Tracking Nh? Options

[yaohua2000]

If I understand it correctly: currently, from the sun,

Earth < NH < 1AU

And after January 29:

Earth < 1AU < NH

Meaning that NH will get outside 1AU faster than we will.

You understand it correctly, but Earth will also > 1AU some day after January 29.

[img]http://www.yaohua2000.org/cgi-bin/New%20Horizons.signature/a_is_Earth_and_b_is_Sun_and_fontsize_is_10_and_h_is_18_and_x_is_21_and_y_is_12.g
f[/img]
____________1 AU is 149597870.691 kilometers

[BPCooper]

Earth < NH < 1AU

And after January 29:

Earth < 1AU < NH

Perfect way of putting it, thanks!

[JRehling]

Or Prometheus even?

I don't think it's "if" I think it's - "When" the project will get back on track, even if under a different name. Unless we happen to stumble across easy antimatter technology before then...put bluntly, not bloody likely though for the latter.

Most people would agree that a basically Dawnlike mission would be a good idea, but the devil is in the details.

A NHish mission had been discussed and postponed for a long time, and Goldin was ostensibly trying to push for a Pluto orbiter (or nothing at all), resisting a flyby craft.

It's possible that nothing very Prometheuslike will ever make sense. A conventional-propulsion Europa orbiter will fly first.

[Bill Harris]

A lengthy treatise on the important of this is in the biography "Boyd", detailing aviation ace and theoretician John Boyd's (mainly failed) battle to achieve...

One of the better books I've read on conducting a space research program was "At the Edge of Space" about the X-15 program by Milton Thompson, a NASA-Dryden pilot.

--Bill

[Dave Bowman]

NH location is now listed on NH website:



http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/mission/whereis_nh.php

[MahFL]

NH is now on the JPL Solar System Simulator

[Guest_PhilCo126_*]

MahFL ... it certainly is, great to 'play' with that JPL software ... just tried to see Jupiter from the NH's perspective

http://space.jpl.nasa.gov/

[alan]

I agree
http://space.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/wspace?t...orbs=1&showsc=1

[RNeuhaus]

I agree
http://space.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/wspace?t...orbs=1&showsc=1

Spectacular tool. Here you can see every moments on how the NH is approaching to Pluton and Charon.

Rodolfo

[ljk4-1]

Spectacular tool. Here you can see every moments on how the NH is approaching to Pluton and Charon.

Rodolfo

What about Pluto's other two moons? And hey, they're showing surface features! So why do we still need to go all the way out there? It's so cold, the reading light levels are terrible, and there isn't a single Starbucks or McDonalds - yet.

Is this story true or apocryphal: Former US VP Dan Quayle was visiting JPL around the time of Voyager 2's mission to Neptune in 1989. He saw simulations of the probe's flyby of the giant planet and exclaimed how wonderful this was because now we wouldn't have to spend lots of money on actual space missions to find out what other worlds are like!

http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Dan_Quayle/

"[It's] time for the human race to enter the solar system."

"For NASA, space is still a high priority." - Dan Quayle, 9/5/90

"Mars is essentially in the same orbit... Mars is somewhat the same distance from the Sun, which is very important. We have seen pictures where there are canals, we believe, and water. If there is water, that means there is oxygen. If oxygen, that means we can breathe." - Dan Quayle, 8/11/89

[punkboi]

What about Pluto's other two moons?  And hey, they're showing surface features!  So why do we still need to go all the way out there?    It's so cold, the reading light levels are terrible, and there isn't a single Starbucks or McDonalds - yet.

Is this story true or apocryphal:  Former US VP Dan Quayle was visiting JPL around the time of Voyager 2's mission to Neptune in 1989.  He saw simulations of the probe's flyby of the giant planet and exclaimed how wonderful this was because now we wouldn't have to spend lots of money on actual space missions to find out what other worlds are like!

http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Dan_Quayle/

"[It's] time for the human race to enter the solar system."

"For NASA, space is still a high priority." - Dan Quayle, 9/5/90

"Mars is essentially in the same orbit... Mars is somewhat the same distance from the Sun, which is very important. We have seen pictures where there are canals, we believe, and water. If there is water, that means there is oxygen. If oxygen, that means we can breathe." - Dan Quayle, 8/11/89

Good grief, Quayle makes George Dubya look like Einstein...

Back on topic... Can't wait for NH to pass Mars' orbit on 4/6. Don't know why, I just can't.

[Guest_BruceMoomaw_*]

If you want a REAL horror story about scientific ignorance among politicians, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) showed up at JPL a few days after the Mars Pathfinder landing and asked if it could photograph Neil Armstrong's footprints. She is currently on the House Science Committee.

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

The PI's Perspective
Tom's Cruise
February 9, 2006
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/overview/piPerspec...ve_current.html

[MahFL]

I see the data rate is 2.5 times greater than expected, I wonder who did those calculations and why they were so off ? But its great news of course.

[Alan Stern]

I see the data rate is 2.5 times greater than expected, I wonder who did those calculations and why they were so off ? But its great news of course.

No one was off in their calculations. We always predict conservatively, careful to
meet our specs, hopeful we will turn out better.

-Alan