Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

New Horizons: Nasa spacecraft speeds past Pluto

bbc.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 309 posts

Re: New Horizons: Nasa spacecraft speeds past Pluto

#101

Post by ringshall »

Interesting note, as of today, the US is the first country to have successful spacecraft missions visit all of the classical planets.

There is one big exception, of course: the Soviet Union was the first to have a spacecraft visit Earth, with Spunink.

This category is completely arbitrary, especially given that Pluto is now considered a minor planet. Still, it's an achievement of note.

  Mercury - 1974, Mariner 10

  Venus --- 1962, Mariner 2

  Earth --- 1957, Sputnik 1

  Mars* --- 1965, Mariner 4

  Jupiter - 1973, Pioneer 10

  Saturn -- 1979, Pioneer 11

  Uranus -- 1986, Voyager 2

  Neptune - 1989, Voyager 2

  Pluto --- 2015, New Horizons
* The Soviet Union launched several probes to Mars before the US did, but those probes failed. This may be true of other planets as well.

edit: formatting

Re: New Horizons: Nasa spacecraft speeds past Pluto

#102

Post by kale »

scrollaway wrote: post #57
pavlov wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rosetta/Philae was a European achievement paid by the EU public, yet that barely gets mentioned. It's really a shame that the endless churn of downbeat economic news has overshadowed everything good that European countries are able to do together... Maybe Europe would benefit from having a bit more American-style "rah-rah" patriotism around the good old "12 stars on deep blue" EU flag. Nowadays it seems that we Europ…

> Maybe Europe would benefit from having a bit more American-style "rah-rah" patriotism around the good old "12 stars on deep blue" EU flag. Something most americans don't understand is how repulsive blatant patriotism is. A lot of europeans, along with their nationality, have a sense of being "european", just like most americans have a sense of being "american" (rather than just "Californian" or what have you). Ther…

What continent are you referring to that has two countries? North America has 23 countries, with the U.S.A., Canada, and Mexico being the largest countries.

Re: New Horizons: Nasa spacecraft speeds past Pluto

#103

Post by rootbear »

e0m wrote: post #97

Traveling at 16km/s for 9.5 years would dilate time by almost 300 minutes! Not only is there a 4.5 hr delay because of the speed of light, there's an extra 300 min of relativity correction.

Whoa! I hadn't thought about that. The speed of New Horizons hasn't been constant, of course, but the accumulated time difference is probably close to what you calculated. There would also be a correction due to it being farther out of the Sun's gravity well, but that's a much trickery calculation.

Re: New Horizons: Nasa spacecraft speeds past Pluto

#104

Post by Mahn »

bargl wrote: post #95
mattlutze wrote: post #82

"Jingoism: the feelings and beliefs of people who think that their country is always right and who are in favor of aggressive acts against other countries." [1] Can we please stop comparing a success chant with "aggressive acts against other countries"? Unnecessary nationalism, sure. Jingoism is hyperbole. 1: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/jingoism

Your comment confused the heck out of me. Can you clarify a little more? Did I miss something in the article?

Context: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9884196

Re: New Horizons: Nasa spacecraft speeds past Pluto

#105

Post by scrollaway »

snowwrestler wrote: post #91
scrollaway wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Maybe Europe would benefit from having a bit more American-style "rah-rah" patriotism around the good old "12 stars on deep blue" EU flag. Something most americans don't understand is how repulsive blatant patriotism is. A lot of europeans, along with their nationality, have a sense of being "european", just like most americans have a sense of being "american" (rather than just "Californian" or what have you). Ther…

People chanting "USA" are literally not saying "in your face, my country is better that yours." I think if that's what you're hearing, you're bringing some personal interpretation to your hearing.

It's not what I'm hearing, and you probably missed my point. It's alienating and very shallow. Like I said, there's nothing wrong with being proud of one's country's, or a country's achievements. There's nothing wrong with being proud of your government, of your people, of your land.

But turn that into mindless yelling and that's just a pissing contest. It's ignorant of what other countries have to bring.

To give you a concrete example: I'm french. There's a lot of things I'm not proud of from my country. I'm proud of my language; French is beautiful. But I also make an effort to learn the language of every country I live in. I have fallen in love with Swedish. Had I been in a pissing match telling everybody (but mostly myself) how amazing French is, would I have gotten the chance to learn any other language? Would I have gotten the chance to even write my thoughts, in English, on this very forum?

This is a relevant example because, in France, a lot of people have that attitude of being too proud to learn another language. It's one of the recurring tourist complaints about France, in fact! I see this as no different.

Re: New Horizons: Nasa spacecraft speeds past Pluto

#107

Post by user_0001 »

adventured wrote: post #44
saiya-jin wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

oh please, no american-style patriotism here in europe. I respect our american friends, but please, just... no. to give reasons would mean insulting probably more than few, so I refrain from that. let's say we're not all the same, we've grown up in different environments, and there are quite a few things I personally don't like in current US, and would not see many reasons to be proud. that we have our own issues is…

You already have that exact same patriotism there. Enter any thread, on any major forum online, and bring up any of the following topics: healthcare, crime rates, gun control, two party systems, standard of living, inequality, conservative religiousness. You'll be rapidly overwhelmed by bragging from Europeans, about how they're superior. You can't get away from the boastfulness out of Scandinavia, Germany, France, t…

Please link to a video showing a group of people from the UK chanting

"N-H-S N-H-S" *

*NHS - National Health Service for the UK

Re: New Horizons: Nasa spacecraft speeds past Pluto

#108

Post by fit2rule »

benkuykendall wrote: post #93
fit2rule wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The American voting public took on all of the downsides of this program. True. But the rest of the world bears the brunt of American liabilities.

Sorry, could you explain this a little further? As an American, my income taxes seem to be pretty solid evidence that I am bearing American liabilities. Especially in a case like space exploration, where the only cost is monetary, I don't see how a burden is being placed on anyone save the taxpayers.

America can't survive without war. Where do you think it wages those wars?

Re: New Horizons: Nasa spacecraft speeds past Pluto

#109

Post by mattlutze »

bargl wrote: post #95
mattlutze wrote: post #82

"Jingoism: the feelings and beliefs of people who think that their country is always right and who are in favor of aggressive acts against other countries." [1] Can we please stop comparing a success chant with "aggressive acts against other countries"? Unnecessary nationalism, sure. Jingoism is hyperbole. 1: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/jingoism

Your comment confused the heck out of me. Can you clarify a little more? Did I miss something in the article?

Sorry, this was meant as a reply to a different thread.

Context was:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9884196

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9884930

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9884324

Re: New Horizons: Nasa spacecraft speeds past Pluto

#110

Post by user_0001 »

dingaling wrote: post #4

That flag-waving and chanting of U-S-A U-S-A at the point of closest approach was one of the most appalling, jingoistic, alienating spectacles I've ever seen. You'd think they had just planted the flag in the soil ( ice? ) and claimed Pluto for God and America. Ladies and Gentlemen, the Space Race is over. Grow up. You're doing this for all humanity.

The US is still a young country. They are currently in their (perhaps declining) outward expanding imperial militaristic stage. For this, excessive patriotism is required, is absolutely necessary.

It has been the same for any outwardly expanding empire, from the British, French, Spanish, German in more recent times back to the Roman / Greek days.

The first rule for near constant warfare, get the flags out, get the crowds chanting....

Post reply on HN