A GLOBAL GEOPHYSICAL ALERT

MUST BE ISSUED IMMEDIATELY

The New Horizons
Radio Science Experiment
is at risk of failure
General Information on New Horizons (NH) mission to Pluto-Sharon
Spacecraft Mission : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Horizons
Planets and Moons Affected : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Pluto
Deep Space Network (DSN) Monitoring : http://eyes.nasa.gov/dsn/dsn.html (in
real time)
Geophysical Alerts : http://en.wikipedia.org
/wiki/Central_Bureau_for_Astronomical_Telegrams
Except for the current Deep Space Network sites already allocated to intercept the
New Horizons telemetry, there are no other radio astronomy sites currently
configured for the Pluto-Sharon Radio Science Experiment.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Space_Network (general information)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Deep_Space_Network (general
information)
Pluto Closest Encounter operations begin
UTC
252:16:28:43
Day Hr Min Sec
KNOWN RISKS
There is a real possibility of something going wrong during the Pluto-Sharon
encounter at any (or all) of the Deep Space Network (DSN) dishes at any of the
three DSN sites
Canberra (AU)
Madrid (ES)
Goldstone (US)
Geophysical Alert : NEW HORIZONS (Spacecraft) RADIO SCIENCE... http://hireme.geek.nz/geophysical-alert-nh.html
1 of 6 02 Aug 14 00:32
A common failure mode that affects the Voyager and New Horzons telemetery : Rain
Fade Events.
Rain fades are common at all the DSN sites. However Rain Fades are not the only
real or problematic system risk that must be accounted for and compensated for with
respect to the NH Radio Science Experiment.
Operating in "Array Mode" only partly mitigates the rain fade problem -- there may
be carrier wave integrity loss for other reasons like
site equipment problems (malfunction or failure)
dotty atomic clocks
data recorder problems (too many to mention)
... etc ...
DSN site specific failures can happen and do happen in spite of the redundancies.
The key here is to eliminate any and all possibility of a failure (or set of failures) at
any one DSN site sabotaging the Radio Science Experiment in any way.
At each reception site (in the DSN, or more importantly : outside of the DSN) there
needs to be at least 3 layers of redundancy (tracking dishes used, recording, data
formats, data recorder clock syncronizaiton, data recorder formats) for this event.
Important official entities that are impossible to find or unreachable
The American scientists (and NH Mission Control) that involved in creating this
experiment and programming it into the NH command set are unreachable. At this
time it is impossible to know what is going on with respect to this experiment.
There have been no New Horizons website updates on this experiment in
2014.
For all practical purposes the NH Radio Science Experiment can be considered
"as abandoned" even though the Radio Science Experiment will proceed as
programmed and as planned.
The Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams (CBAT) is the official international
clearing house for information relating to transient astronomical events.
The CBAT collects and distributes information on comets, natural satellites,
novae, supernovae and other transient astronomical events.
CBAT also establishes priority of discovery (who gets credit for it) and assigns
initial designations and names to new objects.
Geophysical Alert : NEW HORIZONS (Spacecraft) RADIO SCIENCE... http://hireme.geek.nz/geophysical-alert-nh.html
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The CBAT is a non-profit organization, but charges for its services to finance its
continued operation.
The Minor Planet Center, or MPC, is the single worldwide location for receipt and
distribution of positional measurements of minor planets, comets and outer irregular
natural satellites of the major planets.
The MPC is responsible for the identification, designation and orbit computation
for all of these objects.
This involves maintaining the master files of observations and orbits, keeping
track of the discoverer of each object, and announcing discoveries to the rest of
the world via electronic circulars and an extensive website.
The MPC operates at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, under the
auspices of Division F of the International Astronomical Union (IAU).
Multiple systems and site redundancies are needed
for the Radio Science Experiment to succeed
Unlike any other radio science experiments that have been done on other outer
planets in the solar system, this encounter is a one time event
New Horizons will not be orbiting around the Pluto-Sharon System.
New Horizon's approach velocity is way too high to slow it down without
expending nearly all of its fuel.
The core Radio Science Experiment has not been updated since 2007, and should
be considered abandoned, but will proceed as programmed
http://www.boulder.swri.edu/pkb/ssr/ssr-rex.pdf (PDF); no updated copies of
this text can be found in the Internet anywhere.
http://radioscience.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/index.html (even the DSN shows no
sign of being involved with this experiment)
Any nation that has a radio telescope that is capable of intercepting New Horizons is
entitled to do so.
The Radio Science Experiment is open to any nation with a functioning radio
telescope that has the right gear for this kind of occoltation experiment
The recording the carrier wave data in as many forms as reasonably doable at
most nation's radio telescope sites.
The larger the carrier wave interception data sets the better, as a large dataset
of recordings in several different formats helps with the Doppler and
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"Dispersion & Dedispersion" issues.
Mitigations that are necessary at NH Mission Control
Set up a "Technical" RSS Feed similar to : http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission
/soe-sfos/tracking_schedule.html
Set up a "Technical" RSS Feed similar to : http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission
/weekly-reports/index.htm
The RSS feed would need to mention when the upcoming carrierwave
interception events are possible in the next 30 days, as well as some detail with
respect to the telemetry and spacecraft health.
It can take up to 4 to 6 months (~200 days+) to get all the needed radio telescopes
ready, but most of the world's significant radio telescopes are already capable of
doing the Radio Science Experiment in some capacity or other
There needs to be a receiver and data recorder audit at each dish site, to see
what dishes are ready, if not the equipment needs to be acquired or at least
borrowed. This can be accomplished in mere 2 weeks.
1.
There will need to be a site configuration phase to either install and test or just
test the recording equipment to see that it functions properly. This can take up
to 2 weeks.
2.
Overall radio telescope site encounter planning needs to be done, as staff will
need to be on hand for the 12h that each dish may have Pluto-Sharon in
azimuth view. This can take up to 2 weeks, but can be done in parallel with
equipment installation. This can be phased into normal operations, so not
difficult.
3.
If the site and dish or dishes are already ready, the site equipment needs to be
programmed and calibrated for the encounter. This can take up to 2 weeks, but
can be phased into normal operations.
4.
There needs to be at least 6 carrier wave (and ranging) intercept training
sessions (of at least 2 hours to 4 hours) before the encounter ... there can be
many bugs and gremlins to work out; 8 weekend and 8 weekday carrier wave
training sessions are recommended to get all the bugs out.
5.
Then the encounter needs to proceed as planned, data recorders running for
up to 8 hours; probably this encounter data will need to be recorded with 32 bit
floating point per sample data at a sampling rate of at least 16k, but 32k to 96k
is recommended, IRIG or CCSDS timecodes (and pointing metadata) should
be embedded at least ever 1/10th of a second out of band
6.
Then there needs to be a combining of the carrierwave data sets post
encounter, the digitization formats may vary so there may be some
supercomputing needed to integrate the various dish arrays
7.
Geophysical Alert : NEW HORIZONS (Spacecraft) RADIO SCIENCE... http://hireme.geek.nz/geophysical-alert-nh.html
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It may be another 100 years before another spacecraft is able to visit the Pluto-
Sharon system. The margin for failure here is clearly significant and substantial. This
Radio Science Experiment must be done right, as it may not be possible to do it
again for a very long time.
It is vitally important that radio telescope carrier wave recording must be set up at
the additional sites (operations >2000 MHz)
Eurosphere (Eurasia)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lovell_Telescope (in array mode with other dishes
at the site, also part of the MERLIN network)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effelsberg_100-m_Radio_Telescope (has been
used for Deep Space telecom, probably ready)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onsala_Space_Observatory (has been used for
Deep Space telecom, probably ready)
North America
US
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Bank_Telescope (ready, but may needs
configured)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Telescope_Array (1/2 of the array should be
used for this)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combined_Array_for_Research_in_Millimeter-
wave_Astronomy (1/2 of the array should be used for this)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very_Large_Array (entire array if possible, but 1/3
would be good enough)
Canada
Ontario : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algonquin_Radio_Observatory (ready, but
may need some configuration)
SK : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Albert_Radar_Laboratory (ready, but
may need some configuration; must be in array mode with Algonquin and
DARO)
BC : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominion_Radio_Astrophysical_Observatory
(DARO is ready, but may need some configuration)
Americas
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atacama_Large_Millimeter_Array (ready, but may
need some configuration and testing; only part of the array is needed, a
quorum of 4 dishes is enough but 5 is preferred)
Geophysical Alert : NEW HORIZONS (Spacecraft) RADIO SCIENCE... http://hireme.geek.nz/geophysical-alert-nh.html
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Australasia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia_Telescope_Compact_Array (partially
ready or ready, only 4 dishes would be needed for 36 hours)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Norcia_Station (used in the Juno spacecraft
launch, so it is ready)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceduna (see radio telescope section, physically
ready but the re-configuration could take 2 months to do)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkes_Observatory (not only for the Radio Science
Experiment, but for the return telemetry phase)
Indian Ocean Region
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartebeesthoek_Radio_Astronomy_Observatory
(has been used for Deep Space telecom; this site is probably ready but will
need time for training and configuration)

Created Last Updated Revision Last Change Revision State
28 July 2014 31 July 2014 0.89d Readability Revisable
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