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
Geophysical Alert : NEW HORIZONS (Spacecraft) RADIO SCIENCE EXPERIMENT is at risk http://hireme.geek.nz/geophysical-alert-nh.html
1 of 7 02 Aug 14 00:31
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)
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.
Geophysical Alert : NEW HORIZONS (Spacecraft) RADIO SCIENCE EXPERIMENT is at risk http://hireme.geek.nz/geophysical-alert-nh.html
2 of 7 02 Aug 14 00:31
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.
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
Geophysical Alert : NEW HORIZONS (Spacecraft) RADIO SCIENCE EXPERIMENT is at risk http://hireme.geek.nz/geophysical-alert-nh.html
3 of 7 02 Aug 14 00:31
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 "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
Geophysical Alert : NEW HORIZONS (Spacecraft) RADIO SCIENCE EXPERIMENT is at risk http://hireme.geek.nz/geophysical-alert-nh.html
4 of 7 02 Aug 14 00:31
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.
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,
Geophysical Alert : NEW HORIZONS (Spacecraft) RADIO SCIENCE EXPERIMENT is at risk http://hireme.geek.nz/geophysical-alert-nh.html
5 of 7 02 Aug 14 00:31
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)
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
Geophysical Alert : NEW HORIZONS (Spacecraft) RADIO SCIENCE EXPERIMENT is at risk http://hireme.geek.nz/geophysical-alert-nh.html
6 of 7 02 Aug 14 00:31
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
Geophysical Alert : NEW HORIZONS (Spacecraft) RADIO SCIENCE EXPERIMENT is at risk http://hireme.geek.nz/geophysical-alert-nh.html
7 of 7 02 Aug 14 00:31