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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

#271

Post by duskwuff »

aunty_helen wrote: post #268
biot wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Russians had some amazing firsts with Venus, depending on how you define "visit": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venera "Among the other results, probes of the series became the first man-made devices to enter the atmosphere of another planet (Venera 4 on October 18, 1967), to make a soft landing on another planet (Venera 7 on December 15, 1970), to return images from the planetary surface (Venera 9 on June 8, 197…

They were also first to test the characteristics of a lens cap on another planet in one of their most infamous science experiments.

In an infamous series of science experiments, no less:

* One of the two cameras on Venera 9 failed to function because the lens cap didn't come off properly.

* Ditto for Venera 10.

* Venera 11 broke the trend by having lens caps fail to come off of BOTH cameras.

* Venera 12... same thing.

* Venera 13, ironically, broke the curse. The lens caps came off properly, and both cameras functioned.

* Venera 14 had both cameras function as well. However, it had a unique new problem: the lens cap landed directly under the lander's soil probe, and it ended up measuring the compressibility of the lens cap.

Re: New Horizons: Nasa spacecraft speeds past Pluto

#272

Post by umeshunni »

murbard2 wrote: post #267
grinich wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A bullet travels about 1,700 MPH. New Horizons is going about 36,300 MPH. The probe weighs 480 kilograms, so it's kinetic energy is approximately 63.2 Gigajoules. For reference, this is like 15 tonnes of TNT released on impact. Hard to make something that survives those kind of conditions.

You don't have to crash/land the entire probe, you could land a lightweight sensor that was carried by the probe and which requires little fuel to decelerate.

The sensor will need to send data back, so it can't be too light weight.

Re: New Horizons: Nasa spacecraft speeds past Pluto

#273

Post by z3t4 »

kartikkumar wrote: post #89

Quote from a friend of mine on the team: "After 9.5 years and 6 billion km, we made it to Pluto 72 seconds ahead of schedule." Amazing! The views of Pluto and Charon already reveal how incredibly fascinating this system is. The dichotomy of their surface colours will most definitely lead to further insight into formation processes in the Kuiper Belt. Just such a shame that we can't land this time around. With the vol…

Cant you just "dock" with the planet, by slowly matching the speed of the moving body using a Hohmann transfer!?

Re: New Horizons: Nasa spacecraft speeds past Pluto

#274

Post by lmm »

z3t4 wrote: post #273
kartikkumar wrote: post #89

Quote from a friend of mine on the team: "After 9.5 years and 6 billion km, we made it to Pluto 72 seconds ahead of schedule." Amazing! The views of Pluto and Charon already reveal how incredibly fascinating this system is. The dichotomy of their surface colours will most definitely lead to further insight into formation processes in the Kuiper Belt. Just such a shame that we can't land this time around. With the vol…

Cant you just "dock" with the planet, by slowly matching the speed of the moving body using a Hohmann transfer!?

Any change in orbit takes thrust; whether you do it slowly or quickly the required delta-V is the same. New Horizons used a gravity assist from Jupiter to get up to speed, but there's no conveniently placed Jupiter to help it slow down.

Re: New Horizons: Nasa spacecraft speeds past Pluto

#275

Post by lmm »

gambiting wrote: post #67
Arjuna wrote: post #52

In honor of Clyde William Tombaugh [1], the astronomer who discovered Pluto, a canister [2] containing his ashes is on-board the New Horizons space probe. It reads: "Interned herein are remains of American Clyde W. Tombaugh, discoverer of Pluto and the Solar System's 'Third Zone.' Adelle and Muron's boy, Patricia's husband, Annette and Alden's father, astronomer, teacher, punster, and friend: Clyde W. Tombaugh (1906…

It's interesting that by sending his remains on that probe we basically guaranteed that at least some human remains will survive millions of years in interstellar space, unless of course, New Horizons collides with something(which I guess it will, given enough time?).

There's a very moving passage towards the end of Stephen Baxter's Deep Future that talks about a space probe as potentially the last evidence of humanity's existence.

Re: New Horizons: Nasa spacecraft speeds past Pluto

#276

Post by lmm »

jessaustin wrote: post #224
ars wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They can use Americium-241, it's not quite as good, but it has some advantages, plus it's in much larger supply.

One can just imagine the complaints about the name of that fuel...

It seems like just the ticket to get a certain contingent on board. "The noble probe will remain stout and true; in the freezing depths of space it will be warmed by the Americium it carries in its heart."

Re: New Horizons: Nasa spacecraft speeds past Pluto

#277

Post by lmm »

andor436 wrote: post #70
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…

Have you never attended a European football match?!

I have, and I feel like they bring out the worst in my people.

Re: New Horizons: Nasa spacecraft speeds past Pluto

#278

Post by socceroos »

idlewords wrote: post #234
danbruc wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I fear that won't work. The speed relative to Pluto during closest approach was 13.78 meters every millisecond, I can't imagine that anything larger than a grain of sand will not behave like a liquid upon impact.

Even a grain of sand will go boom. Here's what a particle of similar size did to the space shuttle windshield, traveling at half the speed of New Horizons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Space_debris_impact_...

wow.

Re: New Horizons: Nasa spacecraft speeds past Pluto

#279

Post by oldmanjay »

istvan__ wrote: post #248
tgcordell wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Would you mind explaining to me what sort of competition was the Chinese empire facing when they invented the compass? Just want to point out the fallacy in your logic.

Your rebuttal would be valid if the OP had said "all innovation is bred by competition."

Re: New Horizons: Nasa spacecraft speeds past Pluto

#280

Post by EarthLaunch »

HarryHirsch wrote: post #75
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…

What if Germany, France and Scandinavia were superior to the US? The murder rate in the US is 3 times higher than in Europe, French banlieues are pretty harsh but have nothing on Northeast Philly, creationism is a non-issue on the Old Continent outside minor communities, and US healthcare is a total mess. I saw this video the other night about a team of physicians going somewhere near Bristol, TN. What's this? It's s…

You're trapped either way. If being objectively superior is the criteria for celebration (or as you see it, bragging), then the US trounces any of those countries in space and can be celebrated. If superiority were irrelevant, then it would be fine for the US to celebrate also.

I think this view of celebration as bragging is your real issue.

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