New Horizons - mission to Pluto and the Kupier belt

Tom Kalbfus · 2015-07-20 20:40:43

Antius wrote:

Antius wrote:
Tom Kalbfus wrote:
Its not abut war, its about surviving it, or what ever other catastrophe, runaway nanotechnology and the like. Having too many humans in one spot makes the vulnerable, too many humans, some of them crazy, might get hold of destructive technologies and wipe out the human race. It would be good to have people at Pluto just in case.
At Pluto temperatures, ice would behave as a ceramic. Pluto colonists could use it much as we do concrete here on Earth. Giant pressure domes could be constructed from hexagonal ice blocks and distressed using polypropylene cables. Snow could be used to provide insulation between the warm interior and the cold pressure dome.
Sorry I meant pre-stressed. Darn autocorrect.

The Plutonian Mountain ranges seem to indicate that water ice would make an excellent construction material, and they would make a nice water tank too, so long as heat was applied to the center. One could have reservoirs of heated water buried within the ice, nuclear fusion would supply the energy. Perhaps a heated electrical filament buried within the ice could keep the water around it liquid making for ice plumbing and pipes. A plastic insulated roof of a cavity in the ice could allow for warmer surface water. At one twentieth gee, a column of water 1 meter by 1 meter by 20 meters would weigh 1 ton, by going down 200 meters water pressure would increase from 1 atmosphere to 2 atmospheres. An insulated dome under the ice would make a suitable human habitat, with artificial lighting provided on the roof. Gravity would be pathetically insufficient. a human being could jump 20 feet up into the air from a standing position in this sort of gravity. A centrifuge would be needed.

SpaceNut · 2016-12-04 23:06:47

Fixed artifacts and shifting issue for the topic...

Also 78 days to Mars on a big rocket with a small payload....thanks RobertDyck

SpaceNut · 2017-07-09 20:36:07

NASA Pluto Probe's Next Target May Actually Be 'Swarm' of Objects

The frigid, faraway body that NASA's New Horizons spacecraft will zoom by 18 months from now may actually be a cluster of small objects, new observations suggest. New Horizons — which performed the first-ever flyby of Pluto in July 2015 — will have another close encounter on Jan. 1, 2019, this time with a little-studied object called 2014 MU69.
Mission scientists recently had a chance to learn more about 2014 MU69, which lies about 1 billion miles (1.6 billion kilometers) beyond the orbit of Pluto and is thought to be 12 to 25 miles (20 to 40 km) wide.

The all stops are being pulled out to keep the craft safe as it tries to get its first glimpse of this small pieces of rock....

SpaceNut · 2017-08-13 11:03:59

Wakey, Wakey.... Nasa to wake up New Horizons spacecraft for voyage into mysterious Third Zone next month following a five month hibernation, ahead of a journey deeper into one of the most mysterious regions of the Solar System. Known as The Third Zone the Kuiper Belt, a vast region of icy debris which encircles the Sun and planets.

On September 11, the spacecraft will awaken for its 16 month journey to MU69, an ancient object which is thought to be one of the early building blocks of the Solar System.
The space rock had not even been discovered when the craft launched in 2006 and the flyby will be the most distant in the history of space exploration, a billion miles beyond Pluto, and four billion miles from Earth.
Recent observations of MU69 from the Hubble Space Telescope show it is probably two ‘binary’ objects or a pair of space rocks ‘stuck-together’ bodies which are each around 12 miles across.

SpaceNut · 2017-09-06 16:20:08

New Horizons Files Flight Plan for 2019 Flyby

NASA's New Horizons mission has set the distance for its New Year's Day 2019 flyby of Kuiper Belt object 2014 MU69, aiming to come three times closer to MU69 than it famously flew past Pluto in 2015.
That milestone will mark the farthest planetary encounter in history - some one billion miles (1.5 billion kilometers) beyond Pluto and more than four billion miles (6.5 billion kilometers) from Earth. If all goes as planned, New Horizons will come to within just 2,175 miles (3,500 kilometers) of MU69 at closest approach, peering down on it from celestial north.
The alternate plan, to be employed in certain contingency situations such as the discovery of debris near MU69, would take New Horizons within 6,000 miles (10,000 kilometers)- still closer than the 7,800-mile (12,500-kilometer) flyby distance to Pluto.

still a long time to wait for news from this probe....

SpaceNut · 2018-05-28 14:16:28

Look out Dwarf world as you may become a Comet....

Pluto 'May Be a Giant Comet'

The researchers used data collected from NASA’s New Horizons space interplanetary space probe to Pluto and the European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission to the comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.

Pluto May Actually Be A ‘Giant Comet,’ New Study Suggests; The dwarf planet was reclassified once before in 2006.

5b0abc991e00007d038e6b74.jpeg?ops=scalefit_720_noupscale

SpaceNut · 2018-06-06 16:30:01

NASA’s New Horizons probe woke up today to prep for its next mission

The spacecraft, which flew by Pluto in July 2015, woke up from hibernation mode for its next rendezvous with a space rock at the edge of the Solar System. Outbound from Pluto, NASA's New Horizons probe woke up from six months of electronic hibernation Tuesday, phoning home to let flight controllers know it's in good health from its robotic hibernation, and now it’ll stay awake for its scheduled Jan. 1 flyby of a mysterious icy object on the solar system’s edge. The probe is on course for a New Year's Day flyby of a remnant of the solar system's birth.

SpaceNut · 2018-08-10 20:09:44

Its not at its next mission target, New Horizons is currently prepping for its visit to Kuiper Belt Object 2014 MU69, a roughly 30-kilometer-wide rock, and then it will continue toward the edge of the Solar System.
It is interesting in that New Horizons Spacecraft Sees Possible Hydrogen Wall at the End of the Solar System

The New Horizons spacecraft, now at a distance nearly four billion miles from Earth and already far beyond Pluto, has measured what appears to be a signature of the furthest reaches of the Sun’s energy—a wall of hydrogen. It nearly matches the same measurement made by the Voyager mission 30 years ago, and offers more information as to the furthest limits of our Sun’s reach. The Sun’s light sends charged particles outward, causing hydrogen particles in the space between planets to release characteristic ultraviolet light. But eventually, the Sun’s energy should wane, creating a boundary where interstellar hydrogen piles up at the edge of the outward pressure caused by the solar wind’s energy.

SpaceNut · 2018-09-09 10:51:09

The data is in but the debate continues on where Pluto is a planet or not...
Pluto should be reclassified as a planet, experts say

Experts Find New Evidence to Make Pluto a Planet Again

The reason for demotion was the definition as to what a planet was...

Pluto wrongly lost its planet status, say scientists, suggesting that the icy dwarf should be reclassified as a planetary body.

In 2006, the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a global group of astronomy experts, established a definition of a planet that required it to “clear” its orbit, or in other words, be the largest gravitational force in its orbit.

Since Neptune’s gravity influences its neighbouring planet Pluto, and Pluto shares its orbit with frozen gases and objects in the Kuiper belt, that meant Pluto was out of planet status.

Suggesting that it had not cleared its path....

Void · 2018-09-09 19:40:49

Lots of pinheads for angels to dance on

SpaceNut · 2018-10-05 21:34:22

New Horizons sets up for New Year's flyby of Ultima Thule a Kuiper Belt object nicknamed Ultima Thule.

At 4.1 billion miles (6.6 billion kilometers) from Earth, Ultima Thule will be the most distant object ever visited by a spacecraft. New Horizons itself was about 3.95 billion miles (6.35 billion kilometers) from home. New Horizons' Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) – provide direct information of Ultima's position relative to New Horizons, and help the team determine where the spacecraft is headed.
The New Horizons team designed the TCM by determining the current trajectories of the spacecraft and its target, and then calculating the maneuvering required to put the spacecraft at the desired "aim point" for the flyby – 2,200 miles (3,500 kilometers) from Ultima at closest approach.
"The recent navigation images have helped us confirm that Ultima is within about 300 miles [500 kilometers] of its expected position, which is exceptionally good.
The spacecraft is just 69 million miles (112 million kilometers) from Ultima, closing in at 32,256 miles (51,911 kilometers) per hour. Pelletier said the team will eventually have to guide the spacecraft into an approximately 75 by 200-mile (120 by 320-kilometer) "box" and predict the flyby to within 140 seconds.

Such a small rock along the way out of our universe....

SpaceNut · 2019-01-01 19:54:26

Success as Nasa has imagees of a bowling pin planet...

new-horizons-long-range-kuiper-ultima-thule-preliminary-image-hg.jpg

GW Johnson · 2019-01-03 16:46:27

I see the New Horizons flyby past Ultima Thule was successful. It will be several months before it can send home all the data, but they have published a couple of versions of at least one clear image.

Reports vary on transmitter power, and on remaining-fuel quantities and power, but there may (or may not) be an opportunity to find and fly by another target. But between this and Pluto, the mission is already a resounding success.

From the image seen so far, Ultima Thule appears to match the pre-existing concept for a “contact binary”, although I have never seen a convincing explanation how one of these could really be formed. One has to wonder what the source of the adhesion is at such cold temperatures, and how any such collisions did not break apart the two objects that seem to have come together.

Of the two images, one seems to be a black-and-white version, the other a color, of the same basic image data. I saw surface roughness, but no craters, really. Between the texture and the color, this did not resemble so very much the asteroids and comet nuclei we have seen so far.

The scientists talked about pebble-size objects agglomerating to form this object, which is a few miles in extent. We’ll see how this theory might play out, when the rest of the data gets received.

Fascinating stuff! My congratulations to the entire New Horizons team. They did good!

GW

louis · 2019-01-03 17:41:12

Remarkable though this feat of space exploration is, it's a bit like Marco Polo deciding to miss out China, take a glimpse at Japan from sea and then get a close up of a miniscule remote rock in the Pacific.

You'll detect a criticism there, and you'll be right.

We will learn vastly more about the solar system if set up bases on the Moon and Mars. The fact that NASA has failed to do so, has been one of the great historical failures, along with China's decision to abandon exploration of the globe with its "super-junks".

From Wikipedia:

"From 1405 to 1433, large fleets commanded by Admiral Zheng He – under the auspices of the Yongle Emperor of the Ming Dynasty – traveled to the Indian Ocean seven times. This attempt did not lead China to global expansion, as the Confucian bureaucracy under the next emperor reversed the policy of open exploration and by 1500, it became a capital offence to build a seagoing junk with more than two masts."

Not unlike NASA's prohibition on human colonisation from the mid 1970s till now.

GW Johnson · 2019-01-04 14:44:49

Reports indicate that the Chinese Chang’E 4 probe successfully landed on the backside of the moon. The reports are sketchy, but it would appear the small rover may have been deployed. One report’s visual on TV indicated some sort of satellite about the moon in a polar orbit, which has to be how the probe communicates with Earth from the backside of the moon.

All in all, the Chinese have pulled off a feat that is quite worthy. Congrats to them. Bravo!

GW

SpaceNut · 2019-01-04 19:58:09

Yes there are some images as well that shows the tracks on the surface which it has made.

I wonder if they would point the camera back to get a glimpse of just how small our world is....

I also hope that there will be more to come.....as it speeds away to points unknown...

SpaceNut · 2020-11-06 18:00:51

New Horizons will be 50 times as far from the Sun as the Earth is - only the fifth operating spacecraft to reach that distance.

SpaceNut · 2021-03-28 16:59:32

https://www.spacedaily.com/m/reports/Th … e_999.html

SpaceNut · 2021-04-18 12:16:23

What are we exploring now

SpaceNut · 2021-12-29 19:15:48

Its been quite a while since we learned much about this mission
Looking Back, Looking Forward To New Horizons

New Horizons remains healthy and continues to send valuable data from deep in the Kuiper Belt - more than 5 billion miles away - even as it speeds farther and farther from the Earth and Sun.

Of course the flyby targets in the Pluto system and at the Kuiper Belt object (KBO) Arrokoth, other KBOs and dwarf planets has furthered our knowledge of our solar system.

Scientists want NASA to extend New Horizons funding and operations across 2023-2025 years but who knows if that will happen.

Mars_B4_Moon · 2023-03-20 08:55:02

Pluto team updates science from the solar system's edge

https://phys.org/news/2023-03-pluto-tea … -edge.html

Mars_B4_Moon · 2023-05-11 05:14:23

Debate rages about future of New Horizons

https://spacenews.com/debate-rages-abou … -horizons/

tahanson43206 · 2023-05-11 06:26:44

For Mars_B4_Moon re #172

Thanks for the link to the detailed report on the issues of NASA funding for planetary missions. Alan Stern is trying to keep his team together, on the slight chance a meaningful object might lie in the path of the probe as it travels through the Kuiper belt. The difficulty seems to be competition between Stern and other science teams funded by NASA.

The James Webb might be able to look ahead of New Horizons, but competition for ** that ** resource is stiff. Objects out that far tend to be poorly illuminated and not very reflective, so finding them is best done by watching for occlusion of distant stars, but ** that ** requires a ** lot ** of telescope time.

The strongest argument Stern has going for his team is the fact that New Horizons is already "on site".

(th)

Mars_B4_Moon · 2023-08-16 17:24:46

New Horizons is So Far Away, it Can Measure the True Darkness of the Universe

https://www.universetoday.com/162805/ne … -universe/

Mars_B4_Moon · 2023-10-08 17:44:59

Arrokoth is Covered in Bizarre Mounds

https://www.universetoday.com/163509/ar … re-mounds/

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#151 2015-07-20 20:40:43

Re: New Horizons - mission to Pluto and the Kupier belt

#152 2016-12-04 23:06:47

Re: New Horizons - mission to Pluto and the Kupier belt

#153 2017-07-09 20:36:07

Re: New Horizons - mission to Pluto and the Kupier belt

#154 2017-08-13 11:03:59

Re: New Horizons - mission to Pluto and the Kupier belt

#155 2017-09-06 16:20:08

Re: New Horizons - mission to Pluto and the Kupier belt

#156 2018-05-28 14:16:28

Re: New Horizons - mission to Pluto and the Kupier belt

#157 2018-06-06 16:30:01

Re: New Horizons - mission to Pluto and the Kupier belt

#158 2018-08-10 20:09:44

Re: New Horizons - mission to Pluto and the Kupier belt

#159 2018-09-09 10:51:09

Re: New Horizons - mission to Pluto and the Kupier belt

#160 2018-09-09 19:40:49

Re: New Horizons - mission to Pluto and the Kupier belt

#161 2018-10-05 21:34:22

Re: New Horizons - mission to Pluto and the Kupier belt

#162 2019-01-01 19:54:26

Re: New Horizons - mission to Pluto and the Kupier belt

#163 2019-01-03 16:46:27

Re: New Horizons - mission to Pluto and the Kupier belt

#164 2019-01-03 17:41:12

Re: New Horizons - mission to Pluto and the Kupier belt

#165 2019-01-04 14:44:49

Re: New Horizons - mission to Pluto and the Kupier belt

#166 2019-01-04 19:58:09

Re: New Horizons - mission to Pluto and the Kupier belt

#167 2020-11-06 18:00:51

Re: New Horizons - mission to Pluto and the Kupier belt

#168 2021-03-28 16:59:32

Re: New Horizons - mission to Pluto and the Kupier belt

#169 2021-04-18 12:16:23

Re: New Horizons - mission to Pluto and the Kupier belt

#170 2021-12-29 19:15:48

Re: New Horizons - mission to Pluto and the Kupier belt

#171 2023-03-20 08:55:02

Re: New Horizons - mission to Pluto and the Kupier belt

#172 2023-05-11 05:14:23

Re: New Horizons - mission to Pluto and the Kupier belt

#173 2023-05-11 06:26:44

Re: New Horizons - mission to Pluto and the Kupier belt

#174 2023-08-16 17:24:46

Re: New Horizons - mission to Pluto and the Kupier belt

#175 2023-10-08 17:44:59

Re: New Horizons - mission to Pluto and the Kupier belt

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