Course Overview
The theme of the CLASS/SSERVI capstone planetary graduate seminar “New Horizons Approaches Pluto” is focused on the science and technology involved in planning the execution of a major planetary mission. This seminar was conducted the year before the New Horizons Pluto flyby and was led by the New Horizons Principal Investigator, Dr. Alan Stern. The lecturers were drawn from the leading experts of New Horizons team. From the technology perspective these lectures capture the challenges in designing the encounter. From the science perspective this captures the scientific expectations for the encounter along with how science informs and drives observation planning. The outstanding success of the Pluto flyby a year later is a testament to the planning and analysis described in these lectures.
Schedule: The draft is given below. Note that the readings might change depending on what material is presented by the guest lecturers. Abbreviations in the “Readings” column: [SSR] = Space Science Reviews vol. 140 from 2008. [SSBN] = Solar System Beyond Neptune book. [PC] = Pluto and Charon book. [NT] = Neptune and Triton book.
Weekly Lecture Topics (all lectures at 1:30 EDT/EST)
| Week | Date | Title | Lecturer | Readings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tue. 1/7 | NH Overview | Stern | Stern, [SSR], 3. Young et al., [SSR], 93. |
| 1 | Thu. 1/9 | KB Overview | Stern | Barucci et al., [SSBN], pp. 3-10. Davies et al., [SSBN], pp. 11-24. |
| 2 | Tue. 1/14 | Pluto Surface | Grundy | Stern et al. 1997, AJ 113, 127. Grundy et al. 2013, Icarus 223, 710. |
| 2 | Thu. 1/16 | Pluto Atmosphere | Spencer | Yelle & Elliot 1997, [PC], pp. 347-391. Young 2013, ApJ 766, L22. |
| 3 | Tue. 1/21 | Atmospheres Reading | Class | Olkin et al. 2014, http://arxiv.org/abs/1309.0841. Person et al. 2013, AJ 146, 83. |
| 3 | Thu. 1/23 | Surfaces Reading | Class | Buie et al. 2010a, AJ 139, 1117. Buie et al. 2010b, AJ 139, 1128. |
| 4 | Tue. 1/28 | Pluto’s Satellites | Weaver | Stern et al. 1997, [PC], pp. 605-664. Weaver et al., 2006, Nature 439, 943. |
| 4 | Thu. 1/30 | Pluto’s Satellites Reading | Class | Canup 2011, AJ 141, 35. Cook et al. 2007, ApJ 663, 1406. |
| 5 | Tue. 2/4 | Triton Reading | Class | Croft et al. 1995, [NT], pp. 879-947. Yelle et al. 1995, [NT], pp. 1031-1105. |
| 5 | Thu. 2/6 | Large KBOs Reading | Class | Brown 2012, AREPS 40, 467 (split into two parts). |
| 6 | Tue. 2/11 | Pioneer 10 and 11 | Class | Dyal 1990, “Pioneers 10 and 11 Deep Space Missions,” NASA Technical Mem. 102269. Selections from Fimmel 1980, NASA SP-446, “Pioneer: First to Jupiter, Saturn, and Beyond.” |
| 6 | Thu. 2/13 | Voyager 1 and 2 | Class | Stone & Lane 1979, Science 204, 945. Stone & Lane 1979, Science 206, 925. Stone & Miner 1981, Science 212, 159. Stone & Miner 1982, Science 215, 499. Stone & Miner 1986, Science 233, 39. Stone & Miner 1989, Science 246, 1417. |
| 7 | Tue. 2/18 | Early Pluto Mission Concepts | Class | Stern 1993, Eos 74, 73. Terrile et al. 1997, [PC], pp. 103-126. |
| 7 | Thu. 2/20 | Pluto Mission Politics | Neufeld | Neufeld 2013, presented at 64th International Astronautical Congress, paper E3.2.12. http://bit.ly/1a8rb21. |
| 8 | Tue. 2/25 | Proposing NH | Young | Stern & Cheng 2002, Eos 83, 101. Stern 2002, Sci.Amer. 286 (5), 56. NASA 2001, “Announcement of Opportunity Pluto-Kuiper Belt Mission,” AO 01-OSS-01. |
| 8 | Thu. 2/27 | NH Mission Architecture & Nav |
Jackman | Jackman & Dumont 2013, presented at 23rd AAS/AIAA Spaceflight Mechanics Meeting, paper AAS13-443. http://bit.ly/19IK8Ku. Guo & Farquhar, [SSR], 49. |
| 9 | Tue. 3/4 | Spring Break | — | — |
| 9 | Thu. 3/6 | Spring Break | — | — |
| 10 | Tue. 3/11 | NH S/C Capabilities | Hersman | Kusnierkiewicz et al. 2005, Acta Astronautica 57, 135. |
| 10 | Thu. 3/13 | NH Payload | Ennico | Weaver et al., [SSR], 75. |
| 11 | Tue. 3/18 | Building NH | Fountain | Fountain et al., [SSR], 23. Drucker 2001, The essential Drucker, Ch. 8-9. Bernstein 1996, Against the gods: The remarkable story of risk, Ch. 12 & 16. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Drucker. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hazard_prevention. |
| 11 | Thu. 3/20 | NH Autonomy System | Bauer | Bauer & Reid 2007, in Proc. IEEE Aerospace Conference 2007, paper 1168. |
| 12 | Tue. 3/25 | Launching NH | Lugo | TBD |
| 12 | Thu. 3/27 | Flying NH | Bowman | TBD |
| 13 | Tue. 4/1 | Future KB Missions | Class | Class to research this topic. |
| 13 | Thu. 4/3 | Hazards & SHBOTs | Stern | Stern 2013, “The PI’s Perspective,” May 16, 2013, http://bit.ly/1gh6hig. Weaver 2013, “New Horizons,” January 15, 2013, http://bit.ly/1dPsS30. Stern 2009, Icarus 199, 571. |
| 14 | Tue. 4/8 | Pluto Encounter | Olkin | Young et al., [SSR], 93 (again). |
| 14 | Thu. 4/10 | Future Pluto Missions | Class | Choose by literature search. |
| 15 | Tue. 4/15 | Is Pluto a Planet? | Class | XXVIth IAU General Assembly, Resolutions 5 and 6, http://bit.ly/18UDu3d. Basri & Brown 2006, AREPS 34, 193. Stern 2005, The Space Review 450, 1. |
| 15 | Thu. 4/17 | Is Pluto a Planet? | Stern | Stern & Levison 2002, Highl. Astron. 12, 205. |
| 17 | Tue. 4/29 | Make-up/catch-up. Note 7:00 a.m. start time! | Stern or TBD | TBD |