The last time when NASA's New Horizons was in the news earlier this summer it was at the time when the spacecraft had a close Pluto flyby. Now, the American space agency has announced that it picked the space mission's next stop. It will be 2014 MU69, a small and cold Kuiper Belt object (KBO) located at around a billion miles beyond Pluto.
It seems that NASA carefully planned the trip to Pluto, but the journey of New Horizons beyond has been less so. According to NASA's scientists, they have chosen 2014 MU69 as the next stop because Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs) located at the edge of the solar system are enticing destinations. They are made up of primitive material that is still largely unchanged since 4.6 billion years ago when the solar system came to birth.
According to NASA sources, its scientists have been looking since 2011 for a KBO that New Horizons could possible visit. But at the time, none of the ground-based telescopes could find anything that the spacecraft may reach with its remaining fuel.
In the summer of 2014, NASA used observation time with the Hubble Space Telescope and finally found five potential targets. After more analysis, they were eventually narrowed down to two.
With a multimillion-dollar spacecraft on the line, the American space agency evidently had to choose the safer bet, the 2014 MU69 target, even if the second option looked brighter in the sky and more interesting.
According to Hal Weaver, a scientist at the New Horizons project, the team has to weigh the risk and finally has chosen the object that is "smaller but easily reachable".
This fall NASA will set New Horizons with four maneuvers on a trajectory toward 2014 MU69. According to NASA, the spacecraft will reach its target by January 2019.
The official proposal for the 2014 MU69 mission isn't due until 2016, due to the bureaucratic rules that govern NASA's budget. However, NASA will have to take the approval as granted and perform the four maneuvers this fall or it will be too late for this by 2016.
The American space agency is also considering the possibility of an extended mission even beyond 2014 MU69, but it is too early to say if the tight budget will allow this.
