New Horizons reached its maximum distance ever from Pluto at 2005-12-17 05:58:58 UTC.
New Horizons reached its maximum distance ever from Pluto at 2005-12-17 05:58:58 UTC.
Last edited by yaohua2000; 2005-Dec-18 at 08:51 PM.
It took me a moment to figure out what you meant by that, but I get it now.Originally Posted by yaohua2000
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At least until . . .2030 or thereabouts?
Aint that by 2015?
Titana.
Maybe I'm wrong, but from KSC video feeds it looks like NH went to the pad...
mauro
December 14, 2005. NASA Announces Pluto Mission Briefing.
http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2005...188_Pluto.html
2015 is when it will be (we hope) at its minimum distance from Pluto.Originally Posted by Titana
Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.
Yes, that is what i meant. But someone back there mentioned 2030, thats why i asked.![]()
Titana.
Well (just going from what's in this thread and inferring) it may be that NH is a flyby mission. In which case, it'll fly right on by Pluto. By 2030, it'll be farther away from Pluto than it will be on the 17th. But in the other direction.
Now watch as my beautiful inference gets shot down.![]()
It'll probobly take a few less years as it takes a while to get up to full speed...
But then there are plans to visit nearby kuiper objects aswell...
Yes, according to NASA's press release, New Horizons will be transported from 28°30'36" N, 80°38'51" W, Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at Kennedy Space Center to 28°35'00"N, 80°35'00"W, Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on December 16, and this is a "pad data", 4790263643 kilometers away from Pluto at 2005-12-17 05:58:47 UTC. (instantaneous distance from JPL Horizons, no light-time correction)Originally Posted by spfrss
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Ne...#Magic_numbers for details.
Well, you did ask...Originally Posted by The Supreme Canuck
Once NH leaves Earth, as soon as its rocket shuts down, it will be slowing down (except for the odd gravity-assist maneouvre here or there). It will be slowing down because it will be moving away from the sun (and hence climbing out of Sol's gravity well and therefore converting kinetic energy into gravitational potential energy).
So, NH will fly by Pluto at a lower velocity than it at any other point in its journey to get there. Therefore, by 2030, it will still be closer to Pluto's orbit than it is now.
Oh, hang on a sec ... D'oh! Pluto rendezvous 10 years from now, 2030 is 15 years after that. So, I guess NH will be further from Pluto in 2030 than it is now. But why 2030 and not, say 2028?
New Horizons was 4790263646 kilometers away from Pluto at 2005-12-17 05:58:58 UTC.
Last edited by yaohua2000; 2005-Dec-18 at 06:00 AM.
Launch delayed, no earlier than January 17:
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/atlas/av010/status.html
Pluto probe heads to launch pad!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051216/...NlYwN5bmNhdA--
Titana.
Here is how Fark describes it:
NASA's Pluto probe heads for launch pad. Agency hoping this won't be another Mickey Mouse operation that goes Bambi, leaving them looking Goofy
2030 as a nice round year number. I assume the exact date may occur in a few years before or after.Originally Posted by The Supreme Canuck
But, yeah, I assumed that by about that year, the probe would be at a further point.
Is NH leaving the Solar System, or will it become a Kuiper Belt object? If leaving the Sol System, did they put an intersteller plaque on it like Voyager's?
I think it will be an intersteller mission but no such plaques on the spacecraft.Originally Posted by Superluminal
Data updated: 4790263643 -> 4790263646, 05:58:47 -> 05:58:58Originally Posted by yaohua2000
Since according to this report, the transportation actually began at 06:45 UTC, so when the maximum distance happened, the spacecraft was actually still at Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, about 10 miles away from Launch Complex 41.
The mission diagram makes it appear that it will be leaving the solar system.Originally Posted by Superluminal
Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.
New Horizons was 4790000000 kilometers away from Pluto at 2005-12-20 21:12:54 UTC.
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Are you going to countdown for 10years..?
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This could be a very long-lived topic.Originally Posted by mickal555
*this topic has a built in 25 years time limit*
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I can't wait until we launch interstelluler probes...Originally Posted by 01101001
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We already have. At least 3, 2 Voyagers, and at least one of the Pioneers. Not sure about other Pioneers.Originally Posted by mickal555
Yeah but once they get there they wont be able to do much probing, they wern't designed to be intersteller probes.Originally Posted by Saluki
Originally Posted by mickal555
You can't wait till you are dead? It not going to happen in your lifetime. (Unless some kind of radical life extending technology is invented well before the probes are sent.)
Voyager 1 and 2, and Pioneer 10 and 11. Hopefully New Horizons will be added to that soon.Originally Posted by Saluki
Still, I don't think we can really call them interstellar probes: they will be space junk long before they reach the stars. I think that to be considered an interstellar probe, the probe has got to do more than have escape velocity from the Solar System, but actually be planned to be functional when it does reach the stars.