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 |
Aug 17 2011, 12:28 AM
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#1441
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Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8783 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
Good stuff as always, Alan; thanks! You guys are staying pretty busy!
-------------------- A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.
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Aug 17 2011, 01:50 PM
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#1442
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Forum Contributor Group: Members Posts: 1372 Joined: 8-February 04 From: North East Florida, USA. Member No.: 11 |
I always enjoy his updates. You get the sense that as each year passes they will get busier and busier.
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Aug 17 2011, 02:52 PM
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#1443
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1018 Joined: 29-November 05 From: Seattle, WA, USA Member No.: 590 |
I'm curious what sort of useful data can actually be collected for these tiny moons.
--Greg |
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Aug 17 2011, 03:07 PM
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#1444
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3648 Joined: 1-October 05 From: Croatia Member No.: 523 |
Some surface detail, albedo measurements, accurate dimensions and some very crude spectral data. Not bad for something that didn't even "exist" several months ago...
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Aug 17 2011, 10:06 PM
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#1445
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Member Group: Members Posts: 890 Joined: 18-November 08 Member No.: 4489 |
QUOTE I'm curious what sort of useful data can actually be collected for these tiny moons. just enough information, so far, to tickle the fancy of artists . YT vid. http://youtu.be/oQSSr1anEf8 the Wikipedia page seams to be accurate https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/w.../Moons_of_Pluto https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/S/2011_P_1 |
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Aug 18 2011, 12:47 AM
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#1446
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Member Group: Members Posts: 529 Joined: 19-February 05 Member No.: 173 |
I think for the best of the small moon's, we'll get imagery down to ~1 km resolution. So we will have gross morphology; with colors at cruder resolution (5-6x cruder) and hemispheric spectra. Plus shape, phase curve, and orbits, plus a look for associated rings in forward scattering. Alan |
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Aug 18 2011, 03:44 AM
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#1447
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1018 Joined: 29-November 05 From: Seattle, WA, USA Member No.: 590 |
Thanks, Alan. That's a lot better than what I had thought was possible.
Just four more years to go . . . --Greg |
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Aug 18 2011, 01:38 PM
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#1448
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Member Group: Members Posts: 754 Joined: 9-February 07 Member No.: 1700 |
Might we find some atmospheric exchange among the members of the Pluto system, like we're seeing with Enceladus?
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Aug 19 2011, 12:04 AM
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#1449
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Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8783 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
I'd definitely bet on it happening between Pluto & Charon.
-------------------- A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.
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Aug 19 2011, 01:28 AM
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#1450
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Member Group: Members Posts: 293 Joined: 22-September 08 From: Spain Member No.: 4350 |
Maybe the barycenter is a snowball factory. Where could a chunk of ice go from there?
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Aug 19 2011, 04:20 PM
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#1451
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1729 Joined: 3-August 06 From: 43° 35' 53" N 1° 26' 35" E Member No.: 1004 |
Might we find some atmospheric exchange among the members of the Pluto system, like we're seeing with Enceladus? this has been discussed here: http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=6947 |
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Sep 17 2011, 04:21 PM
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#1452
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1729 Joined: 3-August 06 From: 43° 35' 53" N 1° 26' 35" E Member No.: 1004 |
today's New Horizon tweet mentions the "Safe Haven Bail Out Trajectory" (SHBOT) that shifts the "encounter point to a place rings can't be"
any more info? where would be the encounter point in that case? at which distance from Pluto? and why would it be safe? rings would be instable at that distance? |
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Sep 17 2011, 06:57 PM
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#1453
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Administrator Group: Admin Posts: 5172 Joined: 4-August 05 From: Pasadena, CA, USA, Earth Member No.: 454 |
It has to do with the new moon discoveries they're making (it's an open secret that there's likely a couple more in the system beyond the four known -- Alan et al just won more Hubble time to confirm or deny this). They're not worried about New Horizons hitting an undiscovered moon -- that's a vanishingly small probablility. The worry is that there might be a lot of unseeable dust and larger-sized particles whirling around among all those moons because of small impacts tossing ejecta into what new modeling studies are showing would be fairly stable orbits around Pluto. So this new trajectory would take New Horizons farther from Pluto at closest approach, to avoid the region where a dust hazard may exist. I mentioned this in passing here. I think they will be able to optionally select the SHBOT after they begin long-range Pluto observations -- they'll use some of their approach observations to search for rings and moons and plug those in to their models to assess the hazard.
-------------------- My website - My Patreon - @elakdawalla on Twitter - Please support unmannedspaceflight.com by donating here.
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Sep 18 2011, 08:43 AM
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#1454
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Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8783 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
Oy vey. So they're gonna have to plan out a complete alternative encounter???
I'm finally glad that NH needed 9 yrs. to get to Pluto....here we are at T minus >4 already, and there's clearly considerable work to be done. But at the same time, you gotta just kick back, smile, and say: Science!!! It's utterly marvelous how rapidly observational astronomy is advancing in leaps & bounds as well as our understanding of things like moon & ring systems, and all that is increasingly aiding UMSF. -------------------- A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.
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Sep 19 2011, 09:02 AM
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#1455
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Member Group: Members Posts: 529 Joined: 19-February 05 Member No.: 173 |
Nprev-
SHBOT will be planned in detail in 2012. Most of the encounter is almost identical, deviating primarily in the use of MVIC for OpNav (long story); the hours around closest approach will differ more significantly owing to the different (and still TBD) SHBOT aim point. So while it's a bunch of work, it's not as complex as planning the nominal encounter, most of which can be mapped onto SHBOT. -Alan |
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