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[Concept17]

R&D, paying employees etc. Seems like a big waste of money to take some pictures.

This is the kind of attitude that holds back human progress.

 

[CassSept]

R&D, paying employees etc. Seems like a big waste of money to take some pictures.

It all adds up, progress takes time and many technologies developed for space exploration are eventually used for everyday appliances, not to mention humanity is doomed if we wver become stagnant.

But no, let's waste trillions of dollars at destabilizing Middle East, that's a better use of money than furthering mankind's progress. NASA's budget is peanuts compared to how much goes for pointless wars.

 

[GhaleonEB]

R&D, paying employees etc. Seems like a big waste of money to take some pictures.

If we ever want to do more than send probes to take pictures, then we need to send probes to take pictures. It's not like we're going to jump straight to sending a couple of guys there in cryostatis to land and check it out in person. Gotta walk before you can run. With everything they are learning about controlling a spaceship on the other side of the solar system and using it to take close up photos of another planet HOLY FUCKING SHIT future space exploration will be richly improved.

 

[Armaros]

R&D, paying employees etc. Seems like a big waste of money to take some pictures.

NASAs return on investment has almost always been higher then their costs.

And their budget is minuscule compared to just about any other part of the federal government.

They stretch their budgets to the limit and still put out amazing scientific work.

 

[HellBlazer]

Will New Horizons continue to move out away from our solar system?

Yes. The second phase of its mission after the Pluto fly-by is to continue on towards the Kuiper Belt and visit one or two of the objects there for the first time.

 

[owlbeak]

New Horizons team AMA going on over at Reddit:

Live Video: http://pluto.tv/watch/ask-new-horizons
Reddit AMA Page: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/3bnjhe/hi_i_am_alan_stern_head_of_nasas_new_horizons/

 

[GK86]

New Horizons team AMA going on over at Reddit:

Live Video: http://pluto.tv/watch/ask-new-horizons
Reddit AMA Page: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/3bnjhe/hi_i_am_alan_stern_head_of_nasas_new_horizons/

That is pretty cool. Going to look over it later.

 

[liliththepale]

Goddamn I was going to post this.

Heh, I'm just glad somebody else gets the reference!

 

[AngmarsKing701]

What amazes me is how we get all the data back.

I mean think about it. Trying to keep a WiFi signal in a decent sized house is a nightmare.

Losing a 3G/4G signal on our own planet.

Yet we can get pictures from Pluto...

10/10

 

[Prinz Eugn]

How do they fund these flights? Have to be billions upon billions for something like this right?

I know, what a travesty when we could have used the money spent to buy almost 0.38 new Arleigh Burke class destroyers.

 

[Prez]

Is the AMA still ongoing? Looks like no asked asked if they will take another Earth selfie like pale blue dot and if the picture quality would be better than the original.

I don't have a Reddit account so could someone ask?

 

[Crisco]

Unknown bright spots seen near Pluto's north pole.

I wonder if this will turn out similar at all to the bright spots on Ceres...

 

[The Sum of Zero]

http://www.nasa.gov/feature/new-hor...faces-of-pluto-series-of-spots-that-fascinate

July 1, 2015
New Horizons Color Images Reveal Two Distinct Faces of Pluto, Series of Spots that Fascinate

New color images from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft show two very different faces of the mysterious dwarf planet, one with a series of intriguing spots along the equator that are evenly spaced. Each of the spots is about 300 miles in diameter, with a surface area that’s roughly the size of the state of Missouri.

Scientists have yet to see anything quite like the dark spots; their presence has piqued the interest of the New Horizons science team, due to the remarkable consistency in their spacing and size. While the origin of the spots is a mystery for now, the answer may be revealed as the spacecraft continues its approach to the mysterious dwarf planet. “It’s a real puzzle—we don’t know what the spots are, and we can’t wait to find out,” said New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute, Boulder. “Also puzzling is the longstanding and dramatic difference in the colors and appearance of Pluto compared to its darker and grayer moon Charon.”

New Horizons team members combined black-and-white images of Pluto and Charon from the spacecraft’s Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) with lower-resolution color data from the Ralph instrument to produce these views. We see the planet and its largest moon in approximately true color, that is, the way they would appear if you were riding on the New Horizons spacecraft. About half of Pluto is imaged, which means features shown near the bottom of the dwarf planet are at approximately at the equatorial line.

If Pluto has clouds, New Horizons can detect them. Both the high-resolution LORRI imager and the Ralph color imager will be used to look for clouds across the face of Pluto during its approach and departure from the planet. “We’re looking for clouds in our images using a number of techniques,” said science team postdoc Kelsi Singer of the Southwest Research Institute, “If we find clouds, their presence will allow us to track the speeds and directions of Pluto’s winds.”

 

[GK86]

We are getting closer and closer. Looking good, Pluto.

 

[VaLiancY]

Shit like this excites me but also makes me jealous of the younger generation.

 

[-Deadpool-]

See you soon, Pluto.

This is amazing.

 

[dekline]

Unknown bright spots seen near Pluto's north pole.

I wonder if this will turn out similar at all to the bright spots on Ceres...

Mass effect relay here we come!

 

[Herne]

Clouds? Really? That tiny cold ball of rock on the ass-end of the solar system may have clouds? Huh.

 

[The Sum of Zero]

http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-s-new-horizons-spacecraft-stays-the-course-to-pluto

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is getting a final “all clear” as it speeds closer to its historic July 14 flyby of Pluto and the dwarf planet’s five moons.

After seven weeks of detailed searches for dust clouds, rings, and other potential hazards, the New Horizons team has decided the spacecraft will remain on its original path through the Pluto system instead of making a late course correction to detour around any hazards. Because New Horizons is traveling at 30,800 mph (49,600 kph), a particle as small as a grain of rice could be lethal.

“We’re breathing a collective sigh of relief knowing that the way appears to be clear,” said Jim Green, director of planetary science at NASA. “The science payoff will be richer as we gather data from the optimal flight path, as opposed to having to conduct observations from one of the back-up trajectories.”

Mission scientists have been using the spacecraft’s most powerful telescopic camera, the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI), to look for potential hazards, such as small moons, rings, or dust, since mid-May. The decision on whether to keep the spacecraft on its original course or adopt a Safe Haven by Other Trajectory, or "SHBOT" path, had to be made this week since the last opportunity to maneuver New Horizons onto an alternate trajectory is July 4.

“Not finding new moons or rings present is a bit of a scientific surprise to most of us,” said principal investigator Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder, Colorado. “But as a result, no engine burn is needed to steer clear of potential hazards. We presented these data to NASA for review and received approval to proceed on course and plan. We are ‘go’ for the best of our planned Pluto encounter trajectories.”

New Horizons formed a hazard analysis team in 2011, after the discovery of Pluto’s fourth moon, Kerberos, raised concerns the cratering of these moons by small debris from the outer area of the solar system known as the Kuiper Belt, could spread additional hazardous debris into New Horizons’ path. Mission engineers re-tested spare spacecraft blanketing and parts back on Earth to determine how well they would stand up to particle impacts, and scientists modeled the likely formation and locations of rings and debris in the Pluto system. By the time New Horizons’ cameras were close enough to Pluto to start the search last month, the team had already estimated the chances of a catastrophic incident at far less than one percent.

The images used in the latest searches that cleared the mission to stay on its current course were taken June 22, 23 and 26. Pluto and all five of its known moons are visible in the images, but scientists saw no rings, new moons, or hazards of any kind. The hazards team determined that satellites as faint as about 15 times dimmer than Pluto’s faintest known moon, Styx, would have been seen if they existed beyond the orbit of Pluto’s largest and closest moon, Charon.

If any rings do exist, the hazard team determined they must be extremely faint, reflecting less than one 5-millionth of the incoming sunlight.

“The suspense – at least most of it – is behind us,” says John Spencer, of SwRI, who leads the New Horizons hazard analysis team. “As a scientist I’m a bit disappointed that we didn’t spot additional moons to study, but as a New Horizons team member I am much more relieved that we didn’t find something that could harm the spacecraft. New Horizons already has six amazing objects to analyze in this incredible system."

 

[Hours Left]

Always a planet in my heart.

 

[The Sum of Zero]

If any of you guys have a super amazing telescope (8 inch or larger), this month is apparently a good time to see Pluto under the right conditions.

"Pluto looks like a mere dot through a telescope; the thrill comes in seeing the distant planet at all."

Me and my crappy Celestron are jealous of you lol.

http://www.astronomy.com/observing/sky-events/2015/06/hunt-the-last-planet

 

[Slayer-33]

Mass effect relay here we come!

I'm starting to freak out

This and Ceres, oh my gawd

 

[Melon Husk]

Step up, thread, thought this would have been here

This is what we had before

 

[GK86]

I look forward to One Plutonian day.

 

[GK86]

10 more days!

Pluto and its largest moon Charon, as photographed by New Horizons on July 1, 2015. The inset shows Pluto enlarged; features as small as 100 miles (160 kilometers) across are visible.

Photos taken by New Horizons between June 23 and June 29 — when the spacecraft was 15 million to 11 million miles (24 million to 18 million kilometers) from Pluto — show some surface features on the beige dwarf planet and grayish Charon, its largest moon.

"It’s a bit unusual to see so much surface detail at this distance," New Horizons co-investigator William McKinnon, of Washington University in Saint Louis, said in a statement. "What’s especially noteworthy is the level of detail in both bodies. It’s certainly whetting our appetite for what’s to come."

 

[Ettie]

~8 million miles to go and the flyby is in 10 days? That thing is hauling some serious ass. Also, space is so cool.

 

[Abstruse Moose]

I wonder how humanity would react if we found something on Pluto that couldn't have been created through natural processes. Would it start a new space race? Would it unite people or divide them? It's super ridiculously unlikely, but I hope something amazing comes from this.

 

[mmazurkiewicz]

anyone have telescope recommendations? not too cheap but not $10k either.

 

[StudioTan]

Really exciting stuff!

Been fascinated with space since I was a kid, can't wait for a closer look.

 

[BrokenFiction]

I'm crazy excited for this. The imagery gets better with each day. I've subbed to a Twitter bot that sends out the latest image as soon as the downlink gets it. Hoping that the fly-by is during the day, but if it's at night, I'll stay up. I remember getting my kids out of bed during the Mars landing a couple years back and watching the NASA/JPL people nerd out was a delight.

 

[Abstruse Moose]

anyone have telescope recommendations? not too cheap but not $10k either.

I'm actually looking into buying one as well. This one seems like a good buy at ~$400. I've never owned a telescope, so I'm sure others will have better recommendations.

 

[owlbeak]

I'm crazy excited for this. The imagery gets better with each day. I've subbed to a Twitter bot that sends out the latest image as soon as the downlink gets it. Hoping that the fly-by is during the day, but if it's at night, I'll stay up. I remember getting my kids out of bed during the Mars landing a couple years back and watching the NASA/JPL people nerd out was a delight.

Could you post the twitter account for that? Sounds awesome.

 

[Angelus Errare]

I'd gladly allocate a budget learning about the solar system we inhabit over building fighter jets and weapons to kill other humans with.

At this point, I'd give Nasa the budget that the F-35 has received thus far. It blows my mind that people are completely fine with the military spending a total of 1.58 Trillion on that fighter jet to date but believe Nasa is a waste of money.

 

[Zaphod]

R&D, paying employees etc. Seems like a big waste of money to take some pictures.

Only $700 Million over 15 years to send a space camera to Pluto for some holiday snaps? Right, get on it!

I'm not sure why people think that NASA only sends out these probes with a digital camera strapped to them.

The New Horizons probe contains other instruments, like a spectrometer to analyze the atmosphere on Pluto, radio instruments a couple of particle detectors. Some of the instruments are designed to research the Kuiper belt beyond Pluto.

 

[BrokenFiction]

Could you post the twitter account for that? Sounds awesome.

Sure!

@NewHorizonsBot

 

[BrokenFiction]

At this point, I'd give Nasa the budget that the F-35 has received thus far. It blows my mind that people are completely fine with the military spending a total of 1.58 Trillion on that fighter jet to date but believe Nasa is a waste of money.

A-Fucking-Men.

Or just the cost of one jet?

"A single Air Force F-35A costs a whopping $148 million. One Marine Corps F-35B costs an unbelievable $251 million. A lone Navy F-35C costs a mind-boggling $337 million. Average the three models together, and a “generic” F-35 costs $178 million."

 

[Guy.brush]

~8 million miles to go and the flyby is in 10 days? That thing is hauling some serious ass. Also, space is so cool.

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/
Distance to Pluto shown live, updates every minute.

That thing is currently flying at 873km per minute or 52.416 km/h. Pretty damn fast
From Wiki:
The spacecraft currently travels at 14.56 km/s (9.05 mi/s; 3.07 AU/a; 0.00841 AU/d) relative to the Sun and at 13.80 km/s (8.57 mi/s; 2.91 AU/a; 0.00797 AU/d) relative to Pluto.

 

[Tesseract]

 

[Tesseract]

pluto is far less frumpier than expected, it's gonna be trippy seeing this thing for real soon

 

[Jacobi]

Damn, real new photos of planets and moons!
Humanity needs to step their space game up again

 

[Cow Mengde]

That name keeps making me think of:

Best first reply, ever!

 

[The Sum of Zero]

We're really almost there aren't we?

Someone hold me, the fact it's actually happening is sinking in.

Damn do I wish I'd been around for the Voyager flybys. I was born only 2 months before Voyager 2 went by Neptune so I missed it all.

You'd think with how much stuff Cassini did at Saturn we'd have orbiters at Uranus and Neptune. I know Juno will get to Jupiter next year.

 

[MrGreencastle]

How close is it going to be to Pluto during flyby?

 

[The Sum of Zero]

How close is it going to be to Pluto during flyby?

http://m.neogaf.com/showpost.php?p=169195192

 

[Jedi2016]

Are they tidally locked? Kind of looks like it from that pic. I think the more interesting one is the one that shows them in their actual rotations... the relative mass of Charon is so high compared to Pluto that the center of rotation is actually outside of Pluto.. they kind of orbit each other, it's neat.

 

[terrisus]

Best first reply, ever!

Glad someone else finally appreciated it <3

 

[rjinaz]

I wonder how humanity would react if we found something on Pluto that couldn't have been created through natural processes. Would it start a new space race? Would it unite people or divide them? It's super ridiculously unlikely, but I hope something amazing comes from this.

People would lose their minds. You think gay marriage put people on the offensive? I'm not sure which would be the best spectacle honestly, what we would have found or the reactions.

 

[PrivateWHudson]

Are they tidally locked? Kind of looks like it from that pic. I think the more interesting one is the one that shows them in their actual rotations... the relative mass of Charon is so high compared to Pluto that the center of rotation is actually outside of Pluto.. they kind of orbit each other, it's neat.

Isn't that the whole reason Pluto was downgraded? The center of the system's orbit would have had to be inside Pluto's mass or something.

 

[Simon Belmont]

Isn't that the whole reason Pluto was downgraded? The center of the system's orbit would have had to be inside Pluto's mass or something.

I'm pretty sure it got demoted because it hasn't cleared the area around it's orbit.

 

[The Sum of Zero]

Those questions are all addressed here I believe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluto