notsosmart

^ this. Plus, things haven't changed that much:

....and we thought the Apollo program was overthought, with all its docking action going on...

Thanks for the effort you're putting in this thread, dude. If it wasn't for the whole Pluto aerobraking debate halfway in this thread, it would be one the best I've ever seen in the Labs. Keep it up!

Yes but.... NASA said it? do you work for NASA or are you better than any of their scientists? If so, feel free to delete the thread, but if not, I don't see why you should say something like that.

I guess that's exactly what he was trying to avoid with the first line. This has nothing to do with Earth sciences, it's more exoplanetology/exobiology.

I think the point is whether a civilization can evolve without developing a letal climate change. (Even wind energy, if used too much, can lead to similar results as combustion energy).

Can't wait for the first images!! I know it will be nothing more than a couple of dots, but it will be so exciting!

Three years? Damn! However, I remember it was good fun reading it.

I realize this might be a very stupid question, but it's really bugging me. How can we say the universe might be infinite if it is expanding? I mean, in order to expand itself it must be expanding into something, which in turn means it has a border, which in turn means it's not infinite?

I guess you're referring to me... so yes, I'm sorry to have said that, but again, he was kinda looking for it I'm not sure whether IAU rules apply to surface features, but thinking of how Mercury's craters are all named after musicians/poets/artists, I guess they do apply. So I'd go for something mythological related to the world of the dead or afterlife. - - - Updated - - - There I go, Ninja'd.... And yes, it took me a while to write that reply

LOL, what a jerk. I mean, why are you here if you don't care about space exploration? Exploring a new (sort of) planet is as exciting as space exploration can get.

Reddit IAmA with Alan Stern & a couple of other scientists from the New Horizons mission: www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/..... (This is not live anymore, but I saw you added some of the answers to the thread post, so I thought I'd put the link up so anyone could see it.)

They've been gathering info for several weeks now. See http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/105744-New-Horizons-Pluto-Encounter-Thread

That's.... just... wow. Thanks for sharing.

Yea, I agree. Amino acids are cool and everything, but finding them on a comet or whatever isn't really great stuff. If we had found them for example in the river bed Curiosity discovered on Mars a while back, well that would have definitely been something.

Very interesting. Thanks everyone!

Hi everyone, there's something I have always wondered about, and it came to mind as I was reading about tuesday's launch. So here it is: why did SpaceX change the arrangement of the nine Merlin engines of the F9 first stage from a 3x3 grid to the "octaweb"? Wikipedia just says it increases efficiency, but I was wondering how it does it. I'm sorry if this a stupid questions thanks!

How far away is NH in terms of signal delay? Btw, awesome pictures. I'd fastforward to July right now if I could...

Oh, have I been looking forward to this! My favorite event so far has been Philae's landing (for obvious, sciency reasons). Another event you might want to add to the list is Orion's maden flight!

Thanks for sharing! Great story!!