NASA's New Horizons navigator Frdric Pelletier guides Pluto probe

ForFrdricPelletier, working from home is a really, really long distance affair.

Pelletierlives in Quebec City. His job is to plot a course for NASA's New Horizons space probe, currently en route to Pluto. After a voyage that's taken nine years, and covered almost seven billionkilometres, the probe is scheduled to make its closest approach to Pluto on July14.

Pelletierworked for NASA for 10 years. Then he joined KinetX, a private company looking to get a foothold outside the U.S. He moved his family back to his hometown, and has continued to explore space from there.

The company's current mission navigating NASA's New Horizons is going further into space than any manmade craft has ever been.Pelletieris in the driver's seat, but drawing the map as he goes.

He spoke to Quebec AM on Friday about his work.

Destination: Pluto

Pelletierand his team have to plot the probe's trajectory through space.

I have to figure out where the spaceship is and where it's going. The going part is the hardest.- Frdric Pelletier, New Horizons navigator

The territory is uncharted, so navigatingis a constantly evolving process. New Horizons sends back data daily, which allows the navigators to determine its position and predict where it should go.

ButPelletiersays when the spacecraft turns to take pictures, there are constantly forces pushing it around forces the team has to measure and account for intargetingNew Horizons' course.

Unlocking the mysteries of the solar system

NASA launched New Horizons in 2006, with the aim of capturing the first close-up images of Pluto.

The dwarfplanet ispart of theKuiperBelt, an asteroid belt at the very edge of the solar system. Pluto'spositioncould allow scientists to better understand the beginnings of the system.

They also want to know more about the dwarf planet'smoons and its atmosphere.

New Horizons has already offered scientists first-ever glimpses of Pluto from a distance. On Tuesday, July14at around 8 a.m. ET,the probe will make its closest approach, coming within 12,500kilometresof Plutowithin the orbit of the planet's largest moon,Charon.

Pelletiersays the trajectory won't bring the spacecraft too close to the surface.

"At that point you may see very cool surface features, but you miss a lot of the big picture. We need to make sure we can observeCharonand the other moons," he says.

Don't blink or you'll miss it

Between now and July14,Pelletier'steam has one key element that still needs to be determined.

Scientists currently have a two-dimensional portrait of Pluto. What's left to figure out is the radius distance of Pluto from the sun the depth of its position in the solar system.

It's a dimension that's never been observed from Earth and can only come from a side view. That will only be available in the last week before New Horizons passes closest to Pluto. When the team has that view, that sequence of observations will be uploaded to the spacecraft and the order given for the exact time the probe should take its pictures.

Then, the navigators' work will be done. They'll be at mission control at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, waiting for those images to be beamed home.

With the sheer quantity of data that has to be uploaded, the team isn't always conscious of just how groundbreaking their work is. ButPelletiersays they take a moment every day to step back.

"We always have a daily tag-up with the whole team and they always show us the Pluto-of-the-day picture and every day it gets bigger and more interesting and at those moments we say,'Oh wow. This is really cool. This is why I do this job.'"