Doing WHAT with New Horizons, NASA?

Over on Universe Today, I wrote in April about how NASA’s proposed plans for New Horizons seem just a little bit inexplicable. I wanted to share my opinion here about the whole thing.

Basically, the Science Mission Directorate is thinking about stopping planetary science using this spacecraft and turning it into a heliophysics mission. Not at some point a few years from now, but essentially in about a year. To be clear, that’s WHILE the spacecraft is still exploring the Kuiper Belt. It’s not going to be leaving that region of the solar system for at least five years, maybe longer.

Not only does this misguided plan cut off planetary science, but NASA floated the idea of replacing the entire science team currently running the mission with … well, some other team yet to be defined, and honestly, it’s not very clear who would take over.

New Horizons in the Kuiper Belt

As New Horizons passes through the Kuiper Belt, it’s studying objects near and far. It’s helped the current teams discover at least another few dozen Kuiper Belt worlds. As the spacecraft speeds along, the team is looking for another flyby target, which is a lengthy and painstaking process. Maybe there’s an object on the path New Horizons is taking, maybe there isn’t. If there is, it’s another chance to get up close and personal with a never-before-explored world in the solar system.

So, having a spacecraft passing through this region is going to help planetary scientists in a big way. It’s giving them some insights into the formation of Kuiper Belt objects, and the differences between the bodies that populate this region. Of course, the spacecraft is also—and HAS BEEN —doing heliophysics all along. That’s been an integral part of the mission, along with look-back observations of Uranus and Neptune, plus some astrophysical work.

Why Truncate New Horizons, People Are Asking

So, I have to wonder why NASA is suggesting taking the spacecraft away from the team that’s running it, truncating planetary science, and giving the whole mission to people who didn’t help run it or build it in the first place. NASA solicited input for this proposal back in April, asking scientists to give their opinions on this idea.

A couple of weeks ago, a group of prominent scientists did just that in a letter to NASA. They said the following:

“The New Horizons team, particularly its science team, and science leadership team has done a magnificent job at every stage of this important and impressive project, and they continue to do so. Recent discussions at NASA surrounding replacing this team, in part or in whole, are both misguided and unfair, and would set a bad precedent for NASA.

As the first and only planned spacecraft exploration of the Kuiper Belt, New Horizons is a jewel in the Nation’s and NASA’s portfolio of space leadership. We the undersigned ask NASA, the Administration, and Congress to reverse course on both of these important matters.”

Courtesy: Planetary Exploration Newsletter.

Signers include an impressive array of people: past NASA officials, folks from the Planetary Society, authors such as Ann Druyan and Homer Hickam, planetary scientists, a Nobel laureate, astrophysicist (and rock musician) Brian May, and many others. They all immediately saw, as I did, the strangeness of this proposal. They wonder why NASA proposes to make such a drastic change to this well-regarded and productive spacecraft and its team.

The whole idea sets a pretty poor precedent for NASA. It tells scientists, in essence, “We can take your spacecraft away from you after all the career work you’ve done, and give it to somebody else, no matter how much great science you’re doing.”

That’s hardly encouraging to people who are expected to spend great chunks of their careers planning, proposing, building, and sending spacecraft “out there” and then doing the heavy lifting of science gathering and analysis.

I wish I knew what was going to happen with this idea. So far, there’s been no word from NASA about the “feedback” they got. I can only hope that enough people told them exactly what they thought of this proposal.

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