The Astronomy Thread

khorum

khorum

Murder Apologist
24,338
81,363
I love how that rover was designed for a 90 day mission and its been running 11 years and counting. Spirit would still be running too if it had wipers on its solar cells.
 
LachiusTZ

LachiusTZ

Rogue Deathwalker Box
<Silver Donator>
14,472
27,162
Always wondered why there are not levels of film on those solar panels that peel off after a year or two.

But if you are planning on 90 days... Nm!
 
Araxen

Araxen

Golden Baronet of the Realm
10,293
7,652
Back in action, New Horizons returns fresh view of Pluto | Spaceflight Now

rrr_img_102951.jpg
 
K

Kedwyn

Silver Squire
3,915
80
I remember all the portrayals being blue for some reason. Neat to actually see it. Now I'm curious if those blue portrayals were based on science or art.
 
Ichu

Ichu

Molten Core Raider
845
278
All space photos are filtered like crazy. Who knows what anything actually looks.
 
Brahma

Brahma

Obi-Bro Kenobi-X
12,149
43,431
Kedwyn_sl said:
I remember all the portrayals being blue for some reason. Neat to actually see it. Now I'm curious if those blue portrayals were based on science or art.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I was taught the same thing. This will be an exciting few days.
 
Agraza

Agraza

Registered Hutt
6,890
521
Like a heliosynchronous orbit with Pluto or a geosynchronous orbit around Pluto? I think it's going way too fast for the latter, and I'm not sure how they'd slow it down. The former sounds quite challenging as well.

Perhaps they want extra-solar probes and the trip to Pluto is just maximizing the value of the journey. I've never thought about it.
 
Gavinmad

Gavinmad

Mr. Poopybutthole
42,617
50,979
Brahma_sl said:
About Pluto mission. Why just a flyby? Why not sync into orbit?
Click to expand...
Furry_sl said:
Stopping at pluto is incredibly hard. To stop new horizons at pluto currently would take around 66 TONS of fuel. It currently has something in the range of 170 lbs. Compare this with the fact that the rocket sled which accelerated the ship to its current trajectory had a starting weight (with payload) of around 23.5 tons, of which the payload was a meager .5 tons. If the payload to go to pluto increased to 66.5 tons, launching new horizons would of been the greatest single undertaking in mankind's space exploration history.

Rockets are far far more efficient when they can be used close to strong gravitational bodies (oberth effect). Pluto does not offer this advantage, and you have to use raw engine power to stop there. Alternatively, you could attempt to set your orbit in a soft way that would have you reach apogee when intersecting pluto. The downside of this method is the already long travel time to pluto gets far longer. Don't know off the top of my head what it would be, but probably in the range of a 150 years to get there.

Until EMDrive is working, this is our best, and likely only chance in the next at least 40-50 years to see pluto up close.
Click to expand...
^^
 
A

a_skeleton_03

<Banned>
29,948
29,762
Yeah it is much easier to just throw a rock into the universe so to speak and attach a camera to it. Syncing it to make sure it got close to Pluto was worth it, but stopping at something like that before we know whether or not it's even worth exploring more just isn't feasible.

Now we have seen it 'up close' and can evaluate whether anything more is going to be worth the development and costs involved. I doubt that we will spend much more time on Pluto other than this mission.
 
iannis

iannis

Musty Nester
31,351
17,656
Brahma_sl said:
About Pluto mission. Why just a flyby? Why not sync into orbit?
Click to expand...
Because physics, I think.

They kinda just threw a camera at pluto. And it took about a decade (?) to get there. A real mission you're probably looking at 20 years between launch and neat pictures.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.