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New Horizons: Nasa spacecraft speeds past Pluto

bbc.co.uk

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Re: New Horizons: Nasa spacecraft speeds past Pluto

#121

Post by disconcision »

ringshall wrote: post #101

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 Venu…

this is a pedantic correction, but 'classical planets' has a specific meaning, being the 7 planets known in antiquity, e.g. to the babylonians. so technically the feat you describe was accomplished by 1979!

Re: New Horizons: Nasa spacecraft speeds past Pluto

#122

Post by moron4hire »

pavlov wrote: post #99
moron4hire wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Barely gets mentioned? WTF news outlets are you reading that you got New Horizons but not Rosetta/Philae?

It's the European angle that barely gets mentioned; see my reply to oh_sigh.

I think you're falling victim to confirmation bias. I've seen lots of talk about ESA in relation to Rosetta, with a lot of pictures of ground crews cheering.

Re: New Horizons: Nasa spacecraft speeds past Pluto

#123

Post by pluma »

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.

What you seem to miss is that Americans chanting "USA" is so frequent and so common even in situations that wouldn't be considered to warrant any nationalism by anyone else that it's a point of ridicule by anyone else.

Case in point, this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhITpTtG888

Re: New Horizons: Nasa spacecraft speeds past Pluto

#124

Post by dalke »

blakecaldwell wrote: post #83

It kills me we're not gonna orbit Pluto.

There is a mission study which says it's feasible to orbit Pluto. http://www.esa.int/gsp/ACT/doc/PRO/ACT-RPR-PRO-ISTS2004-Plut... . It requires 4 RTGs, nuclear electric propulsion, and 18 years of travel time.

You might be dead by the time that actually happens, so better to be killed by sorrow of only getting fly-by data than the agony of having only what Hubble and its successors can resolve.

Re: New Horizons: Nasa spacecraft speeds past Pluto

#125

Post by ZanyProgrammer »

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.

"was one of the most appalling, jingoistic, alienating spectacles I've ever seen." If no one died, then that is demonstrably not true.

Re: New Horizons: Nasa spacecraft speeds past Pluto

#126

Post by arethuza »

scrollaway wrote: post #64
adventured wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> You can't get away from the boastfulness out of Scandinavia, Germany, France, the UK, the Netherlands - about how they're all superior to America on any given topic. I've yet to find a major forum where this doesn't occur. You do realize all these "boasts" tend to come from people who don't live, and usually have never lived, in said countries, right? Not to mention the whole Scandinavia deal which comes 99% from a…

"The grass is greenest in Scotland"

That's a bit harsh - have you seen our weather, foodstuffs, national sporting teams or famously short tempers....

Of course, wouldn't surprise me if our grass wasn't rather green, but I refer you to our my comment about the weather!

Re: New Horizons: Nasa spacecraft speeds past Pluto

#127

Post by ZanyProgrammer »

user_0001 wrote: post #110
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 cr…

How is Germany older than the US? Unless you mean the Holy Roman Empire and its various entities that made it up.

Re: New Horizons: Nasa spacecraft speeds past Pluto

#128

Post by outworlder »

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.

Yeah, that's an immense cultural shock for everyone not in the USA.

I'm not surprised by it, but it feels... out of place. If anything, they should be chanting "NASA", as not all of the USA is onboard with the space missions.

If overt patriotism is what's needed to get more NASA funding, then so be it.

Re: New Horizons: Nasa spacecraft speeds past Pluto

#129

Post by dalke »

tgcordell wrote: post #120
kohanz wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to shoot the messenger, but it annoys me when these things are viewed through the lens of artificial divisions such as nations. I understand that space exploration has been used as a tool to further many political machines, but it seems silly to me, especially when staring at a picture as beautiful as this from a distance that makes Earth seem so small, to think about the people living on this planet as anything…

Competition breeds innovation. Yes, we are one planet and one species, but our species is Human and we have an innate nature to compete!

Competition may breed innovation, but surely it's not the truism you suggest.

Sears is an example of how the introduction of internal competition does not lead to useful innovation - http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2013/07/16/do-inter...

(It may lead to increased levels of backstabbing, but that's hardly innovative.)

Humans are a social species, so also have an innate nature to cooperate.

Also, the concept of 'country' is a rather recent invention. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nation_state#History_and_origi... for some context. It's certainly possible that kohanz's "hope [that] we someday get to the point where no one really cares what "country" achieved the next space exploration milestone" can be true yet still have competitiveness.

Perhaps space exploration of 100 years from now will be lead by volunteer teams based on, their WoW clan membership. While preposterous, the teams could still be competitive even if they are not organized by nations.

Re: New Horizons: Nasa spacecraft speeds past Pluto

#130

Post by agildehaus »

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.

It's been a while since I took a physics course, but:

t' = t * (1-v^2/c^2)^(1/2)

t' = 9.5 * (1-16000^2/299792458^2)^(1/2)

t' = 9.5 * 0.99999999857...

(t-t') years = 426.7 milliseconds

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