www.thespacewriter.com/wp

On the Way to Ultima Thule

Artist’s impression of NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft encountering 2014 MU69, a Kuiper Belt object that orbits one billion miles (1.6 billion kilometers) beyond Pluto, on Jan. 1, 2019. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI/Steve Gribben

All these years since its discovery, the little world 2014 MU69 hasn’t had a nickname until now. NASA announced a contest to name this next target for New Horizons. After months of entries and deliberation, the winning name is “Ultima Thule”. For those of us who live in the toolies here on Earth, it’s a great name. It definitely reflects its distance out in the solar system. And, with this week’s “green light” from the spacecraft headed toward Ultima, it’s nice to have a colorful name to hang on this still-mysterious world.

I was beginning to wonder what the contest had selected. Of course, I kept asking Alan Stern about it, and he kept being perfectly mysterious about the whole thing. Now that the nickname is public, it’ll go to the IAU for final approval. Its job is to make sure the name fits, which should be easy for that organization to figure out. It’s perfectly appropriate, as Alan pointed out in the NASA announcement about Ultima, “MU69 is humanity’s next Ultima Thule,” he said. “Our spacecraft is heading beyond the limits of the known worlds, to what will be this mission’s next achievement. Since this will be the farthest exploration of any object in space in history, I like to call our flyby target Ultima, for short, symbolizing this ultimate exploration by NASA and our team.”

I like the name, too. It sounds all science-fictiony. In fact, that name has been used in science fiction stories as a sort of “ultimate” destination among the stars.

What IS This Tiny World?

Nobody’s quite sure exactly how Ultima Thule looks. The image up there is a “best guess”. That’s because the spacecraft is still too far to get a detailed image of it. Ground-based observations seem to indicate it might be a double-lobed potato-shape world. Or, it might be what they call a “contact binary”. That’s two pieces of worlds in very close proximity to each other. One way or another, once New Horizons gets closer, it will solve the mystery and show us this next outpost in the Kuiper Belt.

The Opportunity Rover Keeps on Going

Last week marked Sol 5000 for the Opportunity Rover on Mars. It’s been rolling along ever since it landed there in January 2004, sending back images and data about the area around Endurance crater. Bear in mind that Opportunity (Mars Exploration Rover-B) was originally slated for a 90-day mission. But, like so many other NASA missions to other worlds, it has just gone on and on, like that famed Energizer Bunny. Now, it’s a “teenager” celebrating its 14th birthday on the dusty planet.

The rover has accomplished a lot in those 14 years, traveling more than 45 kilometers (28 miles) in all that time. It has survived dust storms, temperature shifts, and technical issues, all the while sending back a constant array of information. That’s a major accomplishment.

Long-term Exploration

Planetary scientists know that the best chances for getting complete details about a world’s conditions come from doing long-period studies. Doing a flyby gets you a quick snapshot. Sending a probe that lands moves around and samples the conditions gets you “ground truth.” Of course, it’s more expensive and time-consuming to do it that way, but it provides a very detailed look at a complex environment. It’s worth it, especially if future human missions land there and can take advantage of the rich data provided. Planetary science is no longer in the “plant the flag, grab some rocks, get your hiney back to Earth” stage. We’re maturing (we hope) as a scientific civilization, and can take the time needed to do it right.

In a decade, humans will head to Mars. Heck, they may train on the Moon. Before they go, like any other travelers who head to strange new places, they’ll need all the information they can get. That’s where teen-aged Opportunity, her sister Curiosity, and the various orbiters circling Mars will come in handy. I don’t know about you, but I were heading out to the wild unknown on Mars, I’d rather have it be a bit better “known.” So, here’s to Oppy. It’s been a great run and I hope it continues running for a long, long time.

Want to see everything Oppy and her sister ships have been doing? Check out the NASA Mars pages!

The Spacewriter's Ramblings

New Horizons’ Next Target Has a Nickname: Ultima Thule

On the Way to Ultima Thule

What IS This Tiny World?

Opportunity Makes an Amazing Lifetime Achievement

The Opportunity Rover Keeps on Going

Long-term Exploration

Exploring Science and the Cosmos