New Horizons

[Frida Space]

Pluto also has equatorial spots

Just as Triton!

Still waiting for the new, post-anomaly images to come down. They should arrive tonight, according to multiple sources

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Just wanted to share with you these photos of the Mission Control Center in Laurel, Maryland. The first photo shows the mission scientists cheering after New Horizons resumed normal operations today. The guy in the front is Randy Gladstone, Atmosphere lead for New Horizons, which I'm happy to say I know pretty well and he's a great guy. I almost prefer these photos from the ones of Pluto because they show the "human" side of a robotic mission, and it makes me want to be there so bad!!

[Camacha]

That left hat is pretty neat It is great to see capable people not taking themselves too seriously (though one might argue it actually takes a capable person to do that).

[Mitchz95]

I really want a New Horizons hat.

[Camacha]

I really want a New Horizons hat.

It looks homebrew, as the dish seems to be a plastic or paper diner plate, so with a little effort one could be had

[Kryten]

I strongly suspect those are repurposed Green Bay Packers cheesehead hats.

[Frida Space]

www.nasa.gov/feature/new-horizons-map-of-pluto-the-whale-and-the-donut

[LordFerret]

It appears some data is missing.

[smjjames]

Probably because we don't have a good view of the southern hemisphere.

[NFUN]

I strongly suspect those are repurposed Green Bay Packers cheesehead hats.

You can even see the holes (for containers of dip?) in the guy's on the right.

[Frida Space]

It appears some data is missing.

Pluto rotates almost sideways. One pole is always in the shadow, and it stays there a century or so

[LordFerret]

Just saw this in the news...

"... a new hour-long special, "Direct from Pluto: The First Encounter," premiering on the Science Channel on Wednesday, July 15, at 10 p.m. ET/PT. ..." -

http://news.yahoo.com/direct-pluto-science-channel-air-horizons-flyby-images-160710295.html

[Aethon]

The image was taken on July 7, when the spacecraft was just under 5 million miles (8 million kilometers) from Pluto, and is the first to be received since the July 4 anomaly that sent the spacecraft into safe mode.

http://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-s-new-horizons-a-heart-from-pluto-as-flyby-begins

Edited July 8, 2015 by Aethon

[klesh]

Its strange, none of my friends have any interest in this. Quite the shame. All they can manage is "Too bad its not even a planet anymore". Lol.

[Robotengineer]

Its strange, none of my friends have any interest in this. Quite the shame. All they can manage is "Too bad its not even a planet anymore". Lol.

This is likely going to be the last major scientific fly-by, people should be paying attention just for that.

[Kerbart]

It appears some data is missing.

The data is there but can only be obtained by unlocking more of the science tree.

[Frida Space]

Pluto loves us!

[Camacha]

This is likely going to be the last major scientific fly-by, people should be paying attention just for that.

Who cares whether it is the first or the last, we are the first group of humans to see this type of object up close. This is the type of stuff you read in the books about and of which you wish you were there to see it.

I also doubt it will be the last fly-by, if you want to research distant objects in the Kuiper Belt and do it before you or your probe dies, a fly-by is pretty much the only answer. Putting a permanent probe way out there costs a lot of time, probably too much to make it viable in at least the political sense.

[basic.syntax]

Pluto was "the ninth planet" for most of my life, I place significance on seeing the first, most detailed imagery of it. But some people won't care, no matter how you talk about it.

[Hcube]

I was talking about NH with some friends and all of them said something along the lines of "it's boring there is no lander and rover"

They wouldn't believe it was so hard.

So i used v=sqrt(GM(2/R)) to calculate how much NH would need to slow down at its closest approach to get into a prefectly circular orbit. I am lazy so i did it quickly and found an orbital speed of 2131m.s^-1 or so, wich is about 10K m.s^-1 deltaV extra (i was told NH would be moving at about 12km.s^-1 at closest approach, not sure, might have to check that and calculate again. Anyone care to check ?

And to my surprise very few of them stared at me, and they may have gotten interested in NH

[Frida Space]

was told NH would be moving at about 12km.s^-1 at closest approach, not sure, might have to check that and calculate again. Anyone care to check ?

On July 14th, New Horizons will be travelling at 13.78 km/s relative to Pluto and 13.87 km/s relative to Charon.

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Also (I'm sorry if it's in Italian, but what is important are the two images), in case anyone didn't know, New Horizons' flyby will occur exactly 50 years after Mariner 4's Mars flyby, which gave us the first-ever close up looks of another planet. 50 years ago we started photographing the solar system, and now, 50 years later, we are completing our first full survey of the solar system. This gives me goosebumps.

[Endersmens]

On July 14th, New Horizons will be travelling at 13.78 km/s relative to Pluto and 13.87 km/s relative to Charon.

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Also (I'm sorry if it's in Italian, but what is important are the two images), in case anyone didn't know, New Horizons' flyby will occur exactly 50 years after Mariner 4's Mars flyby, which gave us the first-ever close up looks of another planet. 50 years ago we started photographing the solar system, and now, 50 years later, we are completing our first full survey of the solar system. This gives me goosebumps.

https://scontent-mxp1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpt1/t31.0-8/11705545_360416247502437_442340754544158828_o.png

Woah....That is truly amazing. Only 50 years to survey all the planets in our system. Crazy.

[Motokid600]

The diversity is already WAY more then I ever imagined. This is getting exiting. I remember watching "The Planets" documentary of the Yoyager flybys. It was that show that helped get me into astronomy. The images of Io in particular are what really captivated me. Seeing actual.. cliffs. And mountain formations and freaking LAVA pits. I was astounded. And I too had wished I was there to witness it first hand myself. So to see THIS? And people complain how nothing monumental in space will ever happen in our lifetimes...

Pluto! That stupid dog! I cant wait.

[Camacha]

Also (I'm sorry if it's in Italian, but what is important are the two images), in case anyone didn't know, New Horizons' flyby will occur exactly 50 years after Mariner 4's Mars flyby, which gave us the first-ever close up looks of another planet. 50 years ago we started photographing the solar system, and now, 50 years later, we are completing our first full survey of the solar system. This gives me goosebumps.

I do not want to rain on an inspiring story, but I feel I have to. We hardly surveyed the solar system in full. We only surveyed a couple of large bodies, but when it comes to moons and dwarf planets we have hardly seen anything at all. Not to mention the asteroid belt, different types of comets, Kuiper belt objects, the Oort cloud, et cetera.

We learnt one thing well in the past 50 years - that the solar system is a lot more extensive than what we first thought. The squabbling about what constitutes a planet is silly, every world is a beautiful and so far unique part of the solar system. There are many objects out there, waiting to be explored and surveyed for the first time and providing research material for the foreseeable future and well beyond. That is one inspiring story to run with

And I too had wished I was there to witness it first hand myself. So to see THIS? And people complain how nothing monumental in space will ever happen in our lifetimes..

Having New Horizons, Rosetta and Dawn sending back new and exciting pictures all at the same time is almost too much Our knowledge is literally expanding by the day, possibly even hour or minute, seeing things no one in the solar system has ever seen before.

Edited July 9, 2015 by Camacha

[Frida Space]

Sure, fair point, what I wanted to say was that, with New Horizons' encounter, we'll have explored all three of the Solar System's areas and at least one of every different kind of body (planets, dwarf planets, asteroids, comets, KBOs etc). I too believe other KBOs such as Haumea, Makemake and Quaoar will turn out to be very, very different from Pluto when we eventually see them up close too, but still, they should be much more similar to Pluto than, say, to Venus.

Yes, we still have large uncharted territories (take the Oort Cloud, for example), but with Pluto's flyby we are completing our fist survey of the "classical" solar system, if you will.

[Camacha]

with Pluto's flyby we are completing our fist survey of the "classical" solar system, if you will.

That we sure did... will have done... you get the point Though it is pretty frustrating that manned space flight is barely moving forward, robotic missions are plentiful and rather successful to boot. How glorious to see that hazy Hubble shot transformed into a crisp view from the front row. The Vesta, Ceres and 67P images are all also very exciting, they fundamentally changed my view (and most likely all our views) of the objects from something abstract into something tangible and actually out there. No need to imagine any more, just open up your browser.