New Horizons: Pluto and Beyond

[Perfection]

THen you'll make a really big crater when you arrive. A better estimate, but still theoretical, would be to accelerate at 1 g. until you reach half way to the moon and then decelerate at 1 g. until you softly moonland.

That's what my calculation is for. (I suspect that's what Aphex was thinking as well)

 

[Urederra]

I though it was to reach 20.000 posts

BTW: Are you going to do something to celebrate it (the 20.000th post)?. An avatar contest or the like?

On topic: Are you guys worried about the radiactive payload of the rocket? I mean, The launch can go wrong and someone can receive a radiactive shower.

 

[Gogf]

If Jupiter is one year away, Id guess Mars would take under 6 months. If the moon is only 9 hours away, its a crime not to put a permanent scientific outpost there.

Plans for the Crew Exploration Vehicle call for doing this. In fact, some plans call for the moon to be used as a launching pad for missions to Mars.

 

[El_Machinae]

I can't think of any space buffs who approve of such a plan, that creating the infrastructure at the Moon would be really costly compared to creating the infrastructure in orbit.

 

[Urederra]

I can't think of any space buffs who approve of such a plan, that creating the infrastructure at the Moon would be really costly compared to creating the infrastructure in orbit.

There is the cosmic radiation thing that can be avoided by working underground.

 

[Perfection]

I though it was to reach 20.000 posts

BTW: Are you going to do something to celebrate it (the 20.000th post)?. An avatar contest or the like?

I dunno. There isn't gonna be an avatar contest, because the mods would kill me for it. I might make a special thread (on a non-self topic) though.

On topic: Are you guys worried about the radiactive payload of the rocket? I mean, The launch can go wrong and someone can receive a radiactive shower.

Nah, it wouldn't be that nasty.

 

[Irish Caesar]

On topic: Are you guys worried about the radiactive payload of the rocket? I mean, The launch can go wrong and someone can receive a radiactive shower.

The odds are pretty small. As is the amount of radioactive material.

 

[Fetus4188]

It's only Florida anyway.

 

[Bluemofia]

Just as an FYI... the mission has been delayed. The new launch time is tomorrow.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10878811/

Yayish boo.

Now I can tell that to my astronomy teacher.

 

[Perfection]

Not really. Depends on how far out in the orbit you give the nudge. If you give it at far enough distances then the nudge can be as small as a rocket firing on the asteroid surface.

Of course your calculations have to be amazingly accurate (the more far out the more accurate it needs ot be). Considering that the orbits of these bodies are chaotic I am not sure we can do those calculations.

Perhaps a few Earth crossers could be goaded into such behavior, but the vast majority seem infeasible to produce such an interaction.

 

[El_Machinae]

Those 'few Earth crossers' are what I'm talking about anyway. We don't need all that many orbiting asteroids to give us a HUGE boost up into space.

They orbit the sun, and come within 4 lunar distances. The delta V would actually not have to be all that big, relatively. But it would have to be an actual effort. Real time telemetry wouldn't be possible either, because I think there would be a 2 second delay loop for radio.

 

[Tank_Guy#3]

Exploration of the Ice Planet commences in 9 years... Man even at 36,000mph (according to figures mentioned by a local news station the other day) it still takes forever to get there. Are we there yet...

 

[El_Machinae]

I just hope that the world is sufficiently changed by the time we start getting data back from Pluto. There can be a LOT of progress in 9 years, but only if we want there to be.

 

[betazed]

Its on its way. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10927034/

 

[Bozo Erectus]

Great! The piano sized spacefraft is finally on its way to the Kuiper belt, where it'll encounter, bus sized, football field sized, and Texas sized objects!

edit: oh almost forgot, there'll be potato shaped objects too.

 

[Urederra]

It is already in orbit and sending the best resolution pluto images ever!!!!

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads11/pluto_small.jpg

 

[El_Machinae]

Its on its way. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10927034/

Space development is SO slow ....

 

[El_Machinae]

But sometimes it's fast.
New Horizons has passed its first milestone already.

NASA's Pluto-bound New Horizons spacecraft has snapped its first high-resolution photo, an image of distant stars that shows the probe's high-resolution camera works.

MSNBC

"Our hope was that LORRI's first image would prove not only that the cover had opened completely, but that LORRI was capable of providing the required high-resolution imaging of Pluto and Charon," says the Applied Physics Laboratory's Andy Cheng, LORRI principal investigator. "Our hopes were not only met, but exceeded."

 

[El_Machinae]

If Jupiter is one year away, Id guess Mars would take under 6 months. If the moon is only 9 hours away, its a crime not to put a permanent scientific outpost there.

I'm sorry.
Space is HARD

 

[BenitoChavez]

Hope Im still around in 2015 when it reaches Pluto, but for me, the big story is that the moon is now only 9 hours away.

I hope you're still around Mr. Bozo because the probe has entered Pluto's Hill Sphere, whatever that means. There are some pretty neat photos:

Spoiler :