New Horizons Arrives At Ksc |
New Horizons Arrives At Ksc |
Guest_Richard Trigaux_* |
Oct 5 2005, 01:22 PM
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#61
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Oct 5 2005, 10:17 PM
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#62
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14434 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
Lots of posts deleted - it had all got far too political and personal.....consider lots of wrists slapped!!
Doug |
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Oct 12 2005, 07:47 PM
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#63
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Member Group: Members Posts: 124 Joined: 23-April 05 Member No.: 358 |
Exploring NASA Links, I found a link for New Horizons' clean room....
Feed is here: Good Watching...
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Oct 14 2005, 06:06 PM
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#64
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2454 Joined: 8-July 05 From: NGC 5907 Member No.: 430 |
MISSION: New Horizons
LAUNCH VEHICLE: Lockheed Martin Atlas V 551 (AV-010) LAUNCH PAD: Complex 41 LAUNCH SITE: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida LAUNCH DATE: Jan. 11, 2006 LAUNCH WINDOW: 2:07 to 4:07 p.m. EST The Centaur stage was hoisted onto the Atlas booster on Tuesday, and mating should be completed by this weekend. New Horizons spacecraft testing and processing activities in the clean room are on schedule. The instrument to measure the solar wind around Pluto was installed in the spacecraft and tested Oct. 6. Spacecraft communications testing with Deep Space Network tracking stations is scheduled for tomorrow and Saturday. Previous status reports are available on the Web at: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/launch...ets/status/2005 For information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, visit: http://www.nasa.gov -------------------- "After having some business dealings with men, I am occasionally chagrined,
and feel as if I had done some wrong, and it is hard to forget the ugly circumstance. I see that such intercourse long continued would make one thoroughly prosaic, hard, and coarse. But the longest intercourse with Nature, though in her rudest moods, does not thus harden and make coarse. A hard, sensible man whom we liken to a rock is indeed much harder than a rock. From hard, coarse, insensible men with whom I have no sympathy, I go to commune with the rocks, whose hearts are comparatively soft." - Henry David Thoreau, November 15, 1853 |
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Oct 19 2005, 10:36 PM
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#65
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1636 Joined: 9-May 05 From: Lima, Peru Member No.: 385 |
New update about NH. Good detail about 7 science instruments.
# Alice - an ultraviolet imaging spectrometer that will probe the atmospheric composition and structure of Pluto. # Ralph — a visible and infrared camera that will obtain high-resolution color maps and surface composition maps of the surfaces of Pluto and Charon. # LORRI, or Long Range Reconnaissance Imager — will image Pluto's surface at football-field sized resolution, resolving features as small approximately 50 yards across. # SWAP, or Solar Wind Around Pluto — will measure charged particles from the solar wind near Pluto to determine whether it has a magnetosphere and how fast its atmosphere is escaping. # PEPSSI, or Pluto Energetic Particle Spectrometer Science Investigation — will search for neutral atoms that escape the planet's atmosphere and subsequently become charged by their interaction with the solar wind. # SDC, or Student Dust Counter — will count and measure the masses of dust particles along the spacecraft's entire trajectory, covering regions of interplanetary space never before sampled. # REX, or Radio Science Experiment — a circuit board containing sophisticated electronics that has been integrated with the spacecraft's radio telecommunications system, will study Pluto's atmospheric structure, surface thermal peperties, and make measurements of the mass of Pluto and Charon and KBOs. http://www.spacedaily.com/news/outerplanets-05o.html Rodolfo |
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Guest_Richard Trigaux_* |
Oct 20 2005, 05:28 AM
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#66
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What will New Horizons do near Pluto?
Just a fly-by or satellize? And, eventually, after, will it try to reach other objects, or will it just escape on an interstellar trajectory? I know that satellizing around Pluto is more difficult than around Saturn, but if we accept the price it can be done. |
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Oct 20 2005, 05:56 AM
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#67
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Member Group: Members Posts: 599 Joined: 26-August 05 Member No.: 476 |
QUOTE (Richard Trigaux @ Oct 19 2005, 10:28 PM) What will New Horizons do near Pluto? Just a fly-by or satellize? And, eventually, after, will it try to reach other objects, or will it just escape on an interstellar trajectory? I know that satellizing around Pluto is more difficult than around Saturn, but if we accept the price it can be done. The New Horizons website has a good summary and more -- http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/mission/mission_timeline.html Getting into orbit around Pluto is _much_ more difficult than it is for Saturn. For a short time of flight, the flyby speed will be high. And Pluto has very little gravity to help compared to Saturn. You would need an incredible amount of fuel or exotic propulsion. |
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Guest_Richard Trigaux_* |
Oct 20 2005, 01:24 PM
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#68
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OK, a fast fly-by, and perhaps an attempt to rendez-vous another small Kuyper belt object in the following years.
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Oct 20 2005, 01:25 PM
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#69
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1636 Joined: 9-May 05 From: Lima, Peru Member No.: 385 |
QUOTE (Richard Trigaux @ Oct 20 2005, 12:28 AM) What will New Horizons do near Pluto? Just a fly-by or satellize? And, eventually, after, will it try to reach other objects, or will it just escape on an interstellar trajectory? I know that satellizing around Pluto is more difficult than around Saturn, but if we accept the price it can be done. The mission of NH is not only focused on the binary Pluton and Charion but also of the remants of Kiups Belt. Up to now, it is still unknown which them the NH will visit. Hence, now, 15 years away, it is still to early to identify them. Hence, its fly-by trip will last up to 2-3 hours to cover all 6 of 7 (Alice, Raplh, LORRI, PEPSSI, SWAP, and REX) science instruments on them. Rodolfo |
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Guest_BruceMoomaw_* |
Oct 20 2005, 09:03 PM
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#70
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Alan Stern says its RTG fuel -- although less than originally planned -- can keep it working for about 10 years after the 2015 Pluto flyby. Hopefully that's enough to get at least one flyby of a small additional KBO (as yet unidentified) -- or two of them, if we're really lucky.
(That's still almost a decade less than the two Voyagers have already worked! I wonder how long NH could be kept working and sending back data from just its three instruments that are relevant to deep-space observations.) |
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Oct 25 2005, 04:53 AM
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#71
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 87 Joined: 19-June 05 Member No.: 415 |
QUOTE (BruceMoomaw @ Oct 20 2005, 03:03 PM) Alan Stern says its RTG fuel -- although less than originally planned -- can keep it working for about 10 years after the 2015 Pluto flyby. Hopefully that's enough to get at least one flyby of a small additional KBO (as yet unidentified) -- or two of them, if we're really lucky. They (and all of us) would have to be extremely lucky to get two KBO targets. The limitation is not RTG power, but fuel. The odds on being able to divert to one KBO target are supposed to be good, but not so the odds on discovering two KBOs pretty much in line. The spacecraft can only turn its path something like a degree or two. That's a pretty narrow cone in which to discover targets. |
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Oct 26 2005, 06:05 AM
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#72
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Member Group: Members Posts: 540 Joined: 25-October 05 From: California Member No.: 535 |
QUOTE (Rob Pinnegar @ Oct 4 2005, 10:12 AM) It's a pity that the cops weren't able to pull him over. It can't be often that they get the opportunity to ticket someone for endangering a United States spacecraft. HAHAHA! So true -------------------- 2011 JPL Tweetup photos: http://www.rich-parno.com/aa_jpltweetup.html
http://human-spaceflight.blogspot.com |
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Oct 29 2005, 12:42 AM
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#73
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Member Group: Members Posts: 147 Joined: 3-July 04 From: Chicago, IL Member No.: 91 |
Pluto rocket in Florida damaged by Hurricane Wilma
QUOTE A Lockheed Martin Atlas 5 rocket being prepared to launch NASA's first probe to Pluto was slightly damaged when Hurricane Wilma cut a swath through Florida but should still be able to launch as planned, officials said on Friday.
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Oct 29 2005, 04:50 PM
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#74
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Member Group: Members Posts: 183 Joined: 22-October 05 From: Cape Canaveral, FL Member No.: 534 |
QUOTE (imran @ Oct 28 2005, 08:42 PM) The rocket itself was not damaged, don't trust Klotz. Just some ground equipment. -------------------- |
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Oct 29 2005, 05:16 PM
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#75
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Member Group: Members Posts: 134 Joined: 13-March 05 Member No.: 191 |
As we get closer to launch, I thought post this chart of New Horizon's Launch window. It's taken from the NH presentation to the October meeting of OPAG.
The prime window is only 17 days long. After that, NH's arrival at Pluto gets later fast. Amazingly, the later part of the window sents NH on a Pluto-direct trajectory. No gravity assists. Even considering the longer flight time, and the fact that the mission involves a lot of rocket for a little spacecraft, a direct throw out of the solar system is pretty impressive. Hopefully, it won't be needed! If the window is missed completely, then NH will launch in 2007, and we'll have to wait to 2019-2021 to see Pluto. Fingers crossed! |
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