New Horizons Jupiter Encounter Options

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

I thought I'd start a new thread for this:

Jupiter Encounter Begins
January 10, 2007

[climber]

I didn't realize encounter will be up to June.
Do you have material yet to open such a topic for Roseta that will fligh by Mars on feb 27th?
Exciting times once again...

[djellison]

New Horizons launched on Jan 19th 2006 and will fly past Jupiter on Feb 28th.

Comet McNaught pass the orbit of Jupiter about 10 days after the NH Launch - and will be on the way back out, crossing the orbit of Venus when NH makes it's closest approach to Jupiter.

I don't think there's much chance of a competative race on the way back out again though

Doug

[ugordan]

I don't think there's much chance of a competative race on the way back out again though

Not a chance. McNaught is on a very slightly hyperbolic trajectory, but NH will be on a major solar escape trajectory after Jupiter. Poor comet doesn't stand a chance of catching up.

[djellison]

To Plutonian distances - McNaught is several years behind NH - quite something really.

Doug

[general]

How come NH is slowing down, now that it's approaching Jupiter? Its speed used to be 20+ km/s, but the last few weeks it's down to 19.9 km/s, and going slower by the day (currently 19.84 km/s). I'd think it would go faster and faster as it is pulled towards Jupiter.

[djellison]

The 'sphere of influence' for Jupiter hasn't been reached yet - the actual gravity assist period isn't very long.

Doug

[climber]

Call it aphelium of the Hohmann orbit...
(ok, I've got some help from "The Basics of Spaceflight" for the orthograf, but what's wrong with that ?)

[remcook]

Call it aphelium of the Hohmann orbit...

ehm..no Which aphelium? We're talking hyperbolic orbits here

[Bob Shaw]

ehm..no Which aphelium? We're talking hyperbolic orbits here

Hahaha!


Bob Shaw

[climber]

Hahaha!
Bob Shaw

Hahaha !

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

NASA Spacecraft En Route to Pluto Prepares for Jupiter Encounter
RELEASE: 07-012
NASA/JHUAPL
January 18, 2007

Zooming to Pluto, New Horizons Closes in on Jupiter
January 18, 2007

Jupiter Flyby Press Kit (1.8 Mb PDF)

[stevesliva]

The Jupiter & Io LORRI photo caption mentions less turbulence in the Jovian Atmosphere than expected... can someone perhaps put Jupiters seasons in perspective, along with where in the Jovian year NH is vs. when Galileo was there?

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/gallery/missionPho...piterAndIo.html

[volcanopele]

I didn't think Jupiter had seasons per se, since Jupiter (and its satellites) have only a negligible axial tilt. Jupiter's cloud belts and zones go through changes in albedo and amount of turbulence all the time, and I don't think they are tied to seasons. Compare images of Jupiter from the Pioneers, Voyagers, Hubble, Galileo, and now NH.

[yaohua2000]

The 'sphere of influence' for Jupiter hasn't been reached yet - the actual gravity assist period isn't very long.

Doug

I made this page one year earlier, and could be useful:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:New_Hori...ers/2006-Jan-24

[elakdawalla]

Did anyone else watch the press conference? I was sitting in my living room waiting for it to show up on NASA TV, but NASA TV resolutely continued showing archival footage of Apollo 11 up to and past 10 am. I ran to the NASA website and discovered that the press conference was being carried not on their "Public channel" but on their "media channel" -- I guess they now have two channels, which may allow them to put out more stuff, but DirecTV doesn't carry their media channel! Fortunately I figured it out in time and got a good stream on the media channel to watch it on my computer. That was scary for a minute, though.

I've blogged the conference, but didn't mention one thing I found annoying -- a graphic showing New Horizons' speed through the encounter, which used only Imperial units. Of course American missions have to use Imperial units when they address the public, but it's irksome when they don't also include metric. I redrew the graphic with metric units, but didn't wind up using it for the blog, so I'll post it here.

--Emily

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[helvick]

Helluva rollercoaster ride that.

[elakdawalla]

Indeed...I guess New Horizons is now entering that part of the roller coaster ride that goes "tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick" up the first big hill...

--Emily

[yaohua2000]

Did anyone else watch the press conference? I was sitting in my living room waiting for it to show up on NASA TV, but NASA TV resolutely continued showing archival footage of Apollo 11 up to and past 10 am. I ran to the NASA website and discovered that the press conference was being carried not on their "Public channel" but on their "media channel" -- I guess they now have two channels, which may allow them to put out more stuff, but DirecTV doesn't carry their media channel! Fortunately I figured it out in time and got a good stream on the media channel to watch it on my computer. That was scary for a minute, though.

I've blogged the conference, but didn't mention one thing I found annoying -- a graphic showing New Horizons' speed through the encounter, which used only Imperial units. Of course American missions have to use Imperial units when they address the public, but it's irksome when they don't also include metric. I redrew the graphic with metric units, but didn't wind up using it for the blog, so I'll post it here.

--Emily

I think it would be better to be km/s. I can't read km/h for celestial bodies, can you?

[djellison]

I missed it totally ( hope spaceflightnow.com put it up soon ) - but read on the blog that John was kind enough to mention (although thankfully for slashdot like reasons, not by name) the contribution some members here made in finding some nice Kodak moments

Doug

[dvandorn]

I will point out that in the "NASA Gallery" segments on NASA-TV during overnights, they often replay recent press conferences. Sometimes over and over.

So, it's quite possible that those with access to NASA-TV will be able to catch the press conference at some point this evening (or in the wee hours of tomorrow morning) in replay.

-the other Doug

[elakdawalla]

Here you go, a minute and a half from the conference of John Spencer acknowledging the amateurs, recorded with my cruddy little voice recorder. Enjoy.

--Emily

Attached File(s)

 20070118_new_horizons_press_conf.mp3 ( 347.96K ) Number of downloads: 1691

 

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

Did anyone else watch the press conference? I was sitting in my living room waiting for it to show up on NASA TV, but NASA TV resolutely continued showing archival footage of Apollo 11 up to and past 10 am. I ran to the NASA website and discovered that the press conference was being carried not on their "Public channel" but on their "media channel" -- I guess they now have two channels, which may allow them to put out more stuff, but DirecTV doesn't carry their media channel! Fortunately I figured it out in time and got a good stream on the media channel to watch it on my computer. That was scary for a minute, though.
--Emily

This happened to me.. I missed the first 8 minutes because I thought it had been canceled, then found the "media channel"

[ugordan]

Umm... is there a link to the native resolution version of that cool Jupiter and Io image? What's the point of providing a magnified "hi-res" image like that? If one were writing a wish-list, I'd put lossless PNGs as well, but let's not get greedy here

[climber]

That's the advantage of NOT been able to get NasaTV other than with my computer
I watched most of the conference and I liked it very much. People were both very present and quite relaxed, just enjoying the conference and the start of the fly by; very confident in the plans as well as in the spacecraft. I realized that quite a part of the encounter has been developped pretty late. Did I get correctly when Alan said that they'll push NH capabilies during Jupiter fly by even MORE than it'll be pushed when it'll get to Pluto?
Go NH, go ( )

[elakdawalla]

In some senses, Alan said, they were pushing the spacecraft: they have twice as many observations planned for the Jupiter flyby as for their current straw-man Pluto plan (each observation may consist of multiple measurements). He said that based upon the spacecraft's performance, they may increase or reduce the number of observations at Pluto. However, there are some things they'll be doing at Pluto that they won't at Jupiter. For instance, the Pluto plan will have "retargetable" blocks, points in the science plan where the science team can optionally choose different observations, depending upon what they see during approach. They didn't have time to plan that sort of thing for Jupiter.

--Emily

[djellison]

It is on Spaceflightnow.com as a MOV now (I don't know what I'd do without my subscription to that place) - I wonder how many kodak hendric moments made it into the sequencing.

Doug

[Littlebit]

I've blogged the conference, but didn't mention one thing I found annoying -- a graphic showing New Horizons' speed through the encounter, which used only Imperial units. Of course American missions have to use Imperial units when they address the public, but it's irksome when they don't also include metric. I redrew the graphic with metric units, but didn't wind up using it for the blog, so I'll post it here.

Is the date in Greenwich, NY, Texas or Pasadena 'units'

[elakdawalla]

That's a good question. It would seem unlikely that such a graph would be anything but spacecraft time, which would be UT, but I don't actually know.

--Emily

[JRehling]

For instance, the Pluto plan will have "retargetable" blocks, points in the science plan where the science team can optionally choose different observations, depending upon what they see during approach. They didn't have time to plan that sort of thing for Jupiter.

--Emily

That's interesting. Of course, Jupiter has already been the subject of six spacecrafts' imagery and is an easy target for HST, so for the most part, there wouldn't be the same call for change of plan -- a big Io eruption withstanding.

Making last-minute calls during the Pluto encounter could be a gritty affair. Given two alternatives, whatever you choose NOT to observe is going to remain unknown for a long time. Unlike the MERs, you can't sit still for an arbitrary amount of time and hash it out by committe. No pressure on the mission team, though!

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

Pluto Mission News
January 19, 2007
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu

Press Conference Replay

Missed the Jupiter flyby press conference on Jan. 18? Catch the replay this weekend on NASA TV! The event is scheduled to run on the NASA Media and Public channels at 8 a.m., 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. (Eastern Time) on both Saturday and Sunday (Jan. 20-21).

Click here for video links and schedule information.

[Guest_Analyst_*]

This is a question for someone from the New Horizons team (Mr. Stern?): Could you publish (pdf) a detailed Jupiter encounter timeline (e.g. which instrument does what at a specific time, spacecraft turns, SSR data volume etc.)? Like the preliminary encounter document posted here last summer. Your flyby press kit is, well, for the general press , but not very detailed in respect to the encounter sequence. Thank you.

Analyst

[mars loon]

I enjoyed watching the press conference live. Lots of great info and insights. And it was quite a nice kudo to see the welcome mat for amateurs as they pointedly encouraged suggestions for "kodak moments" and other observations

Plus brand new images and animations, most of which are available here.

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/news_center/news/0...essGraphics.htm

ken

[JRehling]

Not to moan at a joyous time, but damn that luck of Callisto and Ganymede being on the opposite side of Jupiter! Callisto could have been a huge looming disc for NH, and it ended up being almost worst-case faraway instead!

[Guest_PhilCo126_*]

That 2nd poster is very nice ... something for the store ?
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/gallery/posters.php

[john_s]

That's a good question. It would seem unlikely that such a graph would be anything but spacecraft time, which would be UT, but I don't actually know.

--Emily

I think we're using UT (and spacecraft time, not Earth received time which is 45 minutes later) in all our graphics unless otherwise stated.

John.

[john_s]

Umm... is there a link to the native resolution version of that cool Jupiter and Io image? What's the point of providing a magnified "hi-res" image like that? If one were writing a wish-list, I'd put lossless PNGs as well, but let's not get greedy here

We should be posting all the images in JPEG format and native resolution on the NH web site in a few days- stay tuned!

Regarding making more observations at Jupiter than at Pluto, mostly it's just because we can- the Jupiter system is so much bigger so there's a longer period in which we can get useful data. But as Alan said, it's also a great way to push the system so we can expose and fix any weakenesses.

Finally, here's a recent timeline spreadsheet for you to chew on- this is one of our working documents for planning the encounter. It's not quite the final version- there have been a few timeline tweaks in the couple of weeks since this version- but it's pretty close. The data volumes and numbers of frames per observation are early estimates and shouldn't be relied on, but give some idea of what's planned.
 Jupiter_obs_configure_rev10.xls ( 481K ) Number of downloads: 1667

[elakdawalla]

Thank you so much John!! I'll see if I can produce a slimmed-down timeline to post on our website.

What are those Callirrhoe opnavs? Has New Horizons actually sighted its first non-Pluto KBO already?

--Emily

[john_s]

Callirrhoe is one of the newly discovered small outer satellites of Jupiter- we looked at it because it's about the same brightness as our KBO target is likely to be when we first pick it up on approach in 2019 or whenever. So it was a test of our ability to pick up a very faint moving target using long exposures.

[djellison]

A nice handfull of Kodak's - I'm really proud that UMSF was able to contribute in some tiny way - this will rank up there with the MOC Deimos observation in terms of wow factor.

Doug

[helvick]

I think these are Kodak moments where the time in MJD ties back to suggestions by hendric.

Line 031 54117.06319 Double shadow Transit
Line 034 54124.19514 Double shadow Transit
Line 110 54159.48961 IO Emerging from behind Jupiter
Line 143 54161.43332 Io/Europa conjunction
Line 165 54163.17200 Callisto emerging from behind Jupiter

Awesome. If I'm counting correctly the spreadsheet says these will take up 251Mbits of LORRI raw storage. Wow.

[djellison]

Line 110 54159.48961 IO Emerging from behind Jupiter



Line 143 54161.43332 Io/Europa conjunction



Line 165 54163.17200 Callisto emerging from behind Jupiter

[helvick]

These shots represent around 0.5% of the total data return for the mission (in terms of bits of data returned). If you were to price all the bits returned by the mission equally then you could argue that these shots are worth around $30 million for the set.

I take it we're going to be getting high quality prints and expensive frames for them then?.

[JRehling]

These shots represent around 0.5% of the total data return for the mission (in terms of bits of data returned). If you were to price all the bits returned by the mission equally then you could argue that these shots are worth around $30 million for the set.

I'll sell you all of the black pixels now for only $300.

[Bob Shaw]

A brief word to all the NH lurkers on UMSF:

Keep up the good work! We're with you...

And post them images real soon now, OK?


Bob Shaw

[hendric]

I hope those Kodak moments come out well; I'm not sure how well the models show the edge of Jupiter's atmosphere. Seeing the refraction of the moons through the atmosphere will be pretty cool though!

Seeing the images starting to come in from this flyby has me missing Galileo...Jupiter, to me, is the most photogenic place in the solar system, with its dynamic weather and unique moons.

I know we send probes for science, and to answer questions, but I feel that visiting beautiful places is always a worthwhile endeavor.

[Guest_Analyst_*]

Thank you very much for the timeline, John.

Analyst

[Guest_PhilCo126_*]

How will the Jupiter flyby affect the speed of New Horizons?
Will it really become the fastest traveling spacecraft ever?

[yaohua2000]

quote in reply! removed

No.

The solar probe Helios 2 was the fastest travelling spacecraft ever, at about 69 km/s relative to the Sun. I do not think any outer solar system probes in near future could have a higher speed.

[helvick]

That's true but Helios remains in orbit around the Sun so despite having an exceptionally high sun relative velocity at perihelion it does not have enough oribital energy to leave the solar system. In that sense it is not as "fast" as NH which is on an escape trajectory (or will be once it gets that boost from Jupiter).

[ugordan]

Exactly, if we're talking about highest speeds on equal terms, we should consider hyperbolic escape velocities.

[Guest_Analyst_*]

And then Voyager 1 is and will remain the fastest.

[climber]

Agree on escape trajectory, nevertheless, for the fun of it, what object was the fastest ever : could it be Jupiter's probe from Galileo ?

[Guest_Analyst_*]

What object was the fastest ever?

Relative to what? Sun, Earth, Jupiter ...?

[ugordan]

Relative to what? Sun, Earth, Jupiter ...?

Galactic center?

[Bob Shaw]

Galactic center?

Great Attractor?

Seriously, though, velocity at departure from Earth might be one way of doing it - or even days in flight/distance from Earth (aha! which side of the orbit... ...oh, bother!).


Bob Shaw

[ugordan]

Bob, in that case it would be more fitting to talk about energy, not velocity, specifically Characteristic energy. A smaller payload can get propelled faster so energies are a better way to directly compare things. Talking about speed is just a way to invoke that "oooh" factor in laymen, nothing else.
It's All Relative ™, anyway...

[Bob Shaw]

Bob, in that case it would be more fitting to talk about energy, not velocity, specifically Characteristic energy. A smaller payload can get propelled faster so energies are a better way to directly compare things. Talking about speed is just a way to invoke that "oooh" factor in laymen, nothing else.
It's All Relative ™, anyway...

Yes, I'd been idly musing in that direction... ...really, we'd need a new unit of energy, too - something comparable to area (the Wales) or mass (the US Naval Destroyer).


Bob Shaw

[climber]

Relative to what? Sun, Earth, Jupiter ...?

Well, I've got the point of "relative to what..." but, my dear Analyst, on the post before mine you said "And then Voyager 1 is and will remain the fastest." So, for man made objects, what about gain of acceleration since launch? Does it make sense to you? Beware : doesn't count

[Del Palmer]

I've uploaded an audio recording of the press briefing for anyone who missed it:
http://www.cafesociety.uk.com/other/New-Horizons-Jupiter.mp3
(right-click on the link and select "Save Target As..." to download.

Perhaps one of these days NASA will create a searchable archive of NASA TV briefings (well I can dream...) :--)

[hendric]

This is perhaps the next best thing...

http://www.space-multimedia.nl.eu.org/index.php

#include standard_gripe_about_living_in_austin_hours_from_houston_and_STILL_NO_NASA_TV_ON
CABLE.h

[dvandorn]

Whereas we in Minneapolis get NASA-TV on our cable system, even though our cable system has been through two ownership changes in the past 10 years (local company Paragon bought by Time-Warner, which then sold out to Comcast in a shady "we'll give you this market if you give us another market" deal).

I'm told we get NASA-TV because one of the local high schools insists on having it available and actually uses its own satellite dish to pull it in. They then share the feed with the cable company. I was concerned that we would lose NASA-TV forever here when it went digital (requiring a somewhat pricey new decoder box to pull in), but it's still on 24/7 in Minneapolis proper.

Now, if we could just get the programmers in Houston to give us a little more variety in programming -- we seem to get an *awful* lot of the kiddie programming (including one called "An Astronaut's Life" or somesuch, which features Sunni Williams prominently with no explanation as to how she's on a stage at MSC and at the same time is the FE on the ISS... ). We also get nothing all night (at least some of the time) but interviews with the crew of whichever Shuttle flight is next up, which is fine -- except it's *all* they run overnight, sometimes, for several months prior to a flight. It gets a little old after the 40th or 50th time you've seen it.

I'm an old guy, I admit (51 years young last birthday), but I would really like to see more of the films made of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo flights back in the 60's and 70's. Every once in a while we get one of them, but not often enough for me...

However, it *is* nice to get the press conferences, even if I have to wait for them to be re-run sometimes. I was very pleased to see and hear Alan Stern and John Spencer, both active posters to our little forum, being so delightfully enthusiastic about the Jupiter encounter. I wonder a bit, though, if Alan's statement about how we just can't get as much science out of NH as possible because we can't afford a Voyager-sized staff for it might have been aimed at members of the new Congress...

-the other Doug

[edstrick]

"#include standard_gripe_about_living_in_austin_hours_from_houston_and_STILL_NO_NASA_TV_ON
_CABLE.h"

Between that, and the totally <expletive deleted> analog cable service (we're not going to pay through the nose for digital cable AND renting several digital cable converter boxes)...

That's why we dumped Time Warner Cable and switched (by more or less a coin toss) to DirecTV. I'm not entirely happy with their image quality (It's entirely possible Dish Network is as bad) which I'm convinced is severely overcompressed on low viewership channels, but it's not full of bad-cable static that they could never fix, and it got is NASA TV just before the Mars Rovers arrived.

[edstrick]

"...Perhaps one of these days NASA will create a searchable archive of NASA TV briefings..."

and PERHAPS NASA will <expletive deleted> the PIO slackers who post video after video on the all night NASA Gallery, including a Mariner-4 at Mars video I've been DYING to record since whenever... and utterly no schedule information, EVER.

rant
...........rave
.........................foam
.......................................gnaws at the edge of his monitor...

[tasp]

Helpful NASA-TV tip:

I TIVO 5 hours of it every day and then scan it at high speed at my convenience. I don't bother trying to keep track of their schedule, and if anything good turns up (like the NH Jupiter press conference) I can watch it, and if I want, can burn a DVD of it too.

Directv doesn't make TIVO recievers anymore, but their DVR will do pretty much the same thing, and in any regard, TIVO stand alone units can be 'grafted' onto Directv, Dish, and most cable system boxes.

[john_s]

Hi folks-

The "raw" Jupiter encounter LORRI images are now being posted as JPEGs at a public web site here at APL. Actually, they are not quite raw- they have already been flat-fielded and desmeared (the originals have readout smear, as LORRI doesn't have a shutter). Most of the images should show up here eventually, though it's not an automatic pipeline like MER and Cassini, so please be patient.

Enjoy!
John.

[elakdawalla]

Hooray!

Anyone want to take a crack at assembling those Jupiter rotation movies? I'm at the Phoenix landing site meeting and must listen to Mars stuff right now!

--Emily

[punkboi]

Off-topic, but let us know how the Phoenix landing site meeting goes, Emily. As if that's something to forget writing about

[djellison]

Anim Gif of the Jan 15th sequence.

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[djellison]

50% size of the 8th-to-10th jan sequence.

Doug

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[djellison]

And the 14th jan sequence - at 100%

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[NMRguy]

The new PI Perspective is up.

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/overview/piPerspec...ive_current.php

Just 35 days until closest approach...

[Decepticon]

It's interesting to see small detail on the Galilean Satellites even from this distance. Pluto science Looks very promising!

[AndyG]

...really, we'd need a new unit of energy, too - something comparable to area (the Wales) or mass (the US Naval Destroyer).

I quite agree. But it needs to be scaled to best suit the application. And so I humbly propose the:

Hot Bath

It's intuitive, commonplace, and gives you a real sense of potent energy. Here's a few comparisons to whet your appetite (and don't forget to do behind your ears)

200 hours of TV = 1 HB
1kg from launch to LEO = 3.3 HB
1kg from launch to GEO = 9.7 HB
Kinetic Energy (relative to the Sun) of New Horizons = 6.3 kHB
1 Transatlantic jet flight = 18 kHB
Apollo 17 = 400 kHB

etc...

Andy

[Rakhir]

Just 3 HB to launch 1kg to LEO (or 10 to GTO) ?

[Bob Shaw]

I hope no teenagers (AKA 'The Great Unwashed') have been reading the Hot Bath observations; they can now point out that sitting slumped in front of the TV (unwashed) for a fortnight is as green as having only one bath. I forsee major domestic issues here...


Bob Shaw

[AndyG]

Don't worry, Bob. It's also a quality of life indicator. My figures suggest that the US energy use for 1999 (the last year I could reliably get in a few minutes' googlin') equates to 1 HB per capita every twenty minutes.

And yes, Rakhir, that is the energy to orbit. Not much. Just "difficult".

Andy

[climber]

My figures suggest that the US energy use for 1999 equates to 1 HB per capita every twenty minutes.

You very clean people

[Guest_PhilCo126_*]

The solar probe Helios 2 was the fastest travelling spacecraft ever, at about 69 km/s relative to the Sun. I do not think any outer solar system probes in near future could have a higher speed.
End quote.

Well, the NH webpages "advertised" the spacecraft as being the fastest ever launched... maybe they only count the time to reach the Moon

The fastest spacecraft ever launched, New Horizons will make its closest pass to Jupiter on Feb. 28, 2007. Jupiter's gravity will accelerate New Horizons away from the sun by an additional 9,000 miles per hour, pushing it past 52,000 mph and hurling it toward a pass through the Pluto system in July 2015.

[BPCooper]

It is the craft to leave Earth with the highest relative velocity, but my understanding is that became moot not too long after launch. I was told by a couple of the project guys that NH will never catch Voyager (1 at least), however I'm not sure I see why as NH is currently travelling at the highest speed away from the sun of any spacecraft escaping the solar system.

[Alan Stern]

It is the craft to leave Earth with the highest relative velocity, but my understanding is that became moot not too long after launch. I was told by a couple of the project guys that NH will never catch Voyager (1 at least), however I'm not sure I see why as NH is currently travelling at the highest speed away from the sun of any spacecraft escaping the solar system.

This may help--

NH is the fastest to Jupiter owing to its high C3 and orbit design. V1 and V2 each had multiple giant planet GA's; NH only has one (JGA). Result: V1 and V2, by virtue of their multiple GA boosts, out run NH.

-Alan

[JRehling]

And the 14th jan sequence - at 100%

Great stuff, Doug. Jupiter is very cool-looking. I want one for my living room. But where would I put it?

The periodic storms around the northern belt (especially) are so numerous, and the animation just choppy enough, that I perceive a (false) reverse rotation, the way that helicopter blades seem to go in reverse on TV.

[djellison]

Bit of an anim of I think four consecutive Jols ( Jovian Sols???)

Doug

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[john_s]

Lovely!

[volcanopele]

The PI Perspective notes that we haven't seen "brown barges" like we saw during Voyager, but could we be seeing some in the southern hemisphere? Note the dark elongated feature south of the GRS here: http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/data/jupiter/l...0x630_sci_1.jpg

[djellison]

You can see dark material swirling around the GRS from about 7 O'clock anti-clockwise to about 3 O'clock - very cool

Doug

[dvandorn]

And yes, Rakhir, that is the energy to orbit. Not much. Just "difficult".

Yep -- while the energy costs to get "up the hill" are high, they're not much higher, relatively, than a lot of other things. For example, I've seen numbers that say a fully-fueled 747 has enough energy available, in its fuel tanks, to put the plane into orbit. It takes that much energy to fly a 747 halfway across the globe. But in flying at airliner speeds, the 747 releases the total energy much more slowly than needed to accelerate to orbital velocity.

If you could expend all of the energy in a 747's tanks in about six or seven minutes, you could, indeed, put it into orbit... (shades of Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers!)

-the other Doug

[Guest_PhilCo126_*]

http://www.yaohua2000.org/cgi-bin/New%20Horizons.pl

[tty]

If you could expend all of the energy in a 747's tanks in about six or seven minutes, you could, indeed, put it into orbit... (shades of Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers!)

Unfortunately there are other complications. A 747 doesn't have to take oxidant along and it's engines need only function in a narrow speed range (subsonic). If someone would please invent a multicycle engine that can morph from turbofan to ramjet to scramjet to rocket then SSTO (and back) wouldn't be too difficult.

tty

[BPCooper]

This may help--

NH is the fastest to Jupiter owing to its high C3 and orbit design. V1 and V2 each had multiple giant planet GA's; NH only has one (JGA). Result: V1 and V2, by virtue of their multiple GA boosts, out run NH.

-Alan

Thanks. NH is currently travelling faster than V1/V2 relative to the sun. I assume there will be some slowing on its outbound journey from Jupiter's graivty. Does that mean it will wind up slower than them once again by March-April or so?

[helvick]

Jols ( Jovian Sols???)

Jovials?

[Alan Stern]

Yes, we'll slow after Jupiter. See the Press Kit on the JHUAPL web site front page for the numbers.
As to V1 and V2 comparisons to NH, you'll have to scare those numbers up for yourself, I think.

-Alan

[elakdawalla]

I just asked Mark Showalter at the PDS Rings Node if they were going to incorporate New Horizons into their Jupiter viewer. Turns out they already have a separate New Horizons Jupiter Viewer and Ephemeris Generator, which I hadn't noticed before. The Viewer is very handy to get a prediction of how the planet, satellites, and rings will look to the ORS instruments at different times during the encounter. To get the field of view you want using the viewer:

LORRI's FOV is square at 1044 arcsec
The slit of the Alice spectrometer is 14438 arcsec long (it's only 350 arcsec wide)
MVIC panoramas are 20626 arcsec wide and whatever number they want long
LEISA's FOV is square at 3280 arcsec.

...I think. I calculated these based on the FOV numbers given at http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/spacecraft/instruments.html.

Have fun.

--Emily

[ElkGroveDan]

If someone would please invent a multicycle engine that can morph from turbofan to ramjet to scramjet to rocket then SSTO (and back)

Well I'm real busy with the concrete walk and back patio these days, but I promise I'll have a look as soon as I'm done (probably May if we don't have too much rain this winter) ....unless of course Doug finishes the UMSF shed first, then maybe he'll have time.

[john_s]

Here's a simplified and slightly updated version of the Jupiter observation timeline...
 jupiter_timeline_static.xls ( 114.5K ) Number of downloads: 857


John.

[djellison]

And new images added to the SOC gallery up to the 21st.

Doug

[peter59]

Two satellites and two shadows !
First details visible on Ganimedes (or Callisto)

[volcanopele]

Here is a rotation movie for January 21:

http://pirlwww.lpl.arizona.edu/~perry/New_...Jan21_movie.gif

The moon that crosses that transits during the first half of the movie (and casts a shadow on Jupiter) is Europa, while Io makes a brief, one frame appearance.

[J.J.]

Based on the approximate orbital velocity of Pluto at encounter, and the total relative velocity of NH and Pluto at encounter, I (awhile back) derived a velocity of ~12.7 km/s for NH at Pluto. Assuming that's correct, that puts NH well above the velocities of P10 and P11 (at 12.1 and 11.5 km/s, respectively), but far below either of the Voyagers (at 15.6 km/s for V2 and 17.1 km/s for V1).

For those a little more bored than I, one can calculate the "loss distance" of NH from P10 and P11, based on the difference in velocities. Lessee...NH will be moving at about 2.7 AU/yr. once she passes Pluto. That means she'll be gaining 1.2 AU/yr. relative to P11, and 0.6 AU/yr. relative to P10. That isn't as much as it sounds; if my numbers are right, NH won't catch up with P11 until ~2066 (at 138 AU), and not to P10 until ~2151 (at 367 AU).

For the record, in 2066, the Voyagers will be at:

V2: 250 AU
V1: 286 AU

In 2151:

V2: 531 AU
V1: 592 AU

Feel free to check my figures, all.

[ugordan]

Why do these NH images look somewhat blurrier than Cassini's comparable NAC frames? Does LORRI have a greater PSF? I'm judging by the sharpness of the moons' discs to be clear.