Updates NASA New Horizons Mission Updates

[Pipcard]

Ever since it was discovered, Pluto was just a blur, but now we're finally going to get a proper image!

 

[Kyle]

I think I will die before it happens.

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We all remember that Elon Musk is not the Savior...


New Horizons 2

SLS/New Horizons 2 could get you to Eris in the late-2030s with gravitational assist(s).

 

[Notebook]

deleted duplicate

 

[Soheil_Esy]

Processed New Horizons Image Of Pluto

Taken by Gavin Khoo on July 3, 2015 @ Space probe was 13.5 million km from Pluto.

Details:

I processed the latest available New Horizons image of Pluto taken with the space probes monochrome LORRI camera on 2015-07-03 04-39-15 UTC. Further details in the image.

http://spaceweathergallery.com/indi...d=114896&PHPSESSID=c3vv8jvkprbechkma0m2l4od74

 

[RisingFury]

however, even if it all went to hell today we'd still have this:

which is already many times better resolution than what we had just a few months ago.

That's like telling your girlfriend that you love her after having sex with her and she couldn't climax. It's something, bit it's oh, so disappointing. :lol:

 

[Artlav]

http://spaceweathergallery.com/indi...d=114896&PHPSESSID=c3vv8jvkprbechkma0m2l4od74

Ugh. So they are still milking that single MVIC pixel taken in late May for all these colour photos?

Now i'm suddenly anxious that Pluto will turn out grey after all...

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Also, teeth... Pluto teeth...
Reminds me of this:

(I wonder if anyone outside of ex-USSR can guess what cartoon is this from?)

 

[Notebook]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-33421208

New Horizons lost very little science data when it went into "safe mode" at the weekend, the mission team says.

Nasa's Pluto probe experienced a fault on Saturday that put it temporarily out of contact with the Earth, as it speeds towards a flyby next week.

Principal investigator Alan Stern said that about 30 observations of the dwarf planet were missed as a consequence of the hiccup.

This represents "far less than 1%" of the top science about to come back.

 

[statickid]

Since there is a "continuous dark band" I'm leaning towards light spots interrupting dark band rather than the converse of that...inverse? Converse? whatever - you know, the other thing! :lol:

 

[N_Molson]

Maybe an illusion with the shadows colors, but it looks like that one pole of Pluto was very seriously bashed, it doesn't even looks round. Well, it is far from being a flat ball of iced methane anyways.

 

[Notebook]

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/News-Article.php?page=20150707

July 7, 2015
New Horizons Map of Pluto: The Whale and the Donut
This is the latest map of Pluto created from images taken from June 27 to July 3 by the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) on New Horizons, combined with lower-resolution color data from the spacecraft’s Ralph instrument. The center of the map corresponds to the side of Pluto that will be seen close-up during New Horizons’ July 14 flyby.

 

[Notebook]

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/News-Article.php?page=20150708

July 8, 2015
A ‘Heart’ from Pluto as Flyby Begins

This image of Pluto from New Horizons’ Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) was received on July 8, and has been combined with lower-resolution color information from the Ralph instrument.

After a more than nine-year, three-billion-mile journey to Pluto, it’s showtime for NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, as the flyby sequence of science observations is officially underway.

In the early morning hours of July 8, mission scientists received this new view of Pluto—the most detailed yet returned by the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) aboard New Horizons. The image was taken on July 7, when the spacecraft was just under 5 million miles (8 million kilometers) from Pluto, and is the first to be received since the July 4 anomaly that sent the spacecraft into safe mode

 

[Andy44]

Getting better, only a few more days to fly-by!

 

[SiberianTiger]

[/COLOR]Also, teeth... Pluto teeth...
Reminds me of this:

(I wonder if anyone outside of ex-USSR can guess what cartoon is this from?)

I'm inside the ex-USSR and I still cannot guess too. :huh:

 

[K_Jameson]

A problem with a fast flyby mission on a target so small is that the really high definition stuff comes only in a very short period of time - few days in this case. On a gas giant flyby, thanks to the far larger target and the comparably larger details, you can gather very good images when the spacecraft is still tens of millions km away - at least on the primary planetary body.

It's a shame that the probe cannot be slowed at least a bit, allowing slightly more time for the observations...

 

[N_Molson]

It's a shame that the probe cannot be slowed at least a bit, allowing slightly more time for the observations...

For that, not only you need a very powerful launcher / injection stage, but you also need an engine that can fire to the second at the expected thrust level after nearly 10 years of idling. Pluto/Charon gravity well is tiny, it would require extreme reliability and precision.

 

[steph]

Wouldn't an ion engine do the job? At least the adjustments might be done over longer periods of time

 

[Unstung]

Wouldn't an ion engine do the job? At least the adjustments might be done over longer periods of time

New Horizons would require several more RTGs to power a thruster similar to the one on Dawn. If that amount of plutonium was available, the spacecraft would be much heavier. The mission's scientists and engineers obviously thought that a fast transit had more benefits than downsides.

 

[Andy44]

New Horizons would require several more RTGs to power a thruster similar to the one on Dawn. If that amount of plutonium was available, the spacecraft would be much heavier. The mission's scientists and engineers obviously thought that a fast transit had more benefits than downsides.

Yeah, the main benefit being "Well, I think congress will pay for that..."

 

[N_Molson]

Also a trajectory optimized for a "low-speed encounter" could have lead to a very very long mission duration.

 

[K_Jameson]

For that, not only you need a very powerful launcher / injection stage, but you also need an engine that can fire to the second at the expected thrust level after nearly 10 years of idling. Pluto/Charon gravity well is tiny, it would require extreme reliability and precision.

Obviously.