NASA's New Horizons Flyby of Pluto

[bush_cheney2004]

NASA's New Horizons interplanetary spacecraft will reach closest approach for the Pluto flyby mission in just a few hours. This mission is the last of the great shows that began in the latter part of the 20th century. Since data collection has priority over data transmission back to Earth, most of the high resolution images won't be available for weeks.

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/main/index.html

[Wilber]

Looking forward to that. About half the diameter of Mercury, wonder if that will get them rethinking its planet status.

[Big Guy]

I understand that that there was a previous unsuccessful American mission to Pluto. It was a secret mission and WikiLeaks has only recently released a video taken during that mission:

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?feature=player_embedded&v=9WoM2bHfr48#t=0

I understand that the Americans are reviewing the diet for their space missions.

[eyeball]

Looking forward to that. About half the diameter of Mercury, wonder if that will get them rethinking its planet status.

Didn't the discovery of Eris, a more massive Trans Neptunian Object three times farther out clinch Pluto's classification?

I'd bet the discovery of something like a Mercury sized TNO would throw even more confusion/angst/divisiveness into the 'rethinking'.

[Wilber]

The latest numbers give the same diameters for Pluto and Eris. Don't know about mass.

[eyeball]

Eris is 27% more massive than dwarf planet Pluto, though Pluto is slightly larger by volume. Eris' mass is about 0.27% of the Earth's mass.

Wiki

For all we know there are super-giant snowballs even farther out in the Oort Cloud.

[bush_cheney2004]

Pluto has a big heart.....

[WWWTT]

I can break this topic down to two sub topics from my perspective.

The US missions into space. Including missions from other countries or lack of.

And the orbits that the planets are on.

I find the orbits very fascinating! There could be other planets out there that we're not aware of that could come into our view?

WWWTT

[bush_cheney2004]

I find the orbits very fascinating! There could be other planets out there that we're not aware of that could come into our view?

Not likely...New Horizons spacecraft is headed further into the Kuiper Belt and Ort Cloud but not at any specific opportunity. Lots of small icy stuff out there. New Horizons will transmit flyby data for the next 16 months and eventually leave our solar system like other U.S. space probes (Voyager, Pioneer, etc.), communicating as long as the RTG power source has enough juice.

[Bonam]

New Horizons data taken successfully and contact re-established after closest approach to Pluto. Should have lots of juicy photos tomorrow, I'm excited!

[WWWTT]

Not likely...New Horizons spacecraft is headed further into the Kuiper Belt and Ort Cloud but not at any specific opportunity. Lots of small icy stuff out there. New Horizons will transmit flyby data for the next 16 months and eventually leave our solar system like other U.S. space probes (Voyager, Pioneer, etc.), communicating as long as the RTG power source has enough juice.

Ya I didn't think that this craft would really find another unknown planet directly.

Perhaps info that it collects can be used?

WWWTT

[bush_cheney2004]

Ya I didn't think that this craft would really find another unknown planet directly.

Perhaps info that it collects can be used?

Yes, the spacecraft will still send back lots of data that is useful for many years. Solar coronal mas ejections, solar winds, interstellar medium, etc.

New Horizons has two plasma instruments for detecting such things. If more mission funding is forthcoming (very likely), then planning and support for more science will continue.

Here is an example from Voyager 1, still operating after almost 38 years in space.

http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/news/sun_sends_tsunami.html

[WWWTT]

Yes, the spacecraft will still send back lots of data that is useful for many years. Solar coronal mas ejections, solar winds, interstellar medium, etc.

Yes that stuff is beyond my comprehension unless I immersed myself into it to understand.

Orbital paths is a little simpler.

Still hard to justify the cost for the reward.

What are the practical applications?

WWWTT

[bush_cheney2004]

Still hard to justify the cost for the reward.

What are the practical applications?

It's not that much...NASA's budget for planetary exploration is a mere rounding error for the total U.S. federal budget....couple billion each year.

Apart from the raw science and discovery, retaining the domestic infrastructure and ability to do these things is of strategic importance to the U.S. We can see what happened when a man-rated launch system was no longer available to the U.S. after the shuttle program was wrapped. Internationally, there are payloads and science packages that will never get to solar system objects if not attempted, and the Deep Space radio telescope network would suffer as well (funding).

[Bonam]

Charon:

Mountains on Pluto:

[WWWTT]

Here's a rock'n roll connection to this story

https://www.facebook.com/tomshardware/photos/a.10152537419224676.1073741826.85367264675/10154084330619676/?type=1

WWWTT