign Button,
used to create a link to the petition web site

The Model

This is the image that was my early standard for building the model. I also utilized the Revision 12 PDF file that was published on the web (which was fairly accurate, though it also led me down a lot of wrong paths). You can downolad that here. As more photos became available of the actual spacecraft, I was forced to rebuild several features of the model.

The Spacecraft

Early Concepts
As with most space vehicles, the New Horizons design went through several
different stages of evolution. The two most famous early concepts are shown here:

This was to be a micro probe, weighing in at a mere 260 pounds!
The final spacecraft configuration, however, resembled this
fairly closely, only on a much larger scale

These are the best illustrations I’ve found of the final, flight configuration of the spacecraft.

The Instruments of Science

RALPH		Visible and infrared imager & spectrometer.  This instrument will be the “eyes” of New Horizons during closest approach.  It will provide color, composition, and thermal mapping
ALICE		Ultraviolet imaging spectrometer: will analyze composition and structure of Pluto’s atmosphere, and look for atmospheres around Charon and Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs)
REX – Radio science EXperiment		This experiment utilizes the spacecraft’s High Gain Antenna to beam radio waves through Pluto’s atmosphere towards earth, to help understand it’s composition
LORRI – LOng Range  Reconnaissance Imager		A telescopic camera.  Unfortunately, I’ve been unable to find any photos of it with the cover open! This system will snap long-range photos of Pluto, Charon, and KBOs prior to and during closest approach
SWAP – Solar Wind  Around Pluto		Solar wind and plasma spectrometer.  This instrument will measure atmospheric “escape rate” and observe Pluto’s interaction with the solar wind.
PEPPSI – Pluto Energetic  Particle Spectrometer  Science Investigation		Energetic particle spectrometer.  This instrument will measure the composition and density of plasma (ions) escaping from Pluto’s atmosphere
Student Dust Counter  (SDC)		This device was built by students from the University of Colorado. It will measure space dust impacting the spacecraft throughout its mission