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There are nine planets in our solar system and we have visited all of these but one. Even though Pluto is the smallest and furthest planet from the sun, it is no way inferior to the other planets. It in fact is possibly one of the most unique bodies in the solar system. There is much that we do not know about this tiny world and its equally unique moon, Charon. For this reason we are proposing to send a flyby mission to the Pluto-Charon system as soon as possible. Pluto was discovered on February 18, 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona (Stern 207).
Jim Christy discovered Charon in 1978. Even though Pluto was discovered over seventy years ago, much of the information we know about this planet and its moon has been discovered very recently, in the late 1970 's. Through Earth based observations. We were able to project the mass of Pluto to be 1. 27 e 22 kilograms, and the mass of Charon to be 1. 90 e 21 kilograms. We have also been able to hypothesize about other properties. The radius of Pluto is about 1137 kilometers (Hamilton 2).
The radius of Charon is about 586 kilometers. Both bodies are relatively small, even in comparison to something as small as the United States (See figure 1). The temperature of Pluto is close to thirty five to forty-five degrees Kelvin (Arnet 2). The temperature of the Pluto-Charon system is so low because it is extremely far away from the Sun.
In fact, it is nearly thirty-nine and one half astronomical units away from it (Kaufman 383). This is 5, 913, 520, 000 kilometers (Hamilton 2)! The composition of Pluto and Charon is thought to be made up of large amounts of rock mixed with methane, nitrogen, and carbon monoxide ice. When Pluto is closest to the Sun, the planet warms up just enough for a thin atmosphere to form on the surface.
The atmosphere is consequently made of the same gasses that are contained in Pluto's icy surface (Arnet 2). An interesting fact about this world is that it rotates on its axis in the opposite direction of most planets while tipped on its side. Most planets rotate on nearly circular orbits, but Pluto's is highly elliptical (oval shaped) this is another characteristic that differentiates it from the eight other planets. Due to this phenomenon, Pluto is sometimes closer to the Sun than Neptune (Kaufman 384) and takes 248 years to make a complete orbit around our sun (Phillips 1). Another factor to consider is that most of the planets rotate around the Sun on a flat plane with relation to one another.
This plane is consequently at the same level as the Sun's equator. Therefore, it can be said that the planets rotate around the Sun's equator. However, Pluto does not rotate on this plane, but instead rotates at an orbit that is at an angle to the other orbits and the Sun's equator (See figure 2). Even though we seem to know some of the basic information about the Pluto-Charon system, it is important to note that many of these figures, especially the ones relating to the mass, temperature and radius of the bodies, are pure estimates. To get accurate measurements of this information, we need to visit the planet and observe it at close range. Besides that we do not know some of the very general information about Pluto for certain, we also must visit because there are so many fine details we have yet to discover about it and its surrounding area.
These details can help us to better understand the universe we live in as well as help us understand the properties of the inner solar system itself. There are various reasons why this is true. Firstly, the outer solar system is by far the largest part. It is believed that by sending a mission to this vicinity, we will be able to greater understand the formation of the solar system.
This is thought to be the case because the bodies in this area are possibly more ancient than the planets closer to the Sun. We think the worlds past Neptune, such as Pluto and Charon, are more primitive than the objects closer to the Sun because these far out objects were not as affected chemically when the solar system was formed. They continue to remain fairly unaffected by the Sun and other planets due to their enormous distance from the rest of the solar system. Therefore, it is wise to believe that Pluto and Charon could tell us a great amount of information relating to the formation and composition of the early solar system (Space Studies Board 13). Secondly, a mission to Pluto and Charon would help us to understand other bodies in the outer solar system.
It is theorized that there are many other small, Pluto-like objects rotating around the Sun, past Pluto. So far, thirty have been detected (Wilcots 1). A mission to the Pluto-Charon system could help to discover many more. Finally, as stated above, if we travel to the outer solar system and observe Pluto and Charon, can use the information derived from the mission to better our understanding of the solar system in general and perhaps other solar systems as well. In addition, we can get a better understanding of objects such as comets that come from this region. Resulting in better theories of describing what sort of affects these outer solar system visitors may have on our planet and other similar planets in the inner solar system.
Now that we know why we must visit Pluto and Charon, it is important to note that we do so very soon. Pluto is only capable of being most accurately studied when it is closest to the Sun, because this is the only time that Pluto's atmosphere is a gas. The thin atmosphere freezes over as the planet travels farther away from the Sun. Therefore, we will not be able to maximize the study of the planet in merely twenty years. The atmosphere will indeed be frozen by then. Also, Pluto is fairly close to the Sun and therefore the Earth as of now, resulting in less distance that a flyby mission would have to travel.
To sum it up we must go to Pluto very soon, as the planet is already moving away from the Sun and Earth on its orbit. It will take a spacecraft between eight to twelve years to arrive at Pluto and by about 2015, Pluto's atmosphere will be almost frozen. Therefore, time is growing nigh. A mission must be sent immediately because it will not have an atmosphere again until 2230 (newforcecomics. com, 1). Now that we have established why we must go to Pluto, we will tell how to get to this mysterious, ninth planet.
We propose an unmanned, flyby mission, which will simply orbit the planet and take close range data. The mission will not include landing on the actual surface. We would like to send two spacecrafts to the Pluto-Charon system. Two are necessary because Pluto rotates on its axis at an incredibly slow rate of about six days per one orbit (Hamilton 2). One spacecraft would only be efficient to record data from one hemisphere. As an added bonus, we would like to send the second to arrive about six months after the first so we can redirect the second spacecraft based on the results that were obtained from the first.
This would help us to get a broader scope of Pluto in its entirety. Moreover, we could program the second spacecraft to make up for the calculations that the first one may have missed. There are countless ways to travel to Pluto. Many spacecrafts that have traveled past Mars have used other planets as sources of gravitational energy to partially power them. This is done by using Newton's Third Law that states every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Given the small mass of a spacecraft in comparison to a planet, the spacecraft is propelled further into space while using little propulsion from its own engines because of the gravitational energy it receives from the planet.
We do not believe that this is an option for our mission to Pluto and Charon. It is of the utmost importance that we get there before the atmosphere freezes over therefore, we suggest that the mission flies directly to the Pluto-Charon system using its own energy. The proposed spacecraft would take a direct path to Pluto simply leaving the Earth's orbit and traveling across the solar system to the planet (again, see figure 2). Through complex calculations, we can dodge the other planets and asteroids that may be in our path. These barricades would probably not pose much of a problem anyway, as outer space is truly a lot of space. The likelihood of colliding with another body is very slim.
In addition, like any other spacecraft, ours is controlled from Earth, and we will move it accordingly during its flight to Pluto. This is not only the simplest measure but also the shortest. It will take only eight years to arrive (Haw, et. al 3) as opposed to the nearly ten years that it would take if a gravity boost from, for example, Earth and Jupiter, was used (Price 208). These few years that we would save between missions are important, as we have already proven that time is of the essence in this mission. The two spacecrafts that we send to the Pluto-Charon system must be less than 300 pounds each (Haw et.
al. 3). This is important because if the spacecraft were any heavier, the amount of energy it will take to launch the crafts will increase greatly. With a mission that is using no gravitational boosts from the other planets, a large amount of energy is already needed. The last thing we want is to send a large and massive object across the solar system that requires even more energy. We will be able to communicate with this spacecraft from here on earth because there is a communication instrument contained on it; this device includes such things as an antenna. An ion propulsion engine will power our spacecraft.
This engine uses charged xenon atoms to move it forward. Electrons...
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