WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.000
Moving on, we've heard some interesting background about the mission. Now we're pleased to introduce the first of two special guests with us

00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:18.000
today from John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboritory, David Kusnierkiewicz. David is a mission systems engineer for New Horizons.

00:00:18.000 --> 00:00:21.000
Welcome to our broadcast, David.

00:00:21.000 --> 00:00:22.000
Hi, Tiffany.

00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:24.000
Why don't you pronounce for the audience your last name.

00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:31.000
Okay, it's Kutch-ner-ka-vich. Don't try that at home, you could break your teeth.

00:00:31.000 --> 00:00:36.000
David, would you please tell us a little about your role in developing the New Horizons spacecraft

00:00:36.000 --> 00:00:39.000
and what challenges you might have had to overcome while preparing it for launch?

00:00:39.000 --> 00:00:48.000
Sure. I'm the mission systems engineer for the mission. In that role, I'm really responsible for all the technical aspects of the program,

00:00:48.000 --> 00:00:54.000
the spacecraft, the ground systems, integration of the test campaign, and mission operations.

00:00:54.000 --> 00:00:58.000
Of course, there is a very large team of people that really help make all this possible.

00:00:58.000 --> 00:01:04.000
As far as some of the challenges we've had since we've been down here, I'm really happy to say that it's really been pretty routine.

00:01:04.000 --> 00:01:12.000
I think the biggest challenge we had probably was Hurricane Wilma, when that came through. It forced us to stand down for a number of days.

00:01:12.000 --> 00:01:18.000
We had to put the spacecraft back into its shipping container to protect it in case of any damage from the storm.

00:01:18.000 --> 00:01:25.000
And after that, we resumed normal operations.  We had enough slack in our schedule to accommodate that, and it's been pretty routine.

00:01:25.000 --> 00:01:31.000
As you know, the NASA Direct question board has received many questions from interested people all over the world.

00:01:31.000 --> 00:01:34.000
Are you ready to answer some of them right now?

00:01:34.000 --> 00:01:35.000
Love to.

00:01:35.000 --> 00:01:40.000
Our first question comes from Peter from Switzerland.

00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:45.000
Could you tell me the speed of New Horizons before and after the Jupiter fly-by?

00:01:45.000 --> 00:01:52.000
Yes.  Before the Jupiter fly-by, the spacecraft is moving at about 43,000 miles per hour with respect to the sun.

00:01:52.000 --> 00:01:58.000
Jupiter increases our speed by about 20 percent to 52,000 miles per hour.

00:01:58.000 --> 00:02:02.000
Our next question comes from Dmitry from Melbourne.

00:02:02.000 --> 00:02:09.000
Voyager has Intel 4004 processors onboard.  What kind of CPUs are onboard of New Horizons?

00:02:09.000 --> 00:02:15.000
Well, the processors on New Horizons are pretty specialized processors for space applications. They're made to withstand the radiation

00:02:15.000 --> 00:02:20.000
environment of space, so they have been qualified for space flight and have all been flown before.

00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:27.000
They're not processors you've really ever heard of before, and they're not as powerful as the processors you have in your computers today at home,

00:02:27.000 --> 00:02:31.000
but they're the right processors to get the job done.

00:02:31.000 --> 00:02:32.000