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[Chuck]

News... :/

http://www.nasa.gov/nh/new-horizons-responds-spacecraft-anomaly

 

[Buba Big Guns]

News... :/

http://www.nasa.gov/nh/new-horizons-responds-spacecraft-anomaly

Shit. At least they'll be able to fix it.

 

[Vyer]

News... :/

http://www.nasa.gov/nh/new-horizons-responds-spacecraft-anomaly

i can see the youtube videos popping up now

 

[HellBlazer]

News... :/

http://www.nasa.gov/nh/new-horizons-responds-spacecraft-anomaly

Wow, that's horrible timing. :| "One to several days" to get it back to normal? Uh, well, you have less than 10 days...

 

[MrGreencastle]

News... :/

http://www.nasa.gov/nh/new-horizons-responds-spacecraft-anomaly

That must be insanely stressful for those involved.

 

[denx]

News... :/

http://www.nasa.gov/nh/new-horizons-responds-spacecraft-anomaly

Hope they can get it fixed soon. We are 10 days away from the flyby

 

[Kibbles]

So Pluto is still a planet after all? Awesome, I never gave up on you Pluto.

 

[denx]

So Pluto is still a planet after all? Awesome, I never gave up on you Pluto.

It's a dwarf planet, so no.

 

[eyeball_kid]

These satellites always have double of most main components, so I wouldn't worry about it. If they can't get the main computer operational, I'm sure they can still access all the science equipment from the backup. All the course adjustments for the Pluto flyby are complete.

 

[jett]

News... :/

http://www.nasa.gov/nh/new-horizons-responds-spacecraft-anomaly

are you fucking serious jesuschrist

 

[HellBlazer]

Don't fail us now, PSX CPU.

 

[harmonize]

News... :/

http://www.nasa.gov/nh/new-horizons-responds-spacecraft-anomaly

ALL THESE WORLDS
ARE YOURS EXCEPT
PLUTO
ATTEMPT NO
PHOTOGRAPHY THERE

 

[Radec]

So Pluto is still a planet after all? Awesome, I never gave up on you Pluto.

It will always be a planet to me.

 

[LookAtMeGo]

I knew it. They don't want us to discover them yet.

 

[Lionheart1827]

News... :/

http://www.nasa.gov/nh/new-horizons-responds-spacecraft-anomaly

You have got to be kidding me.

 

[GK86]

Lol oh man, that would have been some shit, if at the last leg of the journey, it crapped out.

 

[DECK'ARD]

ALL THESE WORLDS
ARE YOURS EXCEPT
PLUTO
ATTEMPT NO
PHOTOGRAPHY THERE

Excellent post.

 

[StudioTan]

News... :/

http://www.nasa.gov/nh/new-horizons-responds-spacecraft-anomaly

 

[RichardKSJ]

They'll get it back on last second and all they will see is a giant evil robot looking right into the camera or alien ship. It will destroy the probe.

"On that day, mankind was sent a grim warning, we are not alone and we are not safe"

Seriously though, I hope they fix it in time.

 

[The Shadow]

No, it has to do with scale. Like if the Pillars of Creation are 100K times as far from Earth as Pluto is, but it's 100MM times larger than Pluto, then we're going to be able to get a picture 1000 times clearer. Those aren't the right numbers, but you get the idea.

Basically what he said. All the really clear pictures Hubble puts out are HUGE objects. Galaxies, Nebula, etc. Pluto is the tip of a pin relative to say a house or a barn for Hubble. Even if that pin tip is much, much closer, it's still pretty small relative to huge objects in the distance.

 

[hiryu2015]

They'll get it back on last second and all they will see is a giant evil robot looking right into the camera or alien ship. It will destroy the probe.

"On that day, mankind was sent a grim warning"

Hmm....

 

[The Sum of Zero]

News... :/

http://www.nasa.gov/nh/new-horizons-responds-spacecraft-anomaly

What bad timing. Hopefully they can get it fixed.

They've only got 10 days don't they? I'm a little worried :/

EDIT: Fun fact about probes having problems and jeopardizing missions, Voyager 2 almost didn't get to go to Uranus and Neptune due to a problem with its camera.

After the fly-by of Saturn, the camera platform of Voyager 2 locked up briefly, putting plans to officially extend the mission to Uranus and Neptune in jeopardy. The mission's engineers were able to fix the problem (caused by an overuse that temporarily depleted its lubricant), and the Voyager 2 probe was given the go-ahead to explore the Uranian system.

 

[LookAtMeGo]

Just like how communication was "conveniently" lost right after Armstrong and Buzz walked on the moon. I'm on to you NASA.

 

[Space Monster]

It will always be a planet to me.

It is a planet. It's a dwarf planet.

A baby elephant is still an elephant.

A Playstation Slim is still a Playstation.

Mini-golf is still golf. sort of.

Anyway, planet.

 

[Ionic]

It is a planet. It's a dwarf planet.

A baby elephant is still an elephant.

A Playstation Slim is still a Playstation.

Mini-golf is still golf. sort of.

Anyway, planet.

Pluto is not a planet. Dwarf planets are not planets, they're dwarf planets.

 

[foxuzamaki]

So Pluto is still a planet after all? Awesome, I never gave up on you Pluto.

It will always be a planet to me.

Damn skippy

 

[foxuzamaki]

They'll get it back on last second and all they will see is a giant evil robot looking right into the camera or alien ship. It will destroy the probe.

"On that day, mankind was sent a grim warning"

Seriously though, I hope they fix it in time.

Welp.

 

[Slayer-33]

News... :/

http://www.nasa.gov/nh/new-horizons-responds-spacecraft-anomaly

How fucking convenient

 

[The Sum of Zero]

Way too much tinfoil hatting going on here.

 

[Ziltoidia 9]

We send something the size of a car billions of miles away....its expected to lose connection. The fact that we are still in contact with it and getting images is amazing.

 

[liliththepale]

Way too much tinfoil hatting going on here.

 

[JasonUresti]

Pluto is not a planet. Dwarf planets are not planets, they're dwarf planets.

Small humans are not humans, they are small humans,

 

[Ionic]

Small humans are not humans, they are small humans,

If the small humans are not even able to clear the neighborhood around their orbits then of course they're not humans.

 

[liliththepale]

Small humans are not humans, they are small humans,

That's up for debate.

Spoiler

 

[ZealousD]

Small humans are not humans, they are small humans,

A dwarf planet will never grow up to be a real planet.

 

[ICPEE]

Shit. New Horizons has gone into safe mode.

 

[GK86]

Shit. New Horizons has gone into safe mode.

Link?

 

[Kysen]

Mind boggling at the communications round trip time. Pluto is so damn far away that at light speed we are still talking hours delay. Its gotta be heartbreaking to have the trip take so long and then have problems days before the passby.

 

[HelloMeow]

The New Horizons spacecraft experienced an anomaly the afternoon of July 4 that led to a loss of communication with Earth. Communication has since been reestablished and the spacecraft is healthy.

http://www.nasa.gov/nh/new-horizons-responds-spacecraft-anomaly

 

[Volimar]

A dwarf planet will never grow up to be a real planet.

Not with that attitude!

 

[jett]

http://www.nasa.gov/nh/new-horizons-responds-spacecraft-anomaly

merciful aliens are merciful

 

[Yka]

They'll get it back on last second and all they will see is a giant evil robot looking right into the camera or alien ship. It will destroy the probe.

"On that day, mankind was sent a grim warning, we are not alone and we are not safe"

Reminded me of this story...

The round object is the Mars moon Phobos with a large Mothership nearby. This "highly secret" photo was given to the Western press in 1991, by Colonel Dr. Marina Popovich, a Russian astronaut and pilot who has long been interested in UFO's. At a UFO conference Popovich provided information that she "smuggled" out of the now ex-Soviet Union. This is "the first ever leaked account of an alien mother ship in the solar system". The last transmission from Phobos 2 Soviet satellite was this photograph of a gigantic cylindrical spaceship - estimated to be 20 km long, and 1.5 km in diameter. The 'Mother ship', was photographed on 25 March 1989 hanging or parked next to the Martian moon Phobos. After that last frame was radio-transmitted back to Earth, the probe mysteriously disappeared; according to the Russians it was destroyed.

 

[mmazurkiewicz]

How do the communications with a probe millions of miles away work?

Can anyone ELI5?

 

[owlbeak]

The safe mode thing should not be a major issue. Spacecraft is still on trajectory and did exactly what it was supposed to do if something happened - boot up the backup computer to get back to communication with Earth again and send telemetry data so they can figure out what's wrong. Might have just been a goofy bit of code they sent up. That's why the backup computer exists.

What sucks is the timing, they have less than 9 days, and 9 hour two-way communication time, to get it sorted so that all the science stuff can be done on the 14th. Hopefully it's not a huge problem and can be sorted in a couple of days and all we miss are a few approach pictures.

 

[Abstruse Moose]

How do the communications with a probe millions of miles away work?

Can anyone ELI5?

The same way your radio works. It's just light being sent and received. Even though light travels at a speed of ~180 000 miles per second(~300 000 KM/S) it still takes 9 hours to do a round trip.

 

[Xun]

News... :/

http://www.nasa.gov/nh/new-horizons-responds-spacecraft-anomaly

I fucking hope they can fix this.

I've been looking forward to this for a while.

 

[LookAtMeGo]

I fucking hope they can fix this.

I've been looking forward to this for a while.

Same here. It will be so disappointing if its not able complete its mission. Best of luck to them.

 

[Lovely Salsa]

Same here. It will be so disappointing if its not able complete its mission. Best of luck to them.

Did you not read the above link?

 

[LookAtMeGo]

Did you not read the above link?

full recovery is expected to take from one to several days; New Horizons will be temporarily unable to collect science data during that time.

That still has me worried. They are only a couple days away. Well, more than a couple but still, I'm worried.

 

[StudioTan]

That still has me worried. They are only a couple days away. Well, more than a couple but still, I'm worried.

It's been updated - "Communication has since been reestablished and the spacecraft is healthy."