Bachelor’s degree in aerospace technology engineering

Space Engineering

Exercices Module 1

New Horizons & Voyager 2

Authors

Anguita Julià, Ariadna

Carabante Mateos, Antonio
Pérez Gil, Hugo
Simón Gil de Muro, Eduardo
Vázquez Frías, Ignacio

Professor

Adrià Rovira Garcia

Date

September 15, 2021

Contents
Page

1 New Horizons 1
1.1 Long Range Reconnaissance Imager - LORRI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Observation time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.3 Payload data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.4 Data retrieval . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

2 Voyager 2 2
2.1 Telecommunication subsystem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2.2 Deep Space Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2.3 Signal travel time and received power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Exercices Module 1

1 New Horizons
New Horizons launched on January 19, 2006 as the inaugural mission in NASA’s New Frontiers Program. This spacecraft
has been the first to explore Pluto up close, flying by the dwarf planet and its moons in 2015. In early 2019, New Horizons
flew past its second major science target: 2014 MU69, the most distant object ever explored nearby, which belongs to the
Kuiper Belt [1].

Characterizing the global geology and morphology and mapping the surface composition of Pluto and Charon, as well as
determining the neutral atmosphere of Pluto and its escape rate, were some of the main goals of the project. The New
Horizons mission is currently extended through 2021 to explore additional Kuiper Belt objects [2].

1.1 Long Range Reconnaissance Imager - LORRI

Among the seven different scientific instruments New Horizons spacecraft possesses, the Long Range Reconnaissance
Imager has a key role in the mission because this high resolution imaging instrument obtains encounter data at long
distances, maps Pluto’s farside and provides high resolution geologic data [3].

LORRI is required to obtain monochromatic images under low light conditions. To do so, it has four subassemblies in
close proximity connected by electrical harnesses: the optical telescope assembly, the aperture cover door, the associated
support electronics and the focal plane unit [4].

1.2 Observation time

The mission phase that has been selected is the Pluto flyby, which started July 7, 2015 and ended July 20, 2015, as
considered by the mission team. In the mission official website there is a display of the flyby activity list, and each step
of the activities is specified. Since observation time could be understood as the time in which the equipment of the ship
is making measurements and gathering data, the first data collection in this phase occurred on July 7 at 00:02:07 EDT.
Once the flyby was completed, the last data-related activity was performed on July 20 04:39:54 EDT. Nevertheless, this
was carried out by PEPSSI, an instrument destined to collecting particle data (mainly from solar wind). Considering that
the main goal of this phase was to ’observe’ Pluto and the the main instrument working on that matter was LORRI, the
finishing time for observation time should be considered July 20 at 02:26:53 EDT, when LORRI took its last images of
the dwarf planet. Making a simple subtraction, the total observation time is calculated to be approximately 13 days, 2
hours, 24 minutes and 46 seconds (314.412 hours; 1131886 seconds).[5]

1.3 Payload data

During the Pluto flyby time, data was obtained by the different instruments that are integrated in New Horizons and
transmitted to Earth with an average ratio of 2000 bits/s [6]. According to the computed observation time of 1131886
seconds, the amount of payload data collected results in 2236.72 Mbits.

1.4 Data retrieval

As data retrieval is a major challenge for the New Horizons mission, both of the spacecraft transmitters were needed to
downlink the amount of data collected through NASA’s largest antennas. During the Jupiter flyby in February 2007, New
Horizons average downlink rate was, approximately, 38 kbps. When New Horizons passed Pluto, it sent data back to
Earth at about 2 kbps [6].

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It must be highlighted that the New Horizons communications system consists of a 2.1 meter diameter ratio high-gain
antenna and smaller antennas which are used for backup communications [7]. The hole system provides a data rate of 600
bps at 36 AU from Earth [8]. This means that information can easily be transferred from beyond Pluto, located 32 AU
from Earth; for example, from the Kuiper Belt.

2 Voyager 2
The Voyager 2 space probe was launched on August 20, 1977 with the main mission of exploring Jupiter and Saturn
and the interplanetary environment [9]. Subsequently, the space probe explored Uranus and Neptune, and it is currently
exploring the space out of the solar system.

2.1 Telecommunication subsystem

The telecommunication system of the Voyager 2 consists in the following subsystems: Radio frequency subsystem (RFS),
Modulation demodulation subsystem (MDS) and S/X-band antenna subsystem (SXA). The input power and mass values
of each subsystem are described in the following table [10]:

Subsystem RFS MDS SXA Total

Mass [kg] 44 8.4 53 105.4
Input Power [W] 259.8 11.1 18 288.9

The data rate of the transmission in cruise mode is 160 bps [10]. The spacecraft is still exploring the outer space and its
distance (range) from Earth is currently 1.903 ⇥ 1010 km [11].

2.2 Deep Space Network

The Deep Space Network (DSN) is the main NASA’s telecommunication system [12]. It is mostly used to communicate
via electromagnetic radiation with interplanetary spacecraft missions from its 3 facilites located in California (US), Madrid
(Spain) and Canberra (Australia). Each facility contains giant antennas (up to 70 m of diameter) which can receive and
transmit data to the Voyager 2 due to the low-gain and high-gain antennas (X-band) which are incorporated in the space
probe [10], [13].

2.3 Signal travel time and received power

Since its launch the Voyager 2 space probe is still exploring the outer boundary of the heliosphere and interstellar space
[13] and its distance from Earth (r) is currently 126,898 AU [11]. Considering that radio signals travel at the speed of
light (c) in vacuum, the signal travel time since its emission can be computed as:
9m
r 126.898 AU · 150⇥10
tsignal travel = = 1AU
= 63.449 ⇥ 103 s ! tsignal travel = 17h 370 29”
c 3 ⇥ 108 m/s

The resulting time does not differ much from the existing one-way light time data, 17h 350 22” [11].

With respect to the computation of the received power (Pr ) by the DSN antennas,the transmitter’s power output (Pt ) [10],
the gain of the high-gain antenna (Gt ), the diameter of the antenna on Earth (da ) and the current distance of the spacecraft
from the Earth (r) will be used below [13],[14]:
48
l2 da 2 18W · 10 10 · 702 m2 19 19
Pr = Pt Gt Gr = Pt Gt = = 9.6 ⇥ 10 W ! Pr = 9.6 ⇥ 10 W
(4pr)2 16r2 9m 2
16 · (126.898 AU · 150⇥10
1AU )

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References
[1] NASA Science. New Horizons mission. URL: https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/new-horizons/
in-depth/ (visited on 02/20/2021).
[2] NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive. New Horizons Pluto Kuiper Belt Flyby. URL: https://nssdc.
gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=2006-001A (visited on 02/20/2021).
[3] National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Spacecraft and Instruments. URL: https://www.nasa.gov/
mission_pages/newhorizons/spacecraft/index.html (visited on 02/20/2021).
[4] Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and SSG Precision Optronics. Long-Range Reconnaissance
Imager on New Horizons. URL: https://arxiv.org/pdf/0709.4278.pdf (visited on 02/20/2021).
[5] New Horizons : The Path to Pluto and Beyond. URL: http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Mission/The-Path-to-
Pluto-and-Beyond.php%7B%5C#%7DPluto-Flyby (visited on 02/23/2021).
[6] Data Collection. Data retrieval. URL: http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Mission/Spacecraft/Data-Collection.
php (visited on 02/20/2021).
[7] NASA. A 3D model of NASA’s New Horizons, a mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt. URL: http : / / pluto .
jhuapl.edu/Mission/Spacecraft/Systems-and-Components.php (visited on 02/20/2021).
[8] The Johns Hopkins University. The RF telecommunications system for the New Horizons mission to Pluto. URL:
https://www.boulder.swri.edu/~tcase/NH%20RF%20Telecom%20Sys%20ID1369%20FINAL_Deboy.pdf
(visited on 02/20/2021).
[9] NASA. Voyager 2. URL: https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1977-
076A (visited on 02/21/2021).
[10] Jet Propulsion Laboratory / NASA. Voyager Telecommunications. URL: https://descanso.jpl.nasa.gov/
DPSummary/Descanso4--Voyager_ed.pdf (visited on 02/21/2021).
[11] Jet Propulsion Laboratory / NASA. Mission Status. URL: https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status/
(visited on 02/21/2021).
[12] NASA. What is the Deep Space Network? URL: https : / / www . nasa . gov / directorates / heo / scan /
services/networks/deep_space_network/about (visited on 02/21/2021).
[13] Kéhar, Ota. “HOW DISTANCE INFLUENCES INTERPLANETARY DATA TRANSFER RATE WITH RELA-
TION TO EDUCATION IN ICT & ASTRONOMY”. In: Sept. 2016.
[14] Bevelacqua, Peter J. The Friis Equation. URL: https : / / www . antenna - theory . com / basics / friis . php
(visited on 02/21/2021).