Saturday, 19 January 2013

space probe - How long New Horizons will remain operational?

The answer is in the other section:



New Horizons Mission Info



What I can say off the top of my head is that the mission has been extended and they have identified another object that the spacecraft can reach. However, after the next rendezvous it will be out of fuel and will not be able to maneuver.
BUT -- the probe is powered by a Plutonium-238 radioisotope thermal generator (RTG), and will likely to continue functioning for the foreseeable future. The relevant question is: how long will the government fund the NASA operations team that is 'talking' to the probe. That is anyone's guess.



New Horizons Spacecraft Components



PS - I'll update this answer later once I talk with some colleagues. I started, and worked for the company (KinetX, Inc) that did the navigation for New Horizons. I no nothing of the science, but my friends did the navigation and know the near-term details for the mission.

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