NSSDCA ID: 2006-001A-02
Mission Name: New Horizons Pluto Kuiper Belt FlybyThe Ralph experiment consists of two channels, the Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (Ralph MVIC) and the Linear Etalon Imaging Spectral Array (Ralph LEISA). The main objectives are to obtain high-resolution color maps and surface composition maps of Pluto and Charon, including global dayside four-color maps at 0.7 km/pixel resolution, dayside hyper-spectral near-infrared maps at 7 km/pixel globally and 0.6 km/pixel for selected areas, and maps of dayside surface ice distribution and temperatures.
The two channels share a 6 cm aperture telescope. MVIC consists of a 256 x 256 pixel CCD imager with two panchromatic (450-1000 nm) and four color filters [one for methane frost (860-910 nm), one blue (425-550 nm), one red (540-700 nm), and one near-infrared (780-1000 nm)]. It covers wavelengths from 400 to 1000 nm and uses a pushbroom system with a field of view of 100 milliradians with resolution of 20 microradians/pixel. LEISA covers the wavelength range from 1250 to 2500 nm with a field of view of 15.9 x 15.9 milliradians and and angular resolution of 0.062 milliradians/pixel. Along with the Alice instrument, Ralph is part of the Pluto Exploration Remote Sensing Investigation (PERSI).
Questions and comments about this experiment can be directed to: Dr. David R. Williams
Name | Role | Original Affiliation | |
---|---|---|---|
Dr. Alan Stern | Principal Investigator | Southwest Research Institute | alan.stern@nasa.gov |