Chasing new horizons

This book documents the journey of these two authors\ scientists from their realization that Pluto was scientifically interesting but still unexplored in the 80s to the actual flyby in 2015. It starts with a loving tribute to discoverer of Pluto Clyde Tombaugh, whose ashes are on the probe itself, then it proceeds to tell an exciting tale of actually getting it there.

Contrary to popular belief the journey of New Horizons didn't start in 2006. It's start was painfully in 1989. Yes, that is how long it apparently takes. From the acceptance that someone should send a probe to Pluto, through a large number of mission revisions (you have to keep up with the trends), one cancellation, than building it and launching it, and finally making sure it does its job when it gets there, who would have guessed that the rocket science and design were the easy part.

Unfortunately this book was written too early to tell us the tale of the Ultima Thule flyby and all of the science that was obtained, but still a great read.

Much less airbrushed than the usual NASA fare. The high level politicing and obstructionism and lack of consistency is more or less laid bare to see. The least but clearest of which is this amazing quote from the PI --

We more or less created a ridiculous homework assignment for them, probably months of work, but we only gave them a month to do it. When the deadline came a month later, of course the information we asked for was not complete, and we used every incomplete item as a reason to send them back with even more homework: define this better, finish that in more detail, et cetera.… We basically kept them in the mode of never being ready to design that electric stage we didn’t need.

Doesn't go very deep on technical detail, nothing like the Mars and Me blog's detail on the day to day of driving Spirit and Opportunity, but it does give a good sense of how much was developed on the fly after launch. Particularly striking was not having found a Kuiper belt object for the secondary mission goal until it almost arrived at Pluto, and NASA almost not allocating Hubble time to find one.

This fascinating book recounts the odyssey of sending the first mission to Pluto, most of which occurred before the the spacecraft ever left the launchpad. That Alan Stern and his team navigated the hazardous waters of NASA mission funding, fraught with political intrigue, hostile fiefdoms (interestingly, JPL is depicted as a sort of villain), and impossible cost constraints, to actually launch something is a testament to their persistence and faith in their cause. The stunning imagery and invaluable science returned by New Horizons are treasures beyond reckoning. As someone stated in the book, New Horizons is sort of the Apollo of today, its impact as profound.

Stern wrote this book with David Grinspoon, who otherwise does not figure in the book. The text is perfectly fine, but I was a bit disappointed that Stern’s voice wasn’t front and center. But that’s a minor complaint, more than made up for by the inclusion of beautiful photos from the mission. Overall, an excellent, highly readable “beginning to end” story of discovery.