New Horizons Mission to Pluto

[scubadude]

Good luck little probe- hope you don't "bump" into a tiny pebble of primordial solar system dirt orbiting Pluto in just the wrong place, fingers x'd!

Got the NASA Eyes app up, the tumbling Distance to Pluto figure is mind boggling! The planing and programming required for it to take good pictures of objects travelling at relative speeds of 30000mph demands some respect.

[Eric Mc]

They've been doing this for half a century now so they are quite good at it.

[CrutyRammers]

ash73 said:

Stunning composite image of Jupiter (infra red) and Io (true colour) taken by New Horizons en route to Pluto

Amazing pic. 7 Years old though, must have missed it the first time around.

[scubadude]

Eric Mc said:

They've been doing this for half a century now so they are quite good at it.

Agreed but Space is hard, there have been plenty of failures and there won't be a 2nd chance with this one- its not a rover and some sticky sand :-)

[FunkyNige]

According to Wiki it took NASA up to Ranger 7 before hitting the moon, so hitting anything in the solar system on the first attempt is quite an achievement!
Everything pointing at Nix at the moment, don't think we've seen any pictures of that yet have we?

[Eric Mc]

Think pf all the fly bys they've conducted since 1962.

Mariner 2 - Venus
Mariner 4 - Mars
Mariner 6 - Mars
Mariner 7 - Mars
Mariner 9 - Mars
Pioneer 10 - Jupiter/Saturn
Pioneer 11 - Jupiter/Saturn
Mariner 10 - Venus/Mercury
Voyager 1 - Jupiter/Saturn
Voyager 2 - Jupiter/Saturn/Uranus/Neptune

Not to mention numerous asteroid and comet fly bys.

They do know how to do this at the JPL. Of course they've had the odd failure now and then, but on the whole most of the fly bys have worked as they were supposed to.

[jmorgan]

Damn it. No proper access at work.



Edit. Official tea break.

[Gandahar]

https://instagram.com/p/5HT9Ggksmb/?taken-by=newho...

[Eric Mc]

Closing in now. Only about 13,000 miles to closest approach. Watching NASA EYE as well at the moment.

[funkyrobot]

Gandahar said:

https://instagram.com/p/5HT9Ggksmb/?taken-by=newho...

Wow!

[Gandahar]

funkyrobot said:

Gandahar said:

https://instagram.com/p/5HT9Ggksmb/?taken-by=newho...

Wow!

For nearly all my life seen it as a point of light or blurry photo. It is a new horizon. It is like ancient voyagers at sea seeing something new.

[Eric Mc]

And the last time we will see something as significant in the exploration of our own solar system in my lifetime.

[funkyrobot]

Gandahar said:

funkyrobot said:

Gandahar said:

https://instagram.com/p/5HT9Ggksmb/?taken-by=newho...

Wow!

For nearly all my life seen it as a point of light or blurry photo. It is a new horizon. It is like ancient voyagers at sea seeing something new.

[Eric Mc]

NASA TV is also providing live coverage with interviews etc.

http://www.nasa.gov/

[Gandahar]

Eric Mc said:

NASA TV is also providing live coverage with interviews etc.

http://www.nasa.gov/

I loved the shot of the operations room, as there was nothing to do for them currently the only person in there was hoovering the floor.

[Digger]

Gandahar said:

Eric Mc said:

NASA TV is also providing live coverage with interviews etc.

http://www.nasa.gov/

I loved the shot of the operations room, as there was nothing to do for them currently the only person in there was hoovering the floor.

Aaah. . . . that explains why my screen suddenly went blank. Pesky cleaners.

[funkyrobot]

Digger said:

Aaah. . . . that explains why my screen suddenly went blank. Pesky cleaners.

Just pulled the power plug out of mission control's monitoring systems to attach the hoover.

[Eric Mc]

Spotted Bill Nye in the crowd.

The "live" feed is a good 30 seconds behind the actual events.

[Digger]

I'm assuming they've factored in the transmission delays, so in reality the actual event was some fair old time ago?

[scubadude]

Gandahar said:

https://instagram.com/p/5HT9Ggksmb/?taken-by=newho...

Magnificent image, whets the appetite for the flypast pics.

Surface looks fresher than I expected, clearly some resurfacing mechanism at some point, not just a dead rock.

So that's the classic planet line done, just a KBO or two to do and we'll have as complete a family album of the solar system we're likely to get.