Tracking Nh? Options

[icez]

Is there any available information on approximating or seeing the "distance" of where NH is compared to Pluto, and Jupiter? I'd like to be able to see where it is during the next few years:)

[Rob Pinnegar]

Is there any available information on approximating or seeing the "distance" of where NH is compared to Pluto, and Jupiter?

I wouldn't be surprised if this shows up on the "Solar System Simulator" in the near future. There are already tools there to simulate the view from Cassini, Ulysses, and so forth.

[MahFL]

From Emily at the Planetry Society
"Another frequent topic of email this weekend was "is there a 'Where is New Horizons Now?' feature anywhere, similar to the one for MESSENGER?" I asked about this and the answer is that it is coming soon to the New Horizons website -- stay tuned."

[yaohua2000]

Is there any available information on approximating or seeing the "distance" of where NH is compared to Pluto, and Jupiter? I'd like to be able to see where it is during the next few years:)

Hi! I have just made a page to display realtime distance of New Horizons from the Earth and Pluto. It is now text-only, but I am planning to add more functions in the future.

http://www.yaohua2000.org/cgi-bin/New%20Horizons.pl

[icez]

Hi! I have just made a page to display realtime distance of New Horizons from the Earth and Pluto. It is now text-only, but I am planning to add more functions in the future.

http://www.yaohua2000.org/cgi-bin/New%20Horizons.pl

is there any way I can see your code?

[yaohua2000]

is there any way I can see your code?

Code here:

http://www.yaohua2000.org/New%20Horizons.pl

I know it is very slow... I'm working on an updated version.

[MahFL]

test

[The Messenger]

It is too bad we did not attach a ultrastable beacon to the third stage of NH. According to Emily, it is on its way out of the solar sytem as well, and a tumbling, who cares empty booster could have provided an interesting test of the Pioneer anomaly.

[Alan Stern]

It is too bad we did not attach a ultrastable beacon to the third stage of NH. According to Emily, it is on its way out of the solar sytem as well, and a tumbling, who cares empty booster could have provided an interesting test of the Pioneer anomaly.

Actually, not so, I am sorry to say.

The Boeing third stage has all kinds of warts that make it a poor platform for doing
the PA experiment (it tumbles, it vents, it is complicated to radiation pressure model,
etc.) And beyond those tought issues, it would need it's own telecom system
and an RTG. Those would have meant removing more mass from NH than the entire
mass of our 7 experiments.

One key to NH's success in getting built was requirements control. Build and fly
something good, but recongize that better is the enemy of good enough.

-Alan

[JRehling]

One key to NH's success in getting built was requirements control. Build and fly
something good, but recongize that better is the enemy of good enough.

-Alan

Alan's triumph in getting NH on its way to Pluto is a testament to the power of a little thing called "Focus". A past example was Wally Schirra's Sigma 7 flight in the Mercury program (landing right on target after significant problems with the previous three Mercury flights). 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 superior design of the F-15 fighter, and then the F-16 once the F-15 had been more or less ruined. I hope everyone recognizes Alan's (et al) fantastic accomplishment by comparison with what might have happened with a less skillful navigation of the bureaucratic/engineering waters.

[djellison]

For some missions - getting off the drawing board and onto a launch vehicle is much harder and filled with more pitfalls than the launch and flight to the target.

Doug

[punkboi]

For some missions - getting off the drawing board and onto a launch vehicle is much harder and filled with more pitfalls than the launch and flight to the target.

Doug

DAWN, anyone?

[Jeff7]

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.

[BPCooper]

It caught my eye in Alan's perspective that it remains inside 1 Au until Jan. 29, but this is because we launched just after perihelion, which I believe I understand.

So, knowing hyperbolic orbits, NH never left Earth on a trajectory aimed inside our orbital direction, correct (as in, once it left Earth it never gets closer than Earth is to the sun at this present moment in time; only that NH is closer than the defined 1 Au distance)?

Earth is currently inside 1 Au itself (obviously), and NH is always outbound from our orbit even if within 1 Au, is what I am trying to clarify? :-) I think I am just a bit misled by hearing that it is inside 1 Au, thinking it could be closer to the Sun than Earth now, which is what is it not.

[odave]

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.