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Awesome teaser for New Horizons flyby of Pluto

UglyCasanova

UglyCasanova

Lifer
Link


Damn, I've got goosebumps..! :awe:

Crazy to think that in less than a month we will have close up views of what once was the furthest "planet" in our solar system (hell, the furthest known planet in the universe period at that point) and a taste of what lies beyond in the Kuiper Belt.
 
Yea I am looking forward to it as well, being able to watch "live video" of Pluto sitting at home is so cool.

Back in the day my local public access station carried NASA TV and when Voyager went by Neptune we were able to watch it live sitting on the couch in our house. Was such an amazing feeling at the time.
 
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I love the fact that it has to do the entire primary encounter on its own due to the distance.

"Ok, robot, you do a good job! Find all kinds of interesting things and record the hell out of them. We're counting on your judgement here."



No chance for a screw-up though. At least when one of the MERs had a flash memory problem there was the opportunity 🙂awe🙂 to fix it. If NH has a problem, it'll be able to tell us about it as Pluto's quickly receding into the distance.
 
13.25hrs remaining until the flyby.


Oh god I hope nothing screws up. By the time anyone realizes anything went wrong and gets a message back, it'll be well on its way out of there.



Geez, 30,000mph and it's got to get good scans of Pluto and its system of moons.



7-13-15_Pluto_image_NASA-JHUAPL-SWRI.png
 
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Ns1 said:
Science you so amazing.
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dude totally!

I feel so luck to be alive in a time when knowledge and our understanding of the universe is expanding faster than I can comprehend.


Can you guys imagine some next gen drones that can fly into space and we can have our own space exploration? Once solar thrust is a thing depositing thousands and thousands of drones to map the nearverse would be a amazing. Now thats a kick-starter I could get behind. Own your own drone mapping a certain part of space.
 
OK, scientists, I've figured everything out. You can go ahead and recall New Horizons.

The band with evenly-spaced light areas was made by a less-round Charon rolling around in somewhat frequent direct contact until it was rounded enough and enough mass was lost for a stable orbit.

Pack it up. Let's go to sleep.
 
Will New Horizons be able to make it into interstellar space like Voyager 1? That's what I want to know. 🙂
 
CZroe said:
Looks better lit than I would have imagined, but I guess the image is enhanced.
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They knew they were going to a fairly dark place, so I'd expect that they built the instruments accordingly.



Ns1 said:
Science you so amazing.
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The math was pretty close, too.
It arrived 1 minute earlier than its expected arrival time, as calculated back in 2006.




Homerboy said:
Incredible.

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-33524589

_84264807_84264806.jpg
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To achieve that, it has had to perform a furious set of manoeuvres during the flyby, pointing every which way in the sky to lock on to the different targets.
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😀

Little probe, blazing through the system at 30,000mph, with six small objects to study. The instruments are mounted to the body, so it's got to turn to acquire images and take measurements. They used moving scan platforms on Voyager, but moving parts can get stuck. (Sometimes. Opportunity at Mars has been moving around since 2004.)


So the thing's there (slowly) twitching all over the place to acquire as much data as it can...

"Shit shit shit shit dammit! almost missed that shot so much to do goddamn it the trip here was so quiet"
 
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UglyCasanova said:
Awesome. Many months of downloading to get all of the data though.
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Once it reestablishes contact Tuesday night, it will take 16 months for New Horizons to send its cache of data — 10 years’ worth — back to Earth.
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In 16 months the US Presidential elections will be over and there will be a new resident in the White House. ^_^
 
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