New Horizons - Closing in on Pluto

[TWDeac]

I haven't posted one of these in a long time, but I'm really excited to see the data that New Horizons sends back over the coming two months. It has been fascinating to see it come awake and start taking pictures of the Pluto system as it approaches.

The probe is powered by an radioisotope thermoelectric generator(RTG) and 24lbs of PU-238. This is conservatively estimated to power the probe until 2026.

It was launched in 2005, and after a gravity assist from Jupiter, continued on towards Pluto at a speed of almost 15 km/s relative to the Sun. New Horizon's cameras were much better than the Voyager and Galileo probes that had preceded it, so scientists were excited to see what additional insights into the Jupiter system it could provide. One of my favorite pictures from that flyby is of Io which gives you an indication of just how violent the volcanism is on that moon.

The probe would periodically wake-up from sleep to image Pluto and ensure that no course changes were necessary.

Squares are Charon, Nix, and Hydra - Pluto's three known moons

You can clearly see some features on the surface of Pluto and Charon. I'm really, really excited. We have 16 days until the closest encounter!

After the Pluto encounter, the probe will journey on towards to Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud. The next step of the mission will be to find, identify, and get as close as possible to a Kuiper Belt object.

I'll update the thread with pictures I think are cool as we get closer.

 

[D4L]

Awesome. Thanks Tsy!

 

[74 plug]

Great thread! I've been a big fan of the space program for many years.

 

[TWDeac]

 

[KickballDeac]

Are we going to see better quality images out of this thing?

 

[DeacInVermont]

High Def 3-D or GTFO

 

[marquee moon]

Awesome. Thanks Tsy!

??

 

[marquee moon]

http://www.wired.com/2015/07/calculating-plutos-mass-snapshots-new-horizons/

 

[TWDeac]

Are we going to see better quality images out of this thing?

Yup. Not until after the encounter, though. We are only getting highly compressed images at this point. Can't be using up all the bandwidth huge files. It takes a long time to transfer files from Pluto.

 

[PhDeac]

Yup. Not until after the encounter, though. We are only getting highly compressed images at this point. Can't be using up all the bandwidth huge files. It takes a long time to transfer files from Pluto.

Thanks, Obama.

 

[DeaconSlim2.0]

Yup. Not until after the encounter, though. We are only getting highly compressed images at this point. Can't be using up all the bandwidth huge files. It takes a long time to transfer files from Pluto.

How are images relayed that far?

How long does it take to send something back to Earth?

/questions

 

[TWDeac]

Full color

 

[TWDeac]

How are images relayed that far?

How long does it take to send something back to Earth?

/questions

Radio waves.

It transmits at about 1 kb/s which is horrendously slow. It will take months to get all of the images from the flyby. A round trip signal from Earth to New Horizons and back takes something like 9.5 hours.

 

[discdude]

Radio waves.

It transmits at about 1 kb/s which is horrendously slow. It will take months to get all of the images from the flyby. A round trip signal from Earth to New Horizons and back takes something like 9.5 hours.

16 months. 4 hours to transmit back,.

 

[DeaconSlim2.0]

Wow...so the technology is capable of taking great photographs, but radio waves limit the transmission speeds to it takes a long time to get the images back.

Which, the fact that they can transmit HD photos from billions of miles away just makes my brain hurt.

 

[Deaconblue]

Slight fix for the launch date:
Spacecraft: New Horizons
Launch Vehicle: Lockheed Martin Atlas V
Launch Location: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida
Launch Pad: Space Launch Complex 41
Launched: January 19, 2006
Launch Time: 2:00.00 p.m. EST

I was sitting in the grandstands at KSC when it launched.

They barely squeezed the launch through a small hole in the clouds that day. I think the launch director was really itchy to get it launched. Fastest rocket off earth ever.

 

[Deaconblue]

Even though the launch was in early 2006, all the hardware choices were locked in a few years earlier. Thus the computers etc controlling the spacecraft are probably vintage 2003 or 2004. No hardware changes after that. NASA likes stuff that has been well tested when they know it has to operate for over a decade with no maintenance from the IT shop. Only some software upgrades. What computer were you using in 2004? And what kind of processing speed was available?

It was built at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics lab located near Baltimore, MD

 

[bym051d]

Even though the launch was in early 2006, all the hardware choices were locked in a few years earlier. Thus the computers etc controlling the spacecraft are probably vintage 2003 or 2004. No hardware changes after that. NASA likes stuff that has been well tested when they know it has to operate for over a decade with no maintenance from the IT shop. Only some software upgrades. What computer were you using in 2004? And what kind of processing speed was available?

It was built at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics lab located near Baltimore, MD

Not as big of a deal when you think we sent men to the moon with far less processing than what's in my cell phone.

 

[bernbp5]

Even though the launch was in early 2006, all the hardware choices were locked in a few years earlier. Thus the computers etc controlling the spacecraft are probably vintage 2003 or 2004. No hardware changes after that. NASA likes stuff that has been well tested when they know it has to operate for over a decade with no maintenance from the IT shop. Only some software upgrades. What computer were you using in 2004? And what kind of processing speed was available?

It was built at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics lab located near Baltimore, MD

Their calculations were amazing. My brother works in a different department, but was the whole lab was briefed. They only had to make two tiny(10 feet) adjustments for the whole flight.

 

[LCDeacon]

Slight fix for the launch date:
Spacecraft: New Horizons
Launch Vehicle: Lockheed Martin Atlas V
Launch Location: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida
Launch Pad: Space Launch Complex 41
Launched: January 19, 2006
Launch Time: 2:00.00 p.m. EST

I was sitting in the grandstands at KSC when it launched.

They barely squeezed the launch through a small hole in the clouds that day. I think the launch director was really itchy to get it launched. Fastest rocket off earth ever.

Cool, my family was there too. My cousin works in the Applied Physics lab at John Hopkins that you mentioned.