This New Horizons probe is now moving to cross Urenus orbit in 2011. It will reach Pluto in 2015.

I want to know about the trajectory corrections, how they are made and few more tech questions like this....

Can somebody help me?

__________________
=snp

That's a little vague.. Ask your questions, and we'll find out if anyone knows the answer, or where to find the answers. Where did you look to find answers for yourself?

__________________
"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge" -- Charles Darwin
"Your right to hold an opinion is not being contested. Your expectation that it be taken seriously is." -- Jason Thompson
Meet the OOONG TOE.

Have you tried their website?

__________________

Thank you very much sir,

I want to know in general,

1. How they track the satellite?
2. How trajectory is determined?
3. How they will correct the trajectory?
4. How to get RA,DEC, position, velocity etc coordinates of this Satellite?

In general so many HOW’s… from the Physics point of view, not from the electronics and communications or control systems point of view…

__________________
=snp

Yes sir,

I could not find much.

__________________
=snp

Indeed a lot of questions .
I think the best way to find out is to google inside the JPL website for position detemination and orbit correction .
IIRC the deepspace network determines the position , together with some advanced doppler measurements of the signals NH produces . The camera onboard also registers the pictures NH takes and compares to the stars charts .... A lot of redundant measurements in order to increase the accurancy .
The actual position of NH may be retrieved in the Neodys Minor Body website . Thats what I did some time ago , in order to find out the trajectory of NH .
http://www.orbitsimulator.com/cgi-bi...num=1241108229
It seems NH will only need a few minor burns to arrive right on place and shedule ...!

Thank you very much for such informative reply sir,

I will go thro’ these and come back again to you, meanwhile there is web site from wikipedia

http://www.yaohua2000.org/cgi-bin/New%20Horizons.pl

This gives only distance but not RA and DEC…

Regards

__________________
=snp

Well, I don't quite see how these questions can be answered in detail without insight into the technology used, but.. if you want to know the exact calculations done to steer the craft and to predict its positions, you're probably best off contacting the project team. Send them an email with specific questions, and ask nicely who would be the best person to ask these questions. Then email that person, or request the original email to be forwarded.

There is a general Johns Hopkins University contact form here, and a New Horizons contact page here.

Or, even better, ask them to answer the questions here on the forum

__________________
"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge" -- Charles Darwin
"Your right to hold an opinion is not being contested. Your expectation that it be taken seriously is." -- Jason Thompson
Meet the OOONG TOE.

Try Basics of Spaceflight, Spacecraft Navigation by JPL.

__________________

yes sir,

i will do

thanks a lot

regards

__________________
=snp

sir,

i will try and come back to you

thank you

regards

__________________
=snp

It is a nice webpage! Their explanations are very good. But I want a little more quantitative explanations please....

__________________
=snp

New Horizons is managed by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, not JPL. JHAPL was also the home of the NEAR mission to Eros

sir,
how to contact them???
regards

__________________
=snp

Well a swift Googling finds their website which has a contact information link which seems like a good place to start.

__________________
"Any Sufficiently Analyzed Magic is Indistinguishable from SCIENCE!" -Agatha Heterodyne

"Any technology, no matter how primitive, is magic to those who don't understand it." -Florence Ambrose

Thank you sir,
I contacted both, and awaiting reply. I will ask questions here in forum....

__________________
=snp

Thank you sir,
I contacted them, and awaiting reply.

__________________
=snp

Sir,
Some further help is required. The site given by you, gives some orbit pictures of NH. How to get further details?

You said:
The actual position of NH may be retrieved in the Neodys Minor Body website
I googled and found;
http://www.killerasteroidproject.org/tools.htm


Here also, they are discussing about some asteroids, but not NH…

Your further help is required please….

__________________
=snp

Hi Sir ,

the ephemeris for New Horizons can be found here ..;
http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons.cgi#top
Try to change the target body , eventually the reference body and the date , and JPL gives you the position and velocity at any desirable date
( best to do this in the past ...)

Thank you sir,

Such nice help!!! Let me go thro and come back to you….

Warm regards
=snp

__________________
=snp

Sir,

I checked the web site at JPL. I took the data and did following simple calculations:

A. Distance of NH from SUN on 2009-Jan-01 00:00:00.0000 hrs =SQRT((X)^2+(Y)^2+(Z)^2) = 1803006898 KM

B. Distance of NH from SUN on 2009-Jan-02 00:00:00.0000 hrs =SQRT((X)^2+(Y)^2+(Z)^2) = 1804429053 KM

C. Distance traveled in One day = B-A = 1422154.774 KM


D. Velocity of NH on 2009-Jan-01 00:00:00.0000 hrs =SQRT((VX)^2+(VY)^2+(VZ)^2) = 17.44302161 KM/sec

E. Velocity of NH on 2009-Jan-02 00:00:00.0000 hrs =SQRT((VX)^2+(VY)^2+(VZ)^2) = 17.43967449KM/sec

Here I took both D&E are equal approximately for practical calculations purpose.

F. Distance traveled by NH in one day = Velocity x 24 x 60 x 60
= 1507077.067 KM by velocity from D ( or = 1506787.876 KM by velocity from E)


G. CALCULATED Distance of NH from SUN as on 2009-Jan-02 00:00:00.0000 hrs = A + F from D = 1804513975 KM (or = A + F from E the lower of two = 1804513686 KM)


Hence it is obvious that calculated distance is high compared to ephemeris given by the JPL web site by 84922.29317 Km ( or by 84633.10179 km using the Lower value of velocity)



It is quite possible that I am wrong while doing my simple calculations or there is some fundamental mistake I am committing.

CAN SOME OF YOU PLEASE EXPLAIN ME, WHAT WENT WRONG…???


....
....



References:

Starting data given at [http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons.cgi#top] is
…….

Ephemeris Type [change]: VECTORS
Target Body [change] :
New Horizons Spacecraft [NH New_Horizons (Spacecraft)] [-98]
Coordinate Origin [change] :
Sun (body center) [500@10]
Time Span [change] :
Start=2009-01-01, Stop=2009-08-09, Step=1 d
Table Settings [change] :
output units=KM-S; labels=YES; CSV format=YES
Display/Output [change] :
default (formatted HTML)

=====

The website [ http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons.cgi#results ] gives initial part of output as:
************************************************** *****************************
JDCT , , X, Y, Z, VX, VY, VZ, LT, RG, RR,
************************************************** *****************************
$$SOE
2454832.500000000, A.D. 2009-Jan-01 00:00:00.0000, 1.831893455702002E+07, -1.802262411312388E+09, 4.846124849130476E+07, 5.934007305388568E+00, -1.639090119518093E+01, 6.204177119092869E-01, 6.014183646564395E+03, 1.803006898266943E+09, 1.646109953796153E+01,

2454833.500000000, A.D. 2009-Jan-02 00:00:00.0000, 1.883163093861168E+07, -1.803678432152277E+09, 4.851484847298443E+07, 5.933962828747228E+00, -1.638735887443054E+01, 6.203228521582478E-01, 6.018927444267887E+03, 1.804429053040728E+09, 1.645914910252247E+01,

2454834.500000000, A.D. 2009-Jan-03 00:00:00.0000, 1.934432343887030E+07, -1.805094147191313E+09, 4.856844026294923E+07, 5.933917498126769E+00, -1.638382224826633E+01, 6.202281034865420E-01, 6.023670680165160E+03, 1.805851039389245E+09, 1.645720058391782E+01,

2454835.500000000, A.D. 2009-Jan-04 00:00:00.0000, 1.985701198286318E+07, -1.806509556919445E+09, 4.862202387102771E+07, 5.933871323030025E+00, -1.638029130241139E+01, 6.201334651586903E-01, 6.028413354803478E+03, 1.807272857476561E+09, 1.645525398005856E+01,

….
….

======

Warm regards

__________________
=snp

These are the predictions for New Horizons (NH) space craft as on A.D. 2009-Aug-09 00:00:00.0000 hrs.

These predictions for NH are similar to Pioneer Space craft as this NH is distained for planet PLUTO for the first time human kind. NH is supposed to reach Pluto in 2014 AD. There was a gravity assist taken at Jupiter about a year back. Exact details can be found at http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/index.php

As Dynamic universe model explains Pioneer anomaly and the higher gravitational attraction forces experienced towards SUN, It can explain NH also in a similar fashon….

I am giving the predictions for Nh by Dynamic Universe model in the following List.


First two sets give Dynamic universe model predictions based on 02-01-2009 00:00 hrs data with Daily time step and hourly time step. Third set gives Ephemeris from Jet propulsion lab http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons.cgi#top


I can predict further to 09-Aug-2009, but comparing the results is not possible for you, until specified date comes…




Dynamic universe model with 220 iterations x 1 day time step as on 2009-Aug-09 00:00:00.0000 hrs.
Velocity of NH ::x= 5910.263985 meters/second
Velocity of NH ::y=-15725.84912 meters/second
Velocity of NH ::z= 601.9761178 meters/second
Distance from SUN :x coordinate= 1.31442E+11 meters
Distance from SUN :y coordinate= -2.10855E+12 meters
Distance from SUN :z coordinate= 60123966298 meters

Dynamic universe model with 5280 iterations x 1 hour time step. As on 2009-Aug-09 00:00:00.0000 hrs
Velocity of NH ::x= 5910.475287 meters/second
Velocity of NH ::y= -15727.84869 meters/second
Velocity of NH ::z= 602.0358627 meters/second
Distance from SUN :x coordinate= 1.31442E+11 meters
Distance from SUN :y coordinate= -2.10854E+12 meters
Distance from SUN :z coordinate= 60123860323 meters

From Jet propulsion lab : as on 2009-Aug-09 00:00:00.0000 hrs
Velocity of NH ::x= 5.90815281 Kilometers/second
Velocity of NH ::y= -15.72533280 Kilometers/second
Velocity of NH ::z= 0.60208550 Kilometers/second
Distance from SUN :x coordinate= 130913151.34936100Kilometers
Distance from SUN :y coordinate= -2107161888.10000000 Kilometers
Distance from SUN :z coordinate= 60072197.09967120 Kilometers

__________________
=snp

References:
Starting data given at [http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons.cgi#top] is
…….

Ephemeris Type [change]: VECTORS
Target Body [change] :
New Horizons Spacecraft [NH New_Horizons (Spacecraft)] [-98]
Coordinate Origin [change] :
Sun (body center) [500@10]
Time Span [change] :
Start=2009-01-01, Stop=2009-08-09, Step=1 d
Table Settings [change] :
output units=KM-S; labels=YES; CSV format=YES
Display/Output [change] :
default (formatted HTML)

=====

The website [ http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons.cgi#results ] gives initial part of output as:
************************************************** *****************************
JDCT , , X, Y, Z, VX, VY, VZ, LT, RG, RR,
************************************************** *****************************
$$SOE
2454832.500000000, A.D. 2009-Jan-01 00:00:00.0000, 1.831893455702002E+07, -1.802262411312388E+09, 4.846124849130476E+07, 5.934007305388568E+00, -1.639090119518093E+01, 6.204177119092869E-01, 6.014183646564395E+03, 1.803006898266943E+09, 1.646109953796153E+01,

2454833.500000000, A.D. 2009-Jan-02 00:00:00.0000, 1.883163093861168E+07, -1.803678432152277E+09, 4.851484847298443E+07, 5.933962828747228E+00, -1.638735887443054E+01, 6.203228521582478E-01, 6.018927444267887E+03, 1.804429053040728E+09, 1.645914910252247E+01,

….
….
…
2455052.500000000, A.D. 2009-Aug-09 00:00:00.0000, 1.309131513493618E+08, -2.107161888100003E+09, 6.007219709967124E+07, 5.908152805830975E+00, -1.572533280447273E+01, 6.020855006869130E-01, 7.045137555628733E+03, 2.112079104750050E+09, 1.607205212544533E+01,
$$EOE
************************************************** *****************************
Coordinate system description:

Ecliptic and Mean Equinox of Reference Epoch

Reference epoch: J2000.0
xy-plane: plane of the Earth's orbit at the reference epoch
x-axis : out along ascending node of instantaneous plane of the Earth's
orbit and the Earth's mean equator at the reference epoch
z-axis : perpendicular to the xy-plane in the directional (+ or -) sense
of Earth's north pole at the reference epoch.

__________________
=snp