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 14 2005, 06:27 AM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 350 Joined: 20-June 04 From: Portland, Oregon, U.S.A. Member No.: 86 |
Every probe we send into space is an expression of who we are. Any advanced alien species will be able to look at the instruments we included and the specific implementation of the craft and discern far more about the human species than you may imagine. If we were to put, say, images or videos of people dancing, dressed in particular cultural garb, the aliens may just ask themselves "Why did they put videos of people dancing on a probe designed to explore the universe?" Then, they would probably obliterate our entire galaxy, because dancing is against all that is Good.
I'm just not sure we can predict that any particular addition to the probe would have any particular effect whatsoever. Personally I'd rather we had more instrumentation to detect just what's out there than that we had a video of some sort of cultural activity. We can save that stuff for our diplomatic probes. If you want to throw on a CD with Bach, or Fifty Cent, or Coldplay, or a picture of people eating sushi, or curried rice, or a McDonald's hamburger, or the latest episode of 'Everybody Hates Chris', or whatever, then go for it, but only if it doesn't interfere with what we know will grant us something useful. A purely 'diplomatic probe' would be fine with me, or maybe someday we'll be able to pack every instrument we could ever want on one platform and still have room left over, and hey, why not stick whatever you want on there (a piece of the World Trade Center, an unexploded suicide bomb, a Snickers bar, a copy of the UN charter, pictures of people playing jump rope, whatever ya want). |
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