New Horizons hibernation operations: It takes a lot of work to sleep

The New Horizons Mission was launched in January 2006 towards a flyby of Pluto in July 2015 and possible extended mission to fly by a yet-to-be-identified Kuiper Belt Object. Following a gravity assist flyby of Jupiter in early 2007, the eight year cruise phase operations baseline was defined to include long periods of hibernation, punctuated by Annual Check Outs for the subsystems and payload. Interspersed between these checkouts were precession periods needed to maintain communications with the spacecraft. As the final Annual Check Out prior to the flyby comes to a close in August 2014, hibernations operations have reached maturity. This paper briefly describes the current conduct of New Horizons hibernation operations from the perspective of Mission Planning and Scheduling: setting the hibernation period; computing the spin axis orientation during hibernation to maintain communications; specification of the spacecraft hibernation state; hibernation entry activities; activities during hibernation, including beacon and telemetry communications; and hibernation exit activities. The paper concludes with examples of the hibernation challenges met so far and some that are anticipated as the New Horizons Mission continues beyond Pluto.