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In preparation for the Jan 1/2019 encounter between the New Horizonsspacecraft and the Kuiper Belt object 2014 MU69, we provide estimates of theexpected impact crater surface density on the Kuiper Belt object. Using theobserved crater fields on Charon and Pluto down to the resolution limit of the2015 New Horizons flyby of those bodies and estimates of the orbitaldistribution of the crater-forming projectiles, we calculate the number ofcraters per unit area formed as a function of the time a surface on 2014 MU69has been exposed to bombardment. We find that if the shallow crater-sizedistribution from 1-15 km exhibited on Pluto and Charon is indeed due to thesizes of Kuiper Belt projectiles, 2014 MU69 should exhibit a surface that isonly lightly cratered below 1 km scale, despite being bombarded for$\sim4$~billion years. Its surface should therefore be more clearly indicativeof its accretionary environment. In addition, this object may the firstobserved for which the majority of the bombardment is from exogenic projectilesmoving less than or near the speed of sound in the target materials, implyingmorphologies more akin to secondary craters elsewhere in the Solar System.Lastly, if the shallow Kuiper Belt size distribution implied from the Pluto andCharon imaging is confirmed at MU69, then we conclude that this sizedistribution is a preserved relic of its state $\simeq$4.5~Gyr ago and providesa direct constraint on the planetesimal formation process itself.

Crater Density Predictions for New Horizons flyby target 2014 MU69