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New Horizons

r4pt0r

By r4pt0r
in Science & Spaceflight

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Emperoreddy

Emperoreddy

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Yeah, getting close. Been watching New Horizons "live" with NASA's Eyes. Looks like it turned its antenna toward Earth a bit ago. I wonder if there are pictures on the way. Guess we'll find out in about four hours or so.

Maybe turned to get a look at Nix and Hydra? The facebook update said it was taking some photos of the smaller moons not to long ago.

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Emperoreddy

Emperoreddy

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[h=5]New Horizons

[/h]47 mins ·

On to the teeny tiny moons Kerberos & Styx! Did you know my science team found them after I launched? ‪#‎PlutoFlyBy‬ http://t.co/tudRSnAm3M

From the facebook page. Was 47 minutes ago from this post. So ya most likely it rotating around to observe the smaller moons.

If the Eyes simulation is to be trusted, there won't be another connection to Earth until sometime early tomorrow. I think at around 200K out.

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Emperoreddy

Emperoreddy

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Whats the link to the NASA eyes thing? and any other links I should be watching?

Found the link, but any other stuff I should look at?

Follow New Horizons on social media. They have been good with being really up to date with info. Maybe follow NASA too.

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smjjames

smjjames

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LORRI finished and now ALICE is looking back at Charon.

Anyways, a thought occured to me, if they had put the antenna where the RTG is, they'd need a whole lot less maneuvering around to point at Earth.

Edit: Light takes 9 hours to reach Earth from where NH is, right? So, we'll be getting those high-res images at the same time it goes through closest approach tomorrow morning.

Edit2: Why are the ALICE and RALPH instruments now scanning empty patches of sky?

Edited by smjjames
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Fail-o-matic

Fail-o-matic

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LORRI finished and now ALICE is looking back at Charon.

Anyways, a thought occured to me, if they had put the antenna where the RTG is, they'd need a whole lot less maneuvering around to point at Earth.

Edit: Light takes 9 hours to reach Earth from where NH is, right? So, we'll be getting those high-res images at the same time it goes through closest approach tomorrow morning.

Edit2: Why are the ALICE and RALPH instruments now scanning empty patches of sky?

Maybe for realignment? Lots of twisting and turning

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Emperoreddy

Emperoreddy

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Most likely was just rotating around. It was observing Charon for a while then seemed to switch back around for Pluto.

If I looked at it correctly. The plan seems to be to down one more down link to Earth at around 2:30AM EST and then that is it until sometime way later tomorrow post fly by.

Edit: Looking at the simulation for what just happened. It seems that the probe did a long sweep with Ralph and Alice. Apparently its built to do long sweeps starting from outside the system and running through it.

Someone more versed with the mission then me can explain why they the probe does that. What you were seeing was it coming back around after finishing one of those wide sweeps.

LORRI finished and now ALICE is looking back at Charon.

Anyways, a thought occured to me, if they had put the antenna where the RTG is, they'd need a whole lot less maneuvering around to point at Earth.

Edit: Light takes 9 hours to reach Earth from where NH is, right? So, we'll be getting those high-res images at the same time it goes through closest approach tomorrow morning.

Edit2: Why are the ALICE and RALPH instruments now scanning empty patches of sky?

Edited by Emperoreddy
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Kilmeister

Kilmeister

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Well I was watching soccer mostly, but watching this as well. How accurate is this simulation? Because if it's pretty accurate it makes me wonder why they would take a 2 and half hour transmit period only 25 minutes after closest approach.

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smjjames

smjjames

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Well I was watching soccer mostly, but watching this as well. How accurate is this simulation? Because if it's pretty accurate it makes me wonder why they would take a 2 and half hour transmit period only 25 minutes after closest approach.

It would also make them miss the chance for seeing the sun through the edge of the atmosphere. Which has been mentioned somewhere that they were planning on doing.

Anyways, I wonder how well it can see Pioneer 11 and the Voyagers from there.....

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Kilmeister

Kilmeister

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It would also make them miss the chance for seeing the sun through the edge of the atmosphere. Which has been mentioned somewhere that they were planning on doing.

But none of the sensors are looking that way, just the high gain. But if Rex and Alice are on I guess they are just measuring how far out an atmosphere extends???

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Emperoreddy

Emperoreddy

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It was mentioned that they wanted to send a transmission near the closest approach to measure how the signal travels through the atmosphere to more data on I believe its density. Basically the atmosphere should change the speed of the signal and allow them to gain extra data.

Someone can fact check this, but I know for certain they wanted to send a transmission through the actual atmosphere.

They are going to attempt to take some photos post flyby with LORRI and hope that Charonshine illuminates the dark side enough to get some higher resolution pics of the side we have looked at over the past few days, but its not a gigantic priority because I don't think they expect there to be enough light. The simulation has some short links back with Earth during the day tomorrow post fly by. Most likely to send some pics back and maybe updated instructions if the team wants to get another look at something. Doesn't seem they plan to start doing the massive data dumps until late tomorrow night when the probe is about 500K away or more. that is when they have hours of connections with earth planned.

Edit: "Afterwards, as New Horizons streams away from Pluto, it will turn around and map the dwarf planet’s night side, which will be softly illuminated by Charon’s moonlight. During this phase of the mission, the probe’s antenna will receive a powerful radio beam from Earth, aimed in such a way that it will pass through Pluto’s atmosphere. The resulting measurements will allow scientists to map the temperature, density, and composition of the atmosphere right down to the surface." http://io9.com/what-to-expect-in-the-leadup-to-new-horizons-historic-f-1716223636

Well I was watching soccer mostly, but watching this as well. How accurate is this simulation? Because if it's pretty accurate it makes me wonder why they would take a 2 and half hour transmit period only 25 minutes after closest approach.
Edited by Emperoreddy
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Kilmeister

Kilmeister

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It was mentioned that they wanted to send a transmission near the closest approach to measure how the signal travels through the atmosphere to more data on I believe its density. Basically the atmosphere should change the speed of the signal and allow them to gain extra data.

Someone can fact check this, but I know for certain they wanted to send a transmission through the actual atmosphere.

They are going to attempt to take some photos post flyby with LORRI and hope that Charonshine illuminates the dark side enough to get some higher resolution pics of the side we have looked at over the past few days, but its not a gigantic priority because I don't think they expect there to be enough light.

Ahh Yeah, I didn't think of the lighting issue on the far side. And that's cool that they're going to be using a transmitter for a measurement device.

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