New Horizons Pluto Probe to awaken from hibernation next month [View all]

[LongTomH]

From Space.com: http://www.space.com/27793-new-horizons-pluto-spacecraft-wakeup.html

NASA's New Horizons probe is about to wake up from a long slumber and get ready for its highly anticipated Pluto flyby next summer.

New Horizons is scheduled to emerge from a 99-day hibernation on Dec. 6, then gear up for a six-month Pluto encounter that peaks with the first-ever close flyby of the mysterious dwarf planet on July 14, 2015.

“New Horizons is healthy and cruising quietly through deep space, nearly 3 billion miles [4.8 billion kilometers] from home, but its rest is nearly over," Alice Bowman, New Horizons mission operations manager at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, said in a statement. "It’s time for New Horizons to wake up, get to work and start making history." [New Horizons' Flight to Pluto in Pictures]

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The Pluto encounter technically begins on Jan. 15, 2015. Over the next six months, the spacecraft will use seven different science instruments to study the geology and topography of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, map the two objects' surface compositions and temperatures, study Pluto's atmosphere and search for undiscovered moons and rings in the dwarf planet system, among other things, team members said.

Another chance to do an all-nighter and pop some champagne in honor of New Horizons and the JPL team.