New Horizons Arrives At Ksc Options

[Redstone]

NASA Press Release
APL press release
Space.com Article

Coming up...
October: communications checks
November: hydrazine loading and Atlas V countdown rehearsal
December: integration with Atlas V
January: LAUNCH!

No pictures on the KSC webcams yet.

But still pictures here.


Is that the flight RTG attached to the spacecraft? Or just a dummy?

[Guest_BruceMoomaw_*]

Yep, there is no doubt that environmentalism attracts zany fanatics. So, however, does space exploration. And NASA's previous straight-faced official estimates of accident probabilities (one in 100,000 of a Shuttle exploding during launch) are not the sort of thing calculated to bolster public confidence in the agency's competence -- or its honesty.

I myself strongly doubt that there's any danger whatsoever -- even in the event of a high-speed reentry. (The Pu pellets are encased in iridium shells, after all. And when the rocket carrying the Nimbus 3 weather satellite blew up in 1968, the Pu cores in its two RTGs not only didn't powderize, but fell into the sea off the coast of Vandenberg virtually intact, were recovered by a robot submersible months later, and were simply refurbished and flown again on Nimbus' successor the following year.) But there's always a first time; and I myself will breathe a little easier after this thing is successfully launched.

[Guest_Richard Trigaux_*]

[quote=BruceMoomaw,Sep 29 2005, 03:46 AM]
when the rocket carrying the Nimbus 3 weather satellite blew up in 1968, the Pu cores in its two RTGs not only didn't powderize, but fell into the sea off the coast of Vandenberg virtually intact, were recovered by a robot submersible months later, and were simply refurbished and flown again on Nimbus' successor the following year.)

[/quote]

Good info. Good test. Not the worse case, but the most probable.


[quote=Sunspot @ Sep 28 2005, 10:33 AM)
I remember the fuss over the launch of Cassini and how envirnomental campaigners "emabarked on a campaign of misinformation" to get NASA's attention. ...... and even Martin Sheen showed up lol[/quote]


I think you all should not laugh so easily about environmentalists: they have their concerns too, and if we had paid a little bit more attention to what they say, we would not have ozone depletion, nuclear wastes, climate change, etc. (only scientists gave earlier warnings). And it is not because we are interested in space exploration that we must just get egoistically blind to the related environment concerns. Please do not become zany scientists!

It happens that I am among the pioneers of the french environmentalist movement, in the 1970'. I still back up the idea, but I must admit that since there was much taking over by leftists shemanigancers and "zany" dogmatists, so I prefered to take some distance from the main stream. As everybody know environmentalists generaly reject all what is nuclear (electricity plants, and of course weapons), but they have no general agreement about "scientific nuclear" such as synchrotrons and space probes.

And for people like me who feel environmentalist AND scientific, I have no ready made reply about such a question than "should we use RTGs?". The only thing I would state is that we should urge smart fusion research (not the cumbersome tokamaks) which does not arise such heartbreaking environment issues. Imagine a ion engine powered by a 1Mw lithium hydride cell: it will be the key for real freedom of move in the whole solar system and beyond. And I am in the process of writing a novel in where all rely on fusion interstellar spaceships and terraforming machines (with real physics).

[djellison]

I think you all should not laugh so easily about environmentalists: they have their concerns too...

But in this case - totally unfounded concerns - and they embark on a mission to spread missinformation. I dont laugh at those who object to the launch of RTG's into Space - they make me angry.

Doug