New Horizons of NASA starts Intensive Data Downlink Phase
Earlier, New Horizons spacecraft of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) beamed back some fascinating images of Pluto while moving past the Pluto system. Now, the team working on the mission is going to start intensive down-linking of huge amount of data the probe collected. The team will begin their work on September 5, and according to reports, it could about one year to complete the process.
Alan Stern, researcher from the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder and Principal Investigator of New Horizons, said the spacecraft has provided valuable information about the dwarf planet and its moons. Collected data like photographs, spectra and facts could help researchers understand the evolution of Pluto system, Stern added.
Stern said, “And what’s coming is not just the remaining 95 percent of the data that’s still aboard the spacecraft – it’s the best datasets, the highest-resolution images and spectra, the most important atmospheric datasets, and more. It’s a treasure trove”.
New Horizons, which was designed to collected data during a flyby mission, has been sending valuable information since late July, but the problem was that the probe was beaming back data at low rate. The pace picks up on September 5 as the spacecraft has started resume transferring data and images.
New Horizons project scientist Hal Weaver said the mission sent very small amount of data in last many years, but the results that data will provide are going to well worth. The mission has required patience for many years, and it is necessary to keep patience to get good results, Weaver added.