New Horizons: Pre-launch, launch and main cruise, Pluto and the Kuiper belt |
New Horizons: Pre-launch, launch and main cruise, Pluto and the Kuiper belt |
Feb 8 2005, 02:09 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 133 Joined: 29-January 05 Member No.: 161 |
Yes it's happening after all these years, the mission to the last planet!
And maybe to celebrate the confirmation of budget, NASA approval preparations and the fueling of the RTG (radioisotope thermoelectric generator), there is an updated web site at http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/ Launch will be January 2006 with arrival at the Pluto Charon system July 2015 (mark your calender!) and then on through the Kuiper belt during 2016-2020 and beyond. 20.8-centimeter telescope for 100m resolution at closest approach IR/UV spectrometers 2 x 8GB data recorders data rate: 768 bps (sic) to 70m DSN 465kg including fuel $650m 336 days to launch -------------------- |
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Nov 6 2005, 12:51 PM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1276 Joined: 25-November 04 Member No.: 114 |
Has the Jupiter flyby Closest approach numbers been released?
I still had my fingers crossed for a Galilean Moon Photo-shoot. Knowing the distance could give us a idea of what kind of resolution we would get of the moons. |
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Nov 6 2005, 01:06 PM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3648 Joined: 1-October 05 From: Croatia Member No.: 523 |
QUOTE (Decepticon @ Nov 6 2005, 02:51 PM) Has the Jupiter flyby Closest approach numbers been released? I still had my fingers crossed for a Galilean Moon Photo-shoot. Knowing the distance could give us a idea of what kind of resolution we would get of the moons. Hew Horizons website has this to say: "Jupiter Encounter: Closest approach scheduled to occur between Feb. 25- March 2, 2007. Moving about 47,000 miles per hour (about 21 kilometers per second), New Horizons would fly 3 to 4 times closer to Jupiter than the Cassini spacecraft, coming within 31.7-32.4 Jupiter radii of the large planet." Note that the while the RALPH camera has a red and blue filter, it has no green filter so don't hold your breath for "true" color Jupiter images. RALPH also appears to have a poorer resolution, somewhere along the lines of 3 times the Cassini wide angle camera resolution. That would be enough to image Jupiter at a fairly good resolution, but the moons would turn up being pretty much specks of light. LORRI on the other hand has a resolution somewhat better than Cassini narrow angle and combined with the 3-4 times closer flyby distance would actually provide some decent long distance shots of the moons. The imager, however, is panchromatic so no color here, guys... I guess it's up to Juno for some decent true color imagery of Jupiter and some of the moons -------------------- |
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Nov 6 2005, 01:38 PM
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Interplanetary Dumpster Diver Group: Admin Posts: 4404 Joined: 17-February 04 From: Powell, TN Member No.: 33 |
QUOTE (ugordan @ Nov 6 2005, 01:06 PM) Hew Horizons website has this to say: "Jupiter Encounter: Closest approach scheduled to occur between Feb. 25- March 2, 2007. Moving about 47,000 miles per hour (about 21 kilometers per second), New Horizons would fly 3 to 4 times closer to Jupiter than the Cassini spacecraft, coming within 31.7-32.4 Jupiter radii of the large planet." Note that the while the RALPH camera has a red and blue filter, it has no green filter so don't hold your breath for "true" color Jupiter images. RALPH also appears to have a poorer resolution, somewhere along the lines of 3 times the Cassini wide angle camera resolution. That would be enough to image Jupiter at a fairly good resolution, but the moons would turn up being pretty much specks of light. LORRI on the other hand has a resolution somewhat better than Cassini narrow angle and combined with the 3-4 times closer flyby distance would actually provide some decent long distance shots of the moons. The imager, however, is panchromatic so no color here, guys... I guess it's up to Juno for some decent true color imagery of Jupiter and some of the moons I don't think that in the case of Jupiter this is a really big deal. Looking at Pioneer imagery, Red-Blue does pretty well here. Also, we have a great inventory of true color data from the ground, in addition to Galileo and Cassini, that can be used for adjustments. At any rate, for places I will never see close-up, I wouldn't mind just color-shifting and using IR-R-B color. -------------------- |
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