Pluto New Horizons satellite flyby

[.S&C.]

I've actually been focused on this quite a bit. I'm somewhat into amateur astronomy myself. Love to take my reflector scope out with my family to elevated locations. What are everyones thoughts? Is this cool or a waste of money? If you haven't kept up, New Horizons was built by nasa and launched for destination Pluto which is nearly in the Kuiper belt over 4.6 billions miles from earth. Mission New Horizons was launched back in January of 2006. It took nearly 10 years to arrive at its target, moving faster than any man made object has ever gone before, 36,000 MPH. Relative to that, Pluto is only 13 light hours form earth. It takes 4 hours to relay messages back to earth from the satellite. Pictures below of Pluto and it's newly discovered valleys and mountain ranges.

The next destination will be the Kuiper belt, and then beyond. New Horizons will be sending collected data back from the mission that will take another 18 months. After that, it will send as much data back until power is lost for good around 2030. The satellite will then drift through the vacuum of space powerless.

One side note, If it ever reaches a civilization, it was programmed with lots of information about us, language, our solar system etc. Some want the mission commanders to point it toward the nearest galaxy (andromeda) before it loses power.

Pretty cool stuff.

 

[Lord_Crow]

I don't think it is a good idea to be advertising ourselves to potentially more advanced beings with unpredictable consequences. The natural order of things historically is that the more advanced fellows kill off the lesser ones. I agree with Stephen Hawking on this one. Explore, yes. Send out signals randomly across the universe, no.

Also, I thought they decided awhile back to no longer classify Pluto as a planet? When did they change that... again?

 

[Glenn's take]

Pluto is still officially a dwarf planet along with about a thousand others in that part of the solar system. Still only 8. Thanks a lot Neil de Grasse Tyson!!!!!!

 

[BlueRaider22]

Jim Lovell: "Imagine if Christopher Columbus had come back from the New World and no one returned in his footsteps." -Apollo 13

I am in favor of us exploring space, but.....
-I would first prefer to pump the money to help other humans locally and around the Earth.
-If we still pump money into space, I would rather the money be spent to further explore closer to the Earth. It was very interesting to explore Pluto, but I think it would've been more beneficial to explore Mars or Venus more closely.

 

[ThroughBlue]

We have a rover on Mars. Thats about as close as it is going to get for awhile.

 

[BlueRaider22]

^How much further would we have explored if we'd have taken the money from the Pluto project and dumped it into further Mars exploration?

Besides, having 1 rover on a planet is like putting a small hover drone in Harlan, KY......have it search around for a month......then say, "Well, we've seen all this planet has to offer....."

 

[LordEgg]

the pluto thing is natural to do. it was 700 million to do. thats peanuts to our government.

 

[ThroughBlue]

Its going further than Pluto and will be sending stuff back until 2030. I think thats pretty significant. Our government knows a lot more about space than what they lead to believe though.

 

[Ryan Lemonds Diary]

Dang it I thought the Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and the Rebel Alliance destroyed the Death Star.

 

[BlueRaider22]

the pluto thing is natural to do. it was 700 million to do. thats peanuts to our government.

You know, you're right.....what's $700 million when you are >$18 trillion in debt?

 

[.S&C.]

I don't think it is a good idea to be advertising ourselves to potentially more advanced beings with unpredictable consequences. The natural order of things historically is that the more advanced fellows kill off the lesser ones. I agree with Stephen Hawking on this one. Explore, yes. Send out signals randomly across the universe, no.

Also, I thought they decided awhile back to no longer classify Pluto as a planet? When did they change that... again?

They haven't changed it as its still a dwarf, but science was so wrong on Pluto everything is being called into question.

I agree, Nasa sending out random signals is insane and I wish they'd stop doing it.

 

[warrior-cat]

Yeah, I sent random signals on Facebook when I first got on and 2 ex-girlfriends tried to contact me so my wife cut my fun-ding. We had an account for about a month before we decided it was not a good idea. True story, sort of.

 

[.S&C.]

^How much further would we have explored if we'd have taken the money from the Pluto project and dumped it into further Mars exploration?

Besides, having 1 rover on a planet is like putting a small hover drone in Harlan, KY......have it search around for a month......then say, "Well, we've seen all this planet has to offer....."

I hear ya I'm just so f'in bored with Mars exploration.

 

[WildcatFan1982]

NASA funding is like half a penny on the dollar...

 

[BlueRaider22]

I think a nice logical step would be to place structure on some of these places. Maybe on the moon or Mars.....sorta like a "on ground" version of the ISS.

 

[.S&C.]

NASA funding is like half a penny on the dollar...

Which is too much, but I love the space exploration so much I'd have a hard time cutting it.

I think a nice logical step would be to place structure on some of these places. Maybe on the moon or Mars.....sorta like a "on ground" version of the ISS.

Yea according to the conspiracist among us we are already doing it on Mars, lol.

I wish we'd find a way to obtain 1% of the speed of light. I think it's actually possible if we'd start pounding the research there. And if we could achieve this number, space exploration takes on a whole new meaning.

 

[KingOfBBN]

I say we send that damn Bruce Jenner up there with a confederate flag in one hand and his severed dick in another to greet these alien sons of bitches.

 

[.S&C.]

I say we send that damn Bruce Jenner up there with a confederate flag in one hand and his severed dick in another to greet these alien sons of bitches.

That would be SO BRAVE OF SHIM

 

[BlueRaider22]

^Good'nuff for a 2nd Espy.....

 

[Ryan Lemonds Diary]

He deserved the Arthur Ashe courage award for marrying into that train wreck Kardashian family more than he did for getting a sex change to get out of it.

 

[akers65]

No life outside this planet, proof is that we aren't sending foreign aid to anyone off planet


Nice photos

 

[Glenn's take]

You know, I've thought that people that didn't believe life existed on other planets were pretty much crazy but this makes as much sense as anything I've ever heard. I may have to rethink my position.

No life outside this planet, proof is that we aren't sending foreign aid to anyone off planet


Nice photos

 

[FutureCityCats]

I've actually been focused on this quite a bit. I'm somewhat into amateur astronomy myself. Love to take my reflector scope out with my family to elevated locations. What are everyones thoughts? Is this cool or a waste of money? If you haven't kept up, New Horizons was built by nasa and launched for destination Pluto which is nearly in the Kuiper belt over 4.6 billions miles from earth. Mission New Horizons was launched back in January of 2006. It took nearly 10 years to arrive at its target, moving faster than any man made object has ever gone before, 36,000 MPH. Relative to that, Pluto is only 13 light hours form earth. It takes 4 hours to relay messages back to earth from the satellite. Pictures below of Pluto and it's newly discovered valleys and mountain ranges.

The next destination will be the Kuiper belt, and then beyond. New Horizons will be sending collected data back from the mission that will take another 18 months. After that, it will send as much data back until power is lost for good around 2030. The satellite will then drift through the vacuum of space powerless.

One side note, If it ever reaches a civilization, it was programmed with lots of information about us, language, our solar system etc. Some want the mission commanders to point it toward the nearest galaxy (andromeda) before it loses power.

Pretty cool stuff.

Yep, pretty cool stuff indeed. Amazing. FCC.

 

[FutureCityCats]

Yep, pretty cool. FCC.

 

[SosaUK]

I say we send that damn Bruce Jenner up there with a confederate flag in one hand and his severed dick in another to greet these alien sons of bitches.

It's name is Caitlyn. Get it right.

 

[ymmot31]

Pluto is only 13 light hours form earth. It takes 4 hours to relay messages back to earth from the satellite.

Now that we've established sub-space communication, a warp drive can't be far behind.

 

[Ziusudra]

The topic earlier about spending more money on Mars is an interesting one. Perhaps we'll spin off into a new thread on the science of possibly terraforming Mars as the value of such an endeavor would be priceless were it successful and the science to do so is nearly at hand.

 

[ymmot31]

The topic earlier about spending more money on Mars is an interesting one. Perhaps we'll spin off into a new thread on the science of possibly terraforming Mars as the value of such an endeavor would be priceless were it successful and the science to do so is nearly at hand.

I would send LEK down to the surface of Mars if he would agree to wear a red uniform shirt.

 

[Ophiuchus]

National Geographic making Mars the new Earth:

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/big-idea/07/mars

 

[BlueRaider22]

^Couldnt they just start the alien reactor?

 

[ThroughBlue]

We haven't mastered the human body enough to survive on Mars. We have to master living on earth and fighting earth disease before we can go to Mars and expect to live there. That's not even taking into account what would have to be done to Mars itself.

 

[BlueRaider22]

^From the National Geographic article above they are anticipating the colonization of Mars to take hundreds of yrs......we can certainly learn a lot about the human body in several hundred yrs.

Heck, I'm in healthcare and it amazes me what we know now than what we knew 5 yrs ago.

 

[DaBossIsBack]

Colonization of Mars and beyond is definitely going to be part of the evolution. I would like to see us focusing more time and resources on becoming a fully realized type 1 civilization though. It will open the door to so much more.

 

[Chuckinden]

I love reading about space exploration and both sides have good arguments regarding whether it's worth it. I'm happy that we do spend the money for it, but I wish we could do more multiple country sharing process. That being said, I know that's difficult on many levels. One is the technology we obtain for military purposes, two is the fact of quality control when depending on other countries. There have been so much gained from the technology to the civilian population. How do you put a price on that?

 

[akers65]

I say we send that damn Bruce Jenner up there with a confederate flag in one hand and his severed dick in another to greet these alien sons of bitches.

Thanks that's the best laugh I've had in a while

 

[ymmot31]

 

[WayneDougan]

I don't think it is a good idea to be advertising ourselves to potentially more advanced beings with unpredictable consequences. The natural order of things historically is that the more advanced fellows kill off the lesser ones. I agree with Stephen Hawking on this one. Explore, yes. Send out signals randomly across the universe, no.

I'm pretty sure that an advanced civilization isn't sitting around waiting for signals from random spots in the universe, and upon receiving them says "great - let's go there and kill everybody".

 

[WayneDougan]

I love reading about space exploration and both sides have good arguments regarding whether it's worth it. I'm happy that we do spend the money for it, but I wish we could do more multiple country sharing process. That being said, I know that's difficult on many levels. One is the technology we obtain for military purposes, two is the fact of quality control when depending on other countries. There have been so much gained from the technology to the civilian population. How do you put a price on that?

Show some pride son. Besides, the last thing you want to do is have a bunch of foreigners trying to tell us what to do.

 

[WayneDougan]

^From the National Geographic article above they are anticipating the colonization of Mars to take hundreds of yrs......we can certainly learn a lot about the human body in several hundred yrs.

Heck, I'm in healthcare and it amazes me what we know now than what we knew 5 yrs ago.

I'm not sure why you'd want to colonize Mars. No atmosphere, no protection from the sun or meteors. It seems it would be easier and safer to do a lot of cool things on Earth first.

 

[Glenn's take]

I'm not sure why you'd want to colonize Mars. No atmosphere, no protection from the sun or meteors. It seems it would be easier and safer to do a lot of cool things on Earth first.

Go there and start pumping out greenhouse gases. It will become like Earth. Not overnight but it would happen.