NASA NEW FRONTIERS PROGRAM (2003-2023)
By New Horizons Spacecraft (July 14, 2015)
Norgay Montes (3,400m / 3.4 km - 11,000 ft / 2.1 mi)
Pluto
In Pluto - Norgay Montes (left foreground); Hillary Montes (skyline); Sputnik Planitia (right)
Near-sunset view includes several layers of atmospheric haze, NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI
The Mountain
The Norgay Montes rise to 3.4 km (2.1 mi; 11,000 ft) high, about twice as high as the Hillary Montes. In comparison, Mount Everest rises 4.6 km (2.9 mi; 15,000 ft) base-to-peak (though to an altitude of 8.8 km (5.5 mi; 29,000 ft) above sea level). Japan's Mount Fuji is closer, at about 3.8 km (2.4 mi; 12,000 ft) in altitude.
The Norgay Montes less officially, Norgay Mountains are icy mountains, near the Hillary Montes, bordering the southwest region of Sputnik Planitia in the south of Tombaugh Regio (or the part of Tombaugh Regio south of the equator). The mountains, first viewed by the New Horizons spacecraft on 14 July 2015, and announced by NASA on 15 July 2015, are named after the Nepalese mountaineer Tenzing Norgay, who, along with Sir Edmund Hillary, made the first successful ascent of the highest peak on Earth, Mount Everest (29 May 1953).
Source:
- New Frontiers Program Website
The NASA Program
The New Frontiers program is a series of space exploration missions being conducted by NASA with the purpose of researching several of the Solar System bodies, including the dwarf planet Pluto.
The New Frontiers program was developed and advocated by NASA and granted by Congress in CY 2002 and 2003. The exploration program is divided in three major missions:
- New Horizons, a mission to Pluto (photos above), launched on January 19, 2006. After a Jupiter gravity assist in February 2007 the spacecraft continued towards Pluto. The primary mission flyby occurred in July 2015 and the spacecraft was then targeted toward one Kuiper Belt object called '2014 MU69' for a January 1, 2019 flyby. Just 15 minutes after its closest approach to Pluto on July 14, 2015, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft looked back toward the sun and captured this near-sunset view of the rugged, icy mountains and flat ice plains extending to Pluto’s horizon (pictures above).
- Juno, a Jupiter exploration mission launched on August 5, 2011 and arrived in July 2016. It is the first solar-powered spacecraft to explore an outer planet.
- OSIRIS - REx stands for "Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer". This mission plan is to orbit an asteroid, at the time named 1999 RQ36 (now 101955 Bennu), by 2020. After extensive measurements, the spacecraft will collect a sample from the asteroid's surface for return to Earth in 2023.
Source:
- New Frontiers Program Website
