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Pluto mission has a complication: We don't know exactly where the planet is
Posted on 6/25/15 at 11:21 pm
Posted on 6/25/15 at 11:21 pm
quote:
Some 4.7 billion kilometres from Earth, the New Horizons spacecraft is heading for a historic rendezvous with Pluto. To achieve this, it will need to hit a very small target: an imaginary rectangle in space measuring just 100 by 150 kilometres.
Mission navigators need to put New Horizons precisely in that area to ensure that the spacecraft can make all planned science observations during its 14 July fly-by of Pluto — the first ever of that distant dwarf planet.
For now, the spacecraft is on target. But getting to Pluto is one of the hardest tasks in interplanetary navigation, and crucial decisions will be made in the next week and a half. The last chance to change the spacecraft’s flight path comes on 4 July.
Because astronomers discovered the dwarf planet in 1930, they have seen only part of its 248-year path around the Sun, and they don’t know exactly where Pluto is. And New Horizons is so far from Earth that it takes 9 hours to send and receive a signal, making the spacecraft hard to direct in real time.
LINK
Posted on 6/25/15 at 11:37 pm to weagle99
quote:
Pluto
quote:
planet
Is it still?
Posted on 6/25/15 at 11:37 pm to John McClane
How do they send signals to it?
Might be a simple question but I don't understand how the craft is connected to a computer.
Might be a simple question but I don't understand how the craft is connected to a computer.
Posted on 6/25/15 at 11:39 pm to weagle99
This is a time where saying thanks, Obama really works.
Posted on 6/25/15 at 11:43 pm to The Boat
quote:
This is a time where saying thanks, Obama really works.
The guy who has been slashing the NASA budget?
Posted on 6/25/15 at 11:47 pm to weagle99
It blows my mind that it takes 248 years for pluto to orbit the sun, but there is still enough pull that many miles away to keep it in orbit. Why wouldnt the planet (eh former planet) just float out into the kuiper belt.
This post was edited on 6/25/15 at 11:48 pm
Posted on 6/25/15 at 11:48 pm to Sentrius
quote:
Is it still?
I don't believe so, but I guess it's arbitrary to some extent.
Posted on 6/25/15 at 11:50 pm to weagle99
They got this.
One thing about this pluto mission is they are great at drumming up excitement.
Where the other planet flybys hyped this well.
One thing about this pluto mission is they are great at drumming up excitement.
Where the other planet flybys hyped this well.
Posted on 6/25/15 at 11:51 pm to Breesus
quote:
The guy who has been slashing the NASA budget?
Yeah that's the joke
Posted on 6/26/15 at 12:56 am to Jim Rockford
Pluto you sob stop hiding and come up with your hands up or we'll nuke you!
Pluto is so small and far away, I wonder what would happen if we dropped instruments on it. Temps got to be close to 2 or 3 Kelvin right?
Pluto is so small and far away, I wonder what would happen if we dropped instruments on it. Temps got to be close to 2 or 3 Kelvin right?
Posted on 6/26/15 at 1:00 am to mailman
More like 50 kelvin, but holy shite space is cold. I'm happy here on earth near the gulf I'll be!
Posted on 6/26/15 at 2:04 am to weagle99
quote:
the first ever of that distant dwarf planet.
It prefers to be called a size-challenged planet.
Posted on 6/26/15 at 6:31 am to weagle99
This is the greatest country that will ever exist on the Earth.
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