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Unmanned Spaceflight.com _ New Horizons _ New Horizons late cruise

Posted by: Bjorn Jonsson May 20 2014, 10:11 PM

New Horizon's distance from Pluto drops below 500 million km today. The main thread here has been active since before launch and until today.

Today is an appropriate day for a new thread and there are also less than 14 months until Pluto arrival (time flies!). The coming months will see more spacecraft activity than in recent years with optical navigation images of Pluto/Charon, images of Neptune etc.

The next 14 months are going to be interesting to say the least.

Posted by: James S. May 20 2014, 10:30 PM

Interesting is an understatement. This is going to be a fun year. To think, in July 2015 we'll be the first humans to ever see Pluto.

Posted by: Alan Stern May 20 2014, 11:03 PM

Yes, and to think, 2014 is the last year when no one knows what Pluto and it's satellites really look like.

Posted by: MahFL May 21 2014, 10:12 AM

I was looking at http://www.yaohua2000.org/cgi-bin/New%20Horizons.pl website yesterday and noted the distance was nearly down to 500. Time flies when your having fun. smile.gif

Posted by: James S. May 21 2014, 01:54 PM

Mr. Stern, I would like to thank you so much for New Horizons. What you and your team have done and are doing, it's a privilege to see what amazing will come of this.

Thank you,
James Sontag

Posted by: JohnVV May 21 2014, 06:43 PM

I am eagerly waiting to update my two textures for Pluto and Charon
http://imgbox.com/Pj5E8Fa6

Posted by: Alan Stern May 21 2014, 09:13 PM

QUOTE (James S. @ May 21 2014, 02:54 PM) *
Mr. Stern, I would like to thank you so much for New Horizons. What you and your team have done and are doing, it's a privilege to see what amazing will come of this.

Thank you,
James Sontag


Thank you James, it's an honor for all of us on New Horizons to make this science exploration dream come true.

Posted by: elakdawalla Jul 15 2014, 12:24 PM

A question on behalf of Alan: New Horizons accomplished a trajectory correction maneuver yesterday. Someone on Twitter suggested this was the deepest-space-ever rocket burn. Is it? When/where was the last Voyager TCM?

Posted by: Alan Stern Jul 21 2014, 04:27 PM

Nice piece on our optical navigation plans, written by Emily following last week's science team mtg: http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2014/07181415-new-horizons-op-nav-campaign.html

Posted by: elakdawalla Jul 21 2014, 04:38 PM

Which reminds me, I got an answer to my question above https://twitter.com/elakdawalla/status/489106888777535488: The last TCMs of the Voyagers:

Voyager 1 = 1980-312/04:24 GMT after Saturn Flyby
Voyager 2 = 1989-233/15:14 GMT after Neptune Flyby

Posted by: Alan Stern Jul 21 2014, 04:47 PM

QUOTE (elakdawalla @ Jul 21 2014, 04:38 PM) *
Which reminds me, I got an answer to my question above https://twitter.com/elakdawalla/status/489106888777535488: The last TCMs of the Voyagers:

Voyager 1 = 1980-312/04:24 GMT after Saturn Flyby
Voyager 2 = 1989-233/15:14 GMT after Neptune Flyby



Emily- These are great numbers to have, thanks. One note, DOY=233=21 Aug so I believe the last Vgr 2 burn was just *prior* to Neptune C/A. Didn't ck on the Saturn DOY...

Posted by: jasedm Jul 21 2014, 07:37 PM

It's a very busy little system down to the limit of Hubble resolution, I'd be quite surprised if there aren't a number of other chunks of debris to add into the mix as these opnav campaigns proceed. Any redundancy in the obs campaign for as-yet unresolved moons/rings???

Posted by: punkboi Jul 25 2014, 03:10 AM

https://twitter.com/NewHorizons2015/status/492314148034711553/photo/1

Getting ever so closer... Pluto-Charon from 400 million km away

 

Posted by: JohnVV Jul 25 2014, 03:24 AM

a close up
http://www.imagebam.com/image/4547a6340942051

Posted by: Fran Ontanaya Jul 25 2014, 08:35 AM

Denoised and edited brightness.


Posted by: Gerald Jul 25 2014, 11:55 AM

Cleaned (by subtracting several intersects of horizontally displaced versions), cleaned 4x magnified cropped, and slightly enhanced version of the latter:


The small bulges at Pluto are probably remnants of noise.

Posted by: Lucas Aug 6 2014, 11:29 AM

Here is a press release about the radio telescope observations of Pluto & Charon using ALMA:

http://public.nrao.edu/news/pressreleases/alma-pluto

Neat two-frame animation of the orbital motion smile.gif

Posted by: lunaitesrock Aug 8 2014, 12:52 PM

Movie of Charon orbiting Pluto from LORRI images covering almost 1 full rotation.
http://www.planetary.org/multimedia/space-images/small-bodies/nh_opnav_pluto-charon_2014-07.html
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/news_center/news/20140807.php

Looks like a clock running backwards in time... appropriate for a spacecraft visiting never-before-seen ancient frozen worlds.

Posted by: Aldebaran Aug 11 2014, 10:47 AM

By my calculation, an observer on New Horizons will "see" Pluto at an apparent magnitude of 9.01 at the moment. It will brighten to below Mag. 9 by the end of the week with 400 million kilometers to go. (Of course you can't see an object at mag. 9 with the naked eye. It has to be Mag. 6 or less in a dark sky)

I just thought you might like that bit of trivia.

Posted by: tolis Aug 15 2014, 03:23 PM

QUOTE (lunaitesrock @ Aug 8 2014, 01:52 PM) *
Movie of Charon orbiting Pluto from LORRI images covering almost 1 full rotation.

Looks like a clock running backwards in time... appropriate for a spacecraft visiting never-before-seen ancient frozen worlds.


It's the 80s all over again. Just like watching Voyagers 1/2 approaching any one of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus or Neptune and their moons (poetic licence sought here; the Jupiter
flybys took place in 1979).

Not long to wait until instant science time..

Posted by: tedstryk Aug 15 2014, 05:25 PM

QUOTE (tolis @ Aug 15 2014, 03:23 PM) *
It's the 80s all over again. Just like watching Voyagers 1/2 approaching any one of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus or Neptune and their moons (poetic licence sought here; the Jupiter
flybys took place in 1979).

Not long to wait until instant science time..


It really does feel like it! I remember this experience as Voyager and Triton grew larger and larger as Neptune approached (I imagine it was the same for the earlier encounters, but I wasn't old enough to follow). This seems, to tell the truth, a lot like approaching the set of moons from one of the gas giant but without the gas giant.

Edit: This should have read "as Neptune and Triton grew larger and larger as Voyager approached." Doh...

Posted by: algorithm Aug 15 2014, 06:28 PM

As I said in another thread, it is probably better to have this kind of encounter later in mankinds exploratory journey, so that we can not only take advantage of the better technology available on board, but also the amazing capabilities of the internet and social media, to engage those who are simply 'interested' as opposed to only those who are directly 'involved'.So that one may become the other. smile.gif

Posted by: jasedm Sep 1 2014, 09:50 AM

Reading through the latest 'significant events' page on the Cassini website reveals that Cassini took three ISS optical navigation images of Pluto against background stars last Sunday (24th) to help with ephemeris data in pinning down Pluto's exact position for the New Horizons flyby.

IIRC this was undertaken earlier in the mission, but the data were lost due to a saving event.

It's great to see the co-operation that exists between the teams on various missions. Hopefully it helped!

Posted by: ugordan Sep 1 2014, 01:14 PM

QUOTE (jasedm @ Sep 1 2014, 11:50 AM) *
IIRC this was undertaken earlier in the mission, but the data were lost due to a saving event.

There are a couple of sets of Pluto images taken over the years, but I couldn't figure out if Pluto was actually detectable in them and which "dot" among a sea of stars and noise it was.

Posted by: jasedm Sep 1 2014, 03:08 PM

The images in question are N00228384, N00228385 and N00228386.
It looks as though Cassini was commanded to 'stare' at Pluto so that background stars move relative to it, rather than vice-versa, as several bright stars move 'S/SW' between the frames. However there's so many cosmic ray hits/hot pixels in there, I can't obviously see the target. (I assume Pluto's position is well-enough known that it occupies the exact centre of the image)

No doubt the engineering team can clean up the images with dark frame subtraction, and pull Pluto out of the noise.

I'm amazed that Cassini's cameras are of use in this regard, given the 4 billion km range to Pluto!

Posted by: ugordan Sep 1 2014, 03:15 PM

QUOTE (jasedm @ Sep 1 2014, 05:08 PM) *
The images in question are N00228384, N00228385 and N00228386.

I can find 56 images with target description as "SKY, PLUTO" dating back all the way to 2007, all of them are red and green filter images.

Edit: ahh, you're talking about raw images and the latest observation?

Posted by: Bjorn Jonsson Sep 1 2014, 04:47 PM

QUOTE (jasedm @ Sep 1 2014, 03:08 PM) *
(I assume Pluto's position is well-enough known that it occupies the exact centre of the image)


Yes, Pluto's position is well known but there are alsways some pointing errors even though Cassini's pointing is amazingly accurate and stable compared to e.g. Voyager and Galileo. But Pluto should still be close to the image center, very probably within 50 pixels from it.


Posted by: Alan Stern Sep 1 2014, 05:28 PM

Debuting today! Pluto Picture of the Day (PPOD): Daily pix from/about New Horizons, Pluto, and more! http://www.boulder.swri.edu/ppod/

Bookmark it if you like it.

-Alan

 

Posted by: jasedm Sep 1 2014, 07:08 PM

Yes, sorry Gordan, I've been looking at the latest three images from last week.

To my knowledge, the effort to aid the New Horizons mission has now involved Hubble, Cassini, Subaru, Magellan and the Canada/France Hawaii telescope. A very heartening collaborative effort to achieve the biggest 'bang for the buck' at Pluto and beyond.

Posted by: Alan Stern Sep 1 2014, 07:13 PM

QUOTE (jasedm @ Sep 1 2014, 07:08 PM) *
Yes, sorry Gordan, I've been looking at the latest three images from last week.

To my knowledge, the effort to aid the New Horizons mission has now involved Hubble, Cassini, Subaru, Magellan and the Canada/France Hawaii telescope. A very heartening collaborative effort to achieve the biggest 'bang for the buck' at Pluto and beyond.



And Keck. But Cassini was used for another purpose: astrometry with parallax from 10 AU.

Posted by: jasedm Sep 1 2014, 07:25 PM

QUOTE (Bjorn Jonsson @ Sep 1 2014, 05:47 PM) *
Yes, Pluto's position is well known but there are alsways some pointing errors even though Cassini's pointing is amazingly accurate and stable compared to e.g. Voyager and Galileo.


Cassini's trajectory is similarly amazingly accurate - apparently within 90 metres of planned position during the latest Titan flyby!

Posted by: jasedm Sep 1 2014, 07:39 PM

Bookmarked - thanks!

Great to know we're invited along on the ride.

Those images that finally start to exceed Hubble resolution will be phenomenal - I wonder what we'll see?

Posted by: Holder of the Two Leashes Sep 2 2014, 05:21 AM

When the resolution gets down to about 100 km per pixel, it might look something like the maps David Tholin, Marc Buie and Keith Horne came up with and published in this paper:

http://www.boulder.swri.edu/~buie/biblio/pub015.pdf

Thanks to the work Tholin and others put into making those observations and deciphering the results, we already have a better look at one hemisphere of Pluto (and Charon) than Hubble can give us. I'm looking forward to seeing how well they match up to direct pictures from New Horizons. I'm expecting they'll match pretty well.

Posted by: vjkane Sep 2 2014, 10:24 PM

I read that Alan Stern showed an image at a recent event of New York City at the best resolution that New Horizons will achieve at Pluto. Does anyone have a link to this? My Google search failed. Thanks.

Posted by: ugordan Sep 2 2014, 10:28 PM

QUOTE (vjkane @ Sep 3 2014, 12:24 AM) *
Does anyone have a link to this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3ekr2CXlK0#t=1475

Posted by: SpaceListener Sep 2 2014, 10:38 PM

An interesting and detailed report about the comments of Alan Stern about the final preparations of New Horizons.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2590/1
“Beginning in May, we exceed Hubble resolution,” Stern said, a reference to the best images of Pluto taken to date. “It will get better week by week” through the July flyby.

Posted by: Astroboy Sep 3 2014, 01:41 AM

PBS better air a "Pluto All Night" special!

Posted by: nprev Sep 3 2014, 03:50 AM

Given the bit-rate from that distance, it might have to be a "Pluto All Month"...wink.gif

Actually, though, that's something I'm curious about--plans for public broadcast of the encounter. Alan, have you guys developed anything detailed on this yet?

Posted by: Alan Stern Sep 3 2014, 04:01 AM

QUOTE (nprev @ Sep 3 2014, 03:50 AM) *
Given the bit-rate from that distance, it might have to be a "Pluto All Month"...wink.gif

Actually, though, that's something I'm curious about--plans for public broadcast of the encounter. Alan, have you guys developed anything detailed on this yet?



Nick- In fact, we just started that discussion today.

-Alan

Posted by: nprev Sep 3 2014, 11:53 PM

Outstanding! smile.gif

Suggestion: You should invite noted space journalists & bloggers to participate; there are many such in the present amateur space enthusiast community!

Posted by: Astro0 Sep 4 2014, 09:44 AM

UMSF has been riding along with New Horizons since before she launched.
It's worth going back to http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=675&view=findpost&p=5213 and reading the first few posts.
In fact read back through the 110+ pages as we followed the adventure.

Thanks to Alan Stern for giving us his insights and feedback throughout the mission.

I second Nick's suggestion. Maybe there's some good value of "space science's finest communicators" (many of them to be found here) getting a chance to share that unique moment in July next year. They can do some great outreach and best of all, they're free! wink.gif biggrin.gif


Posted by: Alan Stern Sep 4 2014, 01:14 PM

QUOTE (nprev @ Sep 4 2014, 12:53 AM) *
Outstanding! smile.gif

Suggestion: You should invite noted space journalists & bloggers to participate; there are many such in the present amateur space enthusiast community!


Nick- We already have a plan along these lines, stay tuned as we get closer.

-Alan

Posted by: nprev Sep 4 2014, 04:34 PM

I should know better than to try to teach the teacher. Great, looking very much forward to the plans; thanks, Alan!

Posted by: Alan Stern Sep 5 2014, 06:51 PM

QUOTE (nprev @ Sep 4 2014, 05:34 PM) *
I should know better than to try to teach the teacher. Great, looking very much forward to the plans; thanks, Alan!



That's going a bit far on credit, but thank you Nprev.

Posted by: Xerxes Sep 8 2014, 02:52 PM

QUOTE (Alan Stern @ Sep 1 2014, 10:28 AM) *
Debuting today! Pluto Picture of the Day (PPOD)


Is there a PPoD archive? I got here a bit late and due to my busy job might not make it every day.

(It seems like just yesterday when I had time to spend all day at my desk F5ing Where Is NH? until it crossed Lunar orbit.)

Posted by: Alan Stern Sep 8 2014, 03:50 PM

QUOTE (Xerxes @ Sep 8 2014, 02:52 PM) *
Is there a PPoD archive? I got here a bit late and due to my busy job might not make it every day.

(It seems like just yesterday when I had time to spend all day at my desk F5ing Where Is NH? until it crossed Lunar orbit.)



We're implementing an archive, also a subscribe (i.e., push) service. Should be just a couple of weeks now...

Posted by: Alan Stern Sep 14 2014, 01:24 AM

QUOTE (Alan Stern @ Sep 8 2014, 03:50 PM) *
We're implementing an archive, also a subscribe (i.e., push) service. Should be just a couple of weeks now...



We got first light on Hydra in July, data only revealed it this month; story here: http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/news_center/news/20140912.php

Posted by: Aldebaran Sep 14 2014, 09:29 AM

A question from a layman:

New Horizons is currently in Sagittarius as viewed from the Earth, and given its relative proximity to Pluto and the relatively low gravity of the Pluto system, it seems likely from the geometry that it will continue in that direction (roughly towards the centre of the galaxy). I realise that it may be diverted to a Kuiper body object, which may change that bearing)

Given that we have a solar orbital velocity of 200km/s around the galaxy, if we superimpose New Horizon's solar-centric velocity of 14.6km/s (towards Sagittarius), does this mean that NH will very gradually spiral towards the galactic centre? - or is that a naive idea?

Posted by: Gerald Sep 14 2014, 10:15 AM

It will very roughly move along a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepler_orbit around the galactic center.
But because the field of gravity of the Milky Way is poorly approximated by a mass point, instead better by a disk, the trajectory will additionally oscillate about the galactic plane.

Posted by: Aldebaran Sep 14 2014, 10:47 AM

QUOTE (Gerald @ Sep 14 2014, 10:15 AM) *
It will very roughly move along a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepler_orbit around the galactic center.
But because the field of gravity of the Milky Way is poorly approximated by a mass point, instead better by a disk, the trajectory will additionally oscillate about the galactic plane.


Thank you.

Posted by: John Sargent Sep 18 2014, 04:21 PM

LOONNNGGG time watcher, first time poster.....

I was telling my 7 year old son about New Horizons (he was born on the one-year aniversary of the launch). He was particulary interested in the remoteness of Pluto and was astonished when I told him about how the sun is much less bright way out there on the edge of the solar system. Does anyone have a good practical way of simulating the lighting conditions out there? For example, is the amount of available light similar to the moonlight on a full moon night? Thanks

Posted by: john_s Sep 18 2014, 04:28 PM

Sure- sunlight is about 1000x fainter on Pluto than on Earth (~32x further from the sun, and the sun's brightness goes as 1/R^2). That sounds like a lot, but the human eye is amazingly adaptable- we can see fairly well in full moonlight, which is about a million times fainter than sunlight.

Illumination on Pluto is something like ordinary subdued indoor domestic lighting like you might have at home in the evening. If you have a camera which reports exposures settings you can check this- for a pair of similarly-exposed photos, illumination of the scene is proportional to (f-stop)^2/(exposure time). ["^2" means "squared"]

[edit] As an example, if you expose an outdoor scene at 1/250th second at f11, and an indoor scene (with the same ISO) at 1/8th second at f2, the brightness ratio of the two scenes is about 950x.

John

Posted by: Explorer1 Sep 18 2014, 04:31 PM

The Sun would be a point, not a disc, but still be over 200 times the brightness of the full moon (an average, given the elliptical orbit).
Phil Plait has a good article on this:
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2012/03/15/bafact-math-how-bright-is-the-sun-from-pluto/

Posted by: djellison Sep 18 2014, 04:35 PM

I believe it's about 250x brighter than a full moon. About 1/1500th as bright as the Sun at Earth.

Someone may want to check my maths on this....but....

One way to express it is with a camera. If you go outside with a DSLR and open the aperture fairly wide - you might get an exposure of, say, 1/4000th of a second ( the quickest exposure on many off the shelf consumer DSLR's )

Find a place where the same aperture results in an exposure of about 1/3rd of a second. That's how much darker it is on Pluto compared to the Earth.

Alternatively - it's like going from an aperture of F2 to F38....but without the added benefit of great depth of field smile.gif

Doug




Posted by: Gerald Sep 18 2014, 05:02 PM

I guess, you intended to write "F1 to F38".
For the other values I got about the same.

Posted by: djellison Sep 18 2014, 05:16 PM

Yeah - I as thinking of my 50mm F1.4 - but rounded up tongue.gif

Posted by: Roby72 Sep 18 2014, 08:18 PM

A good way to simulate the brightness of the sun at pluto imho is when a solar eclipse at earth comes close to the totality phase.
I think about 15 to 10 minutes before totality arrives is just about the same brightness level at pluto..but this is only rough guess and depends on the eclipse geometry.
Could one do the math for this please ?

Shadows during this eclipse phase on earth are strange because of the thin sun sickle..shadows at pluto must be still more sharper with almost no penumbra visible.


Robert

Posted by: ngunn Sep 18 2014, 08:43 PM

QUOTE (Roby72 @ Sep 18 2014, 09:18 PM) *
shadows at pluto must be sharper with almost no penumbra visible.


I have on just a couple of occasions managed to observe shadows cast by Venus. They are very faint because of course the surface brightness of Venus is thousands of times less than the Sun. But they are also very sharp, making the shadows of near and far tree branches impossible to distinguish. In terms of angular size our Venus is about the same as Pluto's Sun.

Posted by: Gerald Sep 18 2014, 10:09 PM

QUOTE (Roby72 @ Sep 18 2014, 10:18 PM) *
A good way to simulate the brightness of the sun at pluto imho is when a solar eclipse at earth comes close to the totality phase.
I think about 15 to 10 minutes before totality arrives is just about the same brightness level at pluto..but this is only rough guess and depends on the eclipse geometry.
Could one do the math for this please ?
...

With a month of 29.5 days and an angular size of 32' for Sun and Moon, I get 3.2 seconds before/after totality to reduce brightness by a factor of 1500:
29.5d * 32' * 4 / 360° / 1500 / pi = 3.2 s.
(The dependence of the area of the visible part of the Sun from time should converge towards linear near totality in this idealized case of zero totality time, 2nd order equivalent to a horizontally shrinking rectangle with constant height 32'. A circle (area r²pi) is a little smaller than a circumscribed square (area 4r²), therefore the factor 4/pi.)
It's a little longer before/after totality for a larger angular size of the Moon, but further detail would be off topic in this thread.

Posted by: hendric Sep 19 2014, 12:17 AM

A fun experiment would to be get a room and cover the windows so that only 1/1000 of the area is window is uncovered. That would give an idea of how bright it would be inside a house anyways.

Posted by: scalbers Sep 20 2014, 04:26 PM

In terms of a total solar eclipse I agree with Gerald it would be just a few seconds before totality. The exact time depends on the eclipse and the relative sizes of the sun and moon. Even then, the scattered light from outside totality would alter things. I have programmed some empirical formulae to get the sun's brightness depending on the eclipse magnitude (fraction of solar diameter covered), and the relative sizes of sun and moon. I'll try and locate them.

There would also be a time during daily twilight (say on a clear day) when the overall illumination of the ground would be 1/1000th of daytime. I'm guessing it would be about 30 minutes after sunset, with a solar elevation of -6 degrees.

The window experiment also sounds interesting. On a clear day the sky (without direct sunlight) has roughly 10% of the sun's light over the hemisphere. That would be over 20000 square degrees. Therefore if you have a window showing 200 square degrees of sky and no direct sun it might work. The diameter of the window would be about 15 degrees then, so one could stand about 4 times the width of the window away.

Posted by: rogelio Sep 20 2014, 04:53 PM

...yet another way to look at it: about as bright a full moon expanded to around 8 degrees in diameter.

Posted by: Bjorn Jonsson Sep 22 2014, 09:25 PM

I moved a bunch of posts to this thread from the http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=675.

This thread will be the main thread for what remains of NH's cruise phase (an amazingly short time really, I feel as if NH was recently launched but there are now almost 9 years since it was launched).

Posted by: Alan Stern Sep 23 2014, 04:10 PM

Today's awesome PPOD pic is at http://www.boulder.swri.edu/ppod/

Soon you can sign up for push notifications....

And EVEN BETTER! Here's Amanda's latest Postcard from Pluto! http://plutopostcards.tumblr.com/post/98173068433/this-is-one-of-the-coolest-serendipitous-things-to …

Enjoy!

Posted by: Alan Stern Sep 27 2014, 04:15 PM

PPOD/Pluto Picture of the Day now has an indexed archive! http://guinan.space.swri.edu/nhepo/archive_index

Posted by: Alan Stern Oct 2 2014, 06:49 PM


PPOD now allows you to sign up for push notifications. http://www.boulder.swri.edu/ppod/

Posted by: Superstring Oct 4 2014, 08:29 PM

Hey Alan, you've indicated before that the data from the Pluto flyby in July 2015 will trickle in slowly. Will we still get to see high res images come in as the approach happens or will we have to wait a bit?

Posted by: Explorer1 Oct 4 2014, 10:03 PM

I read an interview (somewhere, don't have the link on me!) where the plan is basically that some images from around CA (those worthy of being under the newspaper headlines) are going to be given priority in the downlink sequence. So although it will take ages to get everything down, there won't be a second agonizing wait for the best stuff after July.

Posted by: Alan Stern Oct 4 2014, 10:11 PM

QUOTE (Superstring @ Oct 4 2014, 08:29 PM) *
Hey Alan, you've indicated before that the data from the Pluto flyby in July 2015 will trickle in slowly. Will we still get to see high res images come in as the approach happens or will we have to wait a bit?


Every LORRI image that comes to the ground will be posted to see, with <24 hour delay. (LORRI is the hi-res imager). That will include the very best images we have at P-2 and P-1 days. After C/A, more and more will be downlinked as the bird spends increasing time downlinking v. gathering data. The full data downlink will take 16 months, but you will be along for the ride with us on approach, and on departure.

Posted by: scalbers Oct 5 2014, 04:15 PM

Interesting to see the PPOD 9/28 artist view, in light of the earlier discussion of the 1/1000 Earth illumination appearance.

http://guinan.space.swri.edu/nhepo/archive/2014/09/28

One might consider some of the assumptions of atmospheric parameters that would go into such a visualization. This includes optical depths of gas and aerosols, as well as their scale heights. The vantage point of the viewer above the mean terrain height helps the depiction of the surface haze layer.

Posted by: Superstring Oct 5 2014, 06:02 PM

QUOTE (Alan Stern @ Oct 4 2014, 10:11 PM) *
Every LORRI image that comes to the ground will be posted to see, with <24 hour delay. (LORRI is the hi-res imager). That will include the very best images we have at P-2 and P-1 days. After C/A, more and more will be downlinked as the bird spends increasing time downlinking v. gathering data. The full data downlink will take 16 months, but you will be along for the ride with us on approach, and on departure.


Awesome, thank you. I can't wait!

Posted by: Mercure Oct 10 2014, 09:09 PM

Reddit AMA with the New Horizons team, - Q&A by Alan Stern et al. with space enthusiasts

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2igklm/hi_i_am_alan_stern_head_of_nasas_new_horizons/


Posted by: Alan Stern Oct 12 2014, 11:43 PM


This is the first of 10 Infographics being produced for the mission in 2015, thought UMSFers would like seeing it hot off the press!

 

Posted by: hendric Oct 13 2014, 05:31 AM

Looks great Alan! Getting so excited to see Pluto and Charon and the rest of the gang in the windshield.

Posted by: James S. Oct 13 2014, 02:54 PM

Very nice, Alan. Thank you for sharing.

What blows my mind, is that, I don't think most people realize that we will be the first humans to ever see Pluto. Man, just thinking about that is crazy.

Posted by: DFinfrock Oct 13 2014, 11:32 PM

QUOTE (James S. @ Oct 13 2014, 03:54 PM) *
I don't think most people realize that we will be the first humans to ever see Pluto. Man, just thinking about that is crazy.


You should have been around for the Voyagers spacecraft, and the first close-up views of so many planets and their moons. Completely new landscapes on a yearly basis that had never been seen before by any human in history. You are right. It is mind-blowing!

Posted by: JohnVV Oct 14 2014, 12:07 AM

considering i had just turned 10 by Aug ( v2) and sep (v1 ) of 1977
when the Voyagers launched .....
that era was a "time"

the 1976 things and goings on
Viking
Voyager
some of the Mariner missions

All the astronomy books i could get my hands on were being OUTDATED by the time that a 8 to 12 year old could read them

Posted by: nprev Oct 14 2014, 12:22 AM

Been seeing new worlds for the first time since Mariner 9. wink.gif

Never, ever gets old. Not even a little bit.

Posted by: climber Oct 14 2014, 12:33 AM

Went to Pasadena from France on a B707 to be part of Planetfest 89 for VII Neptune encounter...was to be the last for a loooong time...and here we (nearly) are. Thank you Mr Stern and All...

Posted by: Alan Stern Oct 14 2014, 03:41 AM

QUOTE (climber @ Oct 14 2014, 12:33 AM) *
Went to Pasadena from France on a B707 to be part of Planetfest 89 for VII Neptune encounter...was to be the last for a loooong time...and here we (nearly) are. Thank you Mr Stern and All...



Climber, all- We can;t wait to bring this too you, and to everyone, everywhere... fasten your seat belts!

-Alan

Posted by: SFJCody Oct 14 2014, 03:45 AM

QUOTE (JohnVV @ Oct 14 2014, 11:07 AM) *
All the astronomy books i could get my hands on were being OUTDATED by the time that a 8 to 12 year old could read them

2016 -2017 (like 1990 -1991) should be a great time for bringing out books on the solar system.

Posted by: Julius Oct 14 2014, 06:56 PM

Is there going to be another planetfest like gathering for the Pluto flyby?

Posted by: Mr Valiant Oct 15 2014, 11:58 AM

I'm sure there will be.
Here in Australia, back in the day, Voyager was making its flyby through the Neptunian system.
Our ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corp) had a 2 hour special.
It was evening over here in Western Australia and we had a special public night (Monday) to
view Neptune, btw, I'm a member of the Astronomical Society of the South West.
So there we are, a tiny blue disc in our telescopes, and on the TV some mind blowing images of
Neptune.

I've only seen Pluto once via telescope, a 12.5" f6 Newt (superb optics btw). A dot amongst dots.
So much looking forward to the flyby. Shame we don't have the delta V for orbit.

Posted by: Paolo Oct 15 2014, 05:05 PM

KBO targets for New Horizons (other than Pluto and Charon, of course) found!
http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2014/47/full/

Posted by: Airbag Oct 15 2014, 05:41 PM

Question - would the major targeting for such an object be done post Pluto system flyby, or (more propellant efficient, but perhaps more disruptive?) by tweaking the flyby parameters for a gravity assisted course correction?

Airbag

Posted by: elakdawalla Oct 15 2014, 05:41 PM

After the flyby. The science plan for the encounter is locked and loaded.

Posted by: Alan Stern Oct 15 2014, 05:52 PM

QUOTE (elakdawalla @ Oct 15 2014, 06:41 PM) *
After the flyby. The science plan for the encounter is locked and loaded.


Emily is correct. And in addition, we're doing the optimal Pluto system encounter, so we would not degrade it even if we could for the KBO targeting.

Posted by: hendric Oct 15 2014, 06:01 PM

So, rough back-of-the-laptop calculation has a cruise time to KBO encounter of ~3.5 years. That's assuming constant speed, ~1 billion miles further to go. Here's to hoping a few more pop out of the woodwork!

Posted by: ngunn Oct 15 2014, 06:16 PM

Wonderful news and big congratulations to the team. smile.gif

Does 'definitely reachable' mean the target(s) can be approached arbitrarily closely? Can we look forward to seeing the selected one in as much detail as Pluto and Charon?

EDIT: My question already answered by Emily http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2014/10151024-finally-new-horizons-has-a-kbo.html

To summarise - Yes, close range is well within reach fuel-wise, but because the target's orbit will not be as accurately determined as Pluto's it will be harder to optimise the flyby distance perfectly for science.

What would have been my next question is also answered. The definitely reachable target is a cold classical KBO.

Posted by: jasedm Oct 15 2014, 08:32 PM

Terrific news! Congratulations to all the team for their indefatigable efforts in finding a candidate KBO.

I can't imagine that funding for a mission extension will be too hard to negotiate come the time wink.gif

A little early for image sequencing discussions perhaps, but assuming the object's orbit can be determined accurately enough, is NH capable of undertaking 'skeet-shoot' (as per Cassini at Enceladus) techniques for very close imaging, given the low-light levels and relative speed at closest approach?



Posted by: Holder of the Two Leashes Oct 16 2014, 05:31 AM

Well I have to say it ...

I always had faith in them. wink.gif

http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=2048&view=findpost&p=37681

Congratulations!

Posted by: Aldebaran Oct 16 2014, 09:57 AM

We'll soon see how similar Pluto is to Triton (or not as the case may be). Exciting times indeed.

Posted by: SFJCody Oct 16 2014, 10:14 AM

QUOTE (SFJCody @ Oct 14 2014, 02:45 PM) *
2016 -2017 (like 1990 -1991) should be a great time for bringing out books on the solar system.


QUOTE (hendric @ Oct 14 2014, 02:45 PM) *
So, rough back-of-the-laptop calculation has a cruise time to KBO encounter of ~3.5 years. That's assuming constant speed, ~1 billion miles further to go. Here's to hoping a few more pop out of the woodwork!


May have to delay that textbook by a couple of years! laugh.gif

https://twitter.com/Alex_Parker/status/522437535520133120:
QUOTE
We've tossed this idea around. It will require more study of the scattered disk population to know if this is feasible.

Posted by: 0101Morpheus Oct 16 2014, 07:33 PM

They would most likely need to apply for Hubble time again. When someone inevitably writes a book on New Horizons they will have to mention the invaluable amount of help Hubble has done for the mission.

Posted by: stevesliva Oct 16 2014, 09:07 PM

Mag 26.8 for PT1 ... according to Wikipedia, visible from 8m telescopes? They don't need hubble exclusively to track it?

Posted by: 0101Morpheus Oct 16 2014, 09:17 PM

I meant if they wanted to look for a scattered disk object like SFJCody suggested. Not PT1.

Incidentally, which telescope do you think would be able to find KBOs better, Hubble or the Webb?

Posted by: john_s Oct 16 2014, 09:24 PM

We will probably try to track these guys from the ground. From our ground-based search campaign, we already have a huge amount of data covering the locations of these objects, from 6-meter and 8-meter telescopes, going back to 2011. These KBOs are too faint to have been *discovered* in those data, but now we know where look, we might be able to *recover* them from the images, and thus extend our knowledge of their orbits. We'll be working on that over the winter, and will also be considering future ground-based tracking observations. Future ground-based tracking won't be as precise as Hubble's, but may provide a useful supplement and backup to Hubble- we'll see.

John

Posted by: nprev Oct 16 2014, 09:35 PM

John, this is probably a very premature question, but if JWST launches as currently scheduled could it too play a part in final pre-encounter position & size observations of PT1? Main reason I ask is that STScI is to be the controlling organization for both scopes, if I'm not mistaken.

Posted by: john_s Oct 16 2014, 10:33 PM

Yes, quite possibly, *if* it launches in 2018- we certainly won't be counting on it! Keep in mind, of course, that PT1 isn't necessarily our final choice- the other two are still in the running.

John

Posted by: nprev Dec 7 2014, 02:06 AM

The NH final wakeup coverage is live now https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQL_cjI66C8. (began 0200 GMT/7 Dec)

EDIT: Also, here's a link to https://eyes.nasa.gov/dsn/dsn.html. DSS43 at Canberra is currently listening for NH.

Posted by: Gerald Dec 7 2014, 02:19 AM

Looks like incoming signal:


Edit: And this looks like data:

Posted by: nprev Dec 7 2014, 02:32 AM

I have confirmation from a trusted source that telemetry is being received. Good morning, New Horizons!!! biggrin.gif

EDIT: Comments indicate that wake-up telemetry was "fully nominal". Excellent and most welcome news!

Posted by: punkboi Dec 7 2014, 05:14 AM

On Pluto's Doorstep, NASA's New Horizons Spacecraft Awakens for Encounter

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/news_center/news/20141206.php

Posted by: Aldebaran Dec 7 2014, 11:06 AM

Excellent news. smile.gif Does anybody know when we can expect the next set of LORRI images of the Pluto system?

Posted by: Paolo Dec 7 2014, 11:09 AM

you will find all the answers to your questions in Emily's blog:
http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2014/12031700-the-new-horizons-science.html

Posted by: jmknapp Jan 5 2015, 12:30 PM

Nice overview of the mission (77 minute video) at this press conference back in November--see the link on this page under "Press Conferences from DPS 46, Tucson, Arizona, 9-14 November 2014":

Seminar for Science Writers: The New Horizons Encounter with Pluto in 2015
http://aas.org/media-press/archived-aas-press-conference-webcasts

That page will also eventually have webcasts of press conferences of the current AAS conference in Seattle.

Posted by: Jaro_in_Montreal Jan 15 2015, 10:09 PM

Question please:
Where may one find diagrams of the planned NH Pluto survey coverage at different resolutions ? (ditto for the moons)
Thank you.

Posted by: Decepticon Jan 16 2015, 08:48 AM

Emily did this recently. Very insightful.

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2014/12031700-the-new-horizons-science.html

Posted by: Jaro_in_Montreal Jan 16 2015, 09:09 AM

Thanks.
The tables are good, but I was looking for a diagram.
Presumably the regional hi-rez imaging will not cover the entire hemisphere ?

http://blogs.nasa.gov/mission-ames/wp-content/uploads/sites/217/2013/07/Best_Res.png

Posted by: MahFL Jan 16 2015, 11:26 PM

New Horizons is now 212778450 kilometers away from Pluto, from yaohua website.

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

Posted by: Greg Hullender Jan 20 2015, 01:29 AM

I have worried because our knowledge of Pluto's position is imprecise. Some long-ago posts had mentioned that NH would expect to waste some pictures (i.e. take pics of empty space) in order to be sure it really got all of Pluto. That has bothered me for several years now (I'm greedy), so my favorite tidbit from the update on the JHUAPL site was this:

“We need to refine our knowledge of where Pluto will be when New Horizons flies past it,” said Mark Holdridge, the New Horizons encounter mission manager from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md. “The flyby timing also has to be exact, because the computer commands that will orient the spacecraft and point the science instruments are based on precisely knowing the time we pass Pluto – which these images will help us determine.”

Spacecraft operators also track New Horizons using radio signals from NASA’s Deep Space Network. But the “optical navigation” campaign that begins this month marks the first time pictures from New Horizons will be used to help pinpoint Pluto’s location.

Posted by: MahFL Jan 27 2015, 03:58 PM

Less than 200 million km to go.

New Horizons is now 199944087 kilometers away from Pluto.

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

Posted by: Alan Stern Feb 3 2015, 02:11 PM

UMSFers-- New Horizons Reddit AMA tomorrow!



 

Posted by: infocat13 Feb 3 2015, 06:45 PM

QUOTE (Alan Stern @ Feb 3 2015, 10:11 AM) *
UMSFers-- New Horizons Reddit AMA tomorrow!



I am in class at that hour so my question would be, after course correction maneuvers for a post Pluto encounter where will New Horizons and its third stage motor be hundreds of thousands of years or more from now?

Posted by: ngunn Feb 4 2015, 09:39 PM

That's odd. We seem to be missing a few posts from this thread including Explorer1's useful link posted at 9:10 pm yesterday, 3rd Feb.

EDIT: This works if you go to 'members posts' for Explorer 1 and click on the link. (For some reason this copy of it doesn't.)
New link to Alan's latest status here:
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/PI-Per...tive_01_23_2015


Posted by: Astro0 Feb 5 2015, 11:46 AM

ADMIN: Now that the first Lorri OpNav image is in, several posts moved to the new http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=7970&hl= thread.

Posted by: Aldebaran Mar 9 2015, 08:32 AM

Another milestone coming up. 1 AU from Pluto tomorrow.

A hypothetical observer on New Horizons would see many bright stars in the general direction of Pluto, but Pluto itself is still a mere 7th magnitude object - barely discernable but brightening by -0.02 magnitude every day at this stage.

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