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.
R&D, paying employees etc. Seems like a big waste of money to take some pictures.
R&D, paying employees etc. Seems like a big waste of money to take some pictures.
R&D, paying employees etc. Seems like a big waste of money to take some pictures.
R&D, paying employees etc. Seems like a big waste of money to take some pictures.
Will New Horizons continue to move out away from our solar system?
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/
Goddamn I was going to post this.
10/10What 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...
How do they fund these flights? Have to be billions upon billions for something like this right?
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...
July 1, 2015
New Horizons Color Images Reveal Two Distinct Faces of Pluto, Series of Spots that Fascinate
New color images from NASAs 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 thats 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. Its a real puzzlewe dont know what the spots are, and we cant 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 spacecrafts 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. Were 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 Plutos winds.
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...
NASAs New Horizons spacecraft is getting a final all clear as it speeds closer to its historic July 14 flyby of Pluto and the dwarf planets 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.
Were 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 spacecrafts 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 Plutos 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 Plutos faintest known moon, Styx, would have been seen if they existed beyond the orbit of Plutos 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 Im a bit disappointed that we didnt spot additional moons to study, but as a New Horizons team member I am much more relieved that we didnt find something that could harm the spacecraft. New Horizons already has six amazing objects to analyze in this incredible system."
Mass effect relay here we come!
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.
"Its 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. "Whats especially noteworthy is the level of detail in both bodies. Its certainly whetting our appetite for whats to come."
anyone have telescope recommendations? not too cheap but not $10k either.
Could you post the twitter account for that? Sounds awesome.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.
I'd gladly allocate a budget learning about the solar system we inhabit over building fighter jets and weapons to kill other humans with.
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!
Could you post the twitter account for that? Sounds awesome.
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 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."
~8 million miles to go and the flyby is in 10 days? That thing is hauling some serious ass. Also, space is so cool.
That name keeps making me think of:
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.
Best first reply, ever!
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.
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.