new horizons present position...

[Mike70]

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/whereisnh/current/nhcp20080101_0458.jpg

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/whereisnh/overview/nhov20080101_0458.jpg



19.02 km/sec is 68,472 km/hr- that is movin out with a rush and is why new horizons went from earth to jupiter in only 13 months. launched 19 jan 06, closest approach to jupiter was on 28 feb 07.

on course for its july 2015 rendevous with pluto and charon.

that second pic always amazes me - is the outer solar system gigantic or what?

these were taken from the new horizons site at:
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/

[SRP76]

In a few thousand years, it will reach another star system.

Too bad we won't be around. We'll never know what it finds.

[Legion2213]

It's actually quite depressing, the Voyager probes have only traveled about 0.0016 light years in about 30 years. The nearest star system is about 4 light year away. According to the wiki "Voyager 1 is not heading towards any particular star, but in 40,000 years it will be within 1.7 light years of the star AC+793888 in the Camelopardis constellation."

We will have to do a Hell of a lot better if we seriously wish to explore anything beyond our own solar system. :(

Edit: Is this "New Horizons" faster than than the Voyager probes?

[Mike70]

Edit: Is this "New Horizons" faster than than the Voyager probes?

yes.

present speed of the voyager probes:

voyager 1- 17.34 km/sec or 62,424 km/hr
voyager 2- 15.95 km/sec or 57,420 km/hr

my source - the physics factbook at:

http://hypertextbook.com/facts/1997/PatricePean.shtml

on a seperate tip: nuclear power must be employed in space travel. this "ban" on nuclear reactors/tech other than plutonium chip RTGs is insane. a plasma jet engine (an engine that uses a nuclear reactor to superheat gas then expel it, could reach speeds of up to 400,000 km/hr or so.

or let's get really serious and build a spacecraft with an orion drive (a nuclear pulse engine- which uses controlled nuclear explosions, for want of a better term to propel the spacecraft), which is the only design capable of being built with present tech to reach speeds of up to 12 to 20% of the speed of light.

several designs have been explored on this topic and a lot of research conducted. the most notable being the british project daedalus and the us navy/nasa's project longshot.

[Legion2213]

Scipio, I totally, 100% agree, listening to the doom sayers never achieved anything for mankind, and not utilizing our full capabillities to explore space is just plain stupid, and possibly suicidal for the species (or at least modern civilisation) in the long run.

It wasn't "limp-wristed, scaredy nonces" who sailed the seas and discovered America, Australia and all the other lands, it was men who were willing to take risks every single day...the sort of tame, feeble minded attitude displayed by some people makes me sick.

As for being able to reach 12-20% of LS...wow, that would be a quantum leap.

[Mike70]

i think the main thing holding back an orion drive powered spacecraft is that it would have to built in a shipyard that was in orbit around the earth or (better) the moon- because there is no way in hades that something so heavy could ever be launched from the surface of this planet at 1 G. the extreme cost is the one huge hurtle that needs to be jumped for this to happen.

and you are damn right people like cook and columbus had balls, real balls. people that naysay and doomsay need to shut up and forced aside at all costs if
humans are ever going to make a real mark on this galaxy.

i have children and some day (far into the future maybe 10,000 years or so- doesn't really matter how long, as long as it happens) i'd like one of my descendants to look up at the sky and point to the tiny point of light that is our sun and say "that is where we originally came from. that is the cradle and we finally grew up enough to leave it."

[paulannett]

After we landed on the moon (anyone who says otherwise will get pimp-slapped), we should have approached space exploration with the same gritty determination, the same ferocity. Balls deep and gung-ho about it.

If we had done that, we'd be lightyears ahead, literally.

[Danny]

anyone else think that it would make more sense exploring our own solar system first whilst developing better propulsion systems?, who knows what we could find on those in our own system.

[Dommm]

Those against nuclear power for space travel I say pah!!! better that then using it to blow **** up... all for exploring our system with the propulsion systems that we already have...

[capncnut]

that second pic always amazes me - is the outer solar system gigantic or what?
Our solar system is even bigger when you look at Eris' orbit.

http://planetwaves.net/spiraldoor/free/images/eris.jpg

Now that's what I call gigantic! :stunned:


After we landed on the moon (anyone who says otherwise will get pimp-slapped), we should have approached space exploration with the same gritty determination, the same ferocity. Balls deep and gung-ho about it.
I think we have, the only place we can travel to is the moon and why go there again? Look at some of the projects over the years; the Voyagers, Magellan, Cassini/Huygens, the whole Mars mission. I was looking at NASA's project list and it's immense. 2015 seems to be the big year though with New Horizons going to Pluto and the Dawn mission to Ceres. Ceres will be interesting because it's on the top five list of most likely places to contain life.

[Mike70]

yes it is and it is a bit sad that the name xena didn't stick for eris.

if i recall correctly the mission to ceres is using the latest version of the ion engine and is going to visit another dwarf planet in the asteroid belt before hooking up with ceres.

too bad that the europa orbiter got scrapped:(. hopefully the next proposal to intensely study europa isn't so overly ambitious that it makes the folks holding the purse strings nervous.

[capncnut]

if i recall correctly the mission to ceres is using the latest version of the ion engine and is going to visit another dwarf planet in the asteroid belt before hooking up with ceres.
Yup, well kinda. It'll arrive at the largest asteroid in the asteroid belt, Vesta, in late 2011 before heading off to the dwarf planet Ceres, roughly six months later. Because of the spiral trajectory, it's gonna take Dawn three years to get there :stunned:. Just like New Horizons, after it's two main missions, NASA may use the craft to investigate other bodies so they might go on for another 10-20 years after with a bit of luck.

Hell, even Voyager 2 is still sending back data and that was launched in 1977! That's one mission that NASA can definitely say was a complete success.


too bad that the europa orbiter got scrapped:(. hopefully the next proposal to intensely study europa isn't so overly ambitious that it makes the folks holding the purse strings nervous.
The European Space Agency's Jovian Europa Orbiter should be launched in time for (funnily enough) 2015. I shouldn't image there will be any mess up's or cancellations with that one because Europa is a target that's 'high on the list'.

[Mike70]

The European Space Agency's Jovian Europa Orbiter should be launched in time for (funnily enough) 2015. I shouldn't image there will be any mess up's or cancellations with that one because Europa is a target that's 'high on the list'.


vesta that's right. i haven't been following that one. i've been paying more attention to MESSENGER, cassini, and new horizons.

i think that nasa's cancelled europa mission was just way too ambitious and way too expensive for the folks in congress. then again if nasa got even 15% of the money that this country spends on murdering other people every year, who knows what could be accomplished.:mad::annoyed:

[capncnut]

i've been paying more attention to MESSENGER...
New image released today actually, a nice colour pic of Mercury. Behold!

http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/pics/c1000_700_430.png

[Mike70]

your a bast***:lol::D i was getting ready to put that one up.

MESSENGER is going to to be the pimp of the inner solar system given that fact that 55% of mercury's surface is still unknown.

[capncnut]

your a bast***:lol::D i was getting ready to put that one up.
Yeah, it's a beauty ain't it.

Back to New Horizons...

http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/188597main_PIA09361_full.jpg

...I know this image is a couple of weeks old now but it absolutely blew me away when I saw it. Such a unique view of Europa rising behind Jupiter. If the Pluto pics are half as good then I'll be happy as a pig in s**t! :hyper:

[Mike70]

do you remember when galileo was at the end of its mission and the it was decided to purposefully crash it into jupiter to prevent the chance (relatively small as it was) that it might impact on europa and contaminate it? there were all of those knobhead conspiracy folks that were trying to claim that the plutonium RTG on galileo was going to cause some sort of giant nuclear explosion on jupiter??

that is one of the 5 most ridiculous things i have ever read on the internet and, as a gourmet of human stupidity, provided me with hours of entertainment.

[capncnut]

Is it me or is this probe gaining some serious distance?

New Horizons present position (http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/mission/whereis_nh.php)

[Mike70]

Is it me or is this probe gaining some serious distance?

New Horizons present position (http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/mission/whereis_nh.php)

it's not you this thing is rocking out as far as speed goes. i mean damn, it went from the earth to jupiter in 13 months.

[capncnut]

Two days ago this little bitch passed Saturn's orbit. Onward to Uranus for March 2011! :cool:

[Mike70]

necromancy time.

a bit of an update on new horizons. the size of the outer solar system is humbling for sure. 13 months from earth to jupiter and even with a gravity assist from the king of the planets, it is still about 15 months from crossing the orbit of uranus (insert joke here). new horizons is .02 AU closer to pluto than earth now. 16.42 AU from earth and 16.40 AU to get to pluto. new horizons is presently cruising at a speed of 16.48 m/sec, which is nearly 60,000 km/hr.

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/whereisnh/overview/nhov20091201_0699.jpg

[capncnut]

Great stuff. Nice to see that NH is moving along nicely. The gap is now closing. :cool:

[Mike70]

necromancy time again. all this talk of neutrinos and europa and what not has me thinking about New Horizons again. still literally space trucking its way toward pluto at 15.45 km/sec.


http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/whereisnh/overview/nhov20111101_0546.jpg

[strayrider]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/dec/05/exoplanet-kepler-22-b-nasa-earth