Starship Asterisk*

bystander wrote:

owlice wrote:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Horizons#Kuiper_belt_mission wrote:
<<(Alice can perform ... occultations>>

How (unfortunately) true!

So, you are a witch?
A practitioner of the occult?

owlice wrote:

neufer wrote:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Horizons#Kuiper_belt_mission wrote:
<<(Alice can perform ... occultations>>

How (unfortunately) true!

BMAONE23 wrote:If it is found and decoded, it will contain the directions to a planet that contains Aluminum, Copper, Gold, and Uranium. Lets hope these are truely plentiful thruought the universe.

neufer wrote:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Horizons#Kuiper_belt_mission wrote:
<<(Alice can perform ... occultations>>

BMAONE23 wrote:
If it is found and decoded, it will contain the directions to a planet that contains Aluminum, Copper, Gold, and Uranium.

Lets hope these are truly plentiful throughout the universe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abundance_of_the_chemical_elements wrote:

Estimated abundances of the chemical elements in the Solar system.

---

<<Hydrogen and helium are most common, from the Big Bang.

The next three elements (Li, Be, B) are rare because they are poorly synthesized in the Big Bang and also in stars.

The two general trends in the remaining stellar-produced elements are:

(1) an alternation of abundance in elements as they have even or odd atomic numbers, and

(2) a general decrease in abundance, as elements become heavier.>>

Chris Peterson wrote:

neufer wrote:(Note that we, ourselves, no longer possess the capability to play the phonographs on board Voyager.)

We chose a deliberately primitive recording technique in order to suggest a (hopefully) obvious means of recovering the data. It's highly doubtful that any civilization intercepting the recording will have an off-the-shelf record player available, either. But like any competent human engineer, I'd expect a player could be put together out of common parts in a few hours. I've built a few phonographs from scratch, and could certainly do so again. (And of course, phonographs are still readily available right here on Earth, as commercial products.)

biddie67 wrote:Admittedly I don't have an engineer's mindset, but to me looking at the golden disk, it might be more akin to the cave drawings here on Earth than interpreted as a "reasonable" attempt to communicate by some alien civilization. Frustrating to be sure to all that worked on developing the disk, I can see some child-like alien playing frisbee with it. I hope its fate is not this but what it was intended for in the first place ....

neufer wrote:(Note that we, ourselves, no longer possess the capability to play the phonographs on board Voyager.)

neufer wrote:(Note that we, ourselves, no longer possess the capability to play the phonographs on board Voyager.)

islader2 wrote:
In interstellar space, will the probes emit any type of signals--or will alien contact, if any, be a random event?

moonstruck wrote:Wow, thanks for the prospective.

Matt wrote: Do you think we'll be able to gather enough information that we're looking for in just a flyby? What then, it just keeps going like the Voyager missions?

13013 wrote:
What are the chances of any of these probes traveling from interstellar to intergalactic space?

13013 wrote:
Or is it more probable that they will be pulled onto the gravitational fields of another star in our galaxy?

Matt wrote:
Do you think we'll be able to gather enough information that we're looking for in just a flyby?

What then, it just keeps going like the Voyager missions?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Horizons#Kuiper_belt_mission wrote:
<<Observations of Pluto, with LORRI plus Ralph, will begin about 6 months prior to closest approach. The targets will be only a few pixels across. This should detect any rings or any additional moons (eventually down to 2 kilometers diameter), for avoidance and targeting maneuvers, and observation scheduling. 70 days out, resolution will exceed the Hubble Space Telescope's resolution, lasting another two weeks after the flyby. Long-range imaging will include 40 km (25 mi) mapping of Pluto and Charon 3.2 days out. This is half the rotation period of Pluto-Charon and will allow imaging of the side of both bodies that will be facing away from the spacecraft at closest approach. Coverage will repeat twice per day, to search for changes due to snows or cryovolcanism. Still, due to Pluto's tilt and rotation, a portion of the northern hemisphere will be in shadow at all times.

During the flyby, LORRI should be able to obtain select images with resolution as high as 50 m/px (if closest distance is around 10,000 km), and MVIC should obtain 4-color global dayside maps at 1.6 km resolution. LORRI and MVIC will attempt to overlap their respective coverage areas to form stereo pairs. LEISA will obtain hyperspectral near-infrared maps at 7 km/px globally and 0.6 km/pixel for selected areas. Meanwhile, Alice will characterize the atmosphere, both by emissions of atmospheric molecules (airglow), and by dimming of background stars as they pass behind Pluto (occultation).
A simulated view of New Horizons passing Pluto and Charon when it arrives in 2015.

During and after closest approach, SWAP and PEPSSI will sample the high atmosphere and its effects on the solar wind. VBSDC will search for dust, inferring meteoroid collision rates and any invisible rings. REX will perform active and passive radio science. Ground stations on Earth will transmit a powerful radio signal as New Horizons passes behind Pluto's disk, then emerges on the other side. The communications dish will measure the disappearance and reappearance of the signal. The results will resolve Pluto's diameter (by their timing) and atmospheric density and composition (by their weakening and strengthening pattern). (Alice can perform similar occultations, using sunlight instead of radio beacons.) Previous missions had the spacecraft transmit through the atmosphere, to Earth ("downlink"). Low power and extreme distance means New Horizons will be the first such "uplink" mission. Pluto's mass and mass distribution will be evaluated by their tug on the spacecraft. As the spacecraft speeds up and slows down, the radio signal will experience a Doppler shift. The Doppler shift will be measured by comparison with the ultrastable oscillator in the communications electronics.

Reflected sunlight from Charon will allow some imaging observations of the nightside. Backlighting by the Sun will highlight any rings or atmospheric hazes. REX will perform radiometry of the nightside.

After passing by Pluto, New Horizons will continue further into the Kuiper belt. Mission planners are now searching for one or more additional Kuiper belt objects (KBOs) on the order of 50–100 km (31–62 mi) in diameter for flybys similar to the spacecraft's Plutonian encounter. As maneuvering capability is limited, this phase of the mission is contingent on finding suitable KBOs close to New Horizons's flight path, ruling out any possibility for a planned flyby of Eris, a trans-Neptunian object comparable in size to Pluto.[27] The available region, being fairly close to the plane of the Milky Way and thus difficult to survey for dim objects, is one that has not been well-covered by previous KBO search efforts.>>

Chris Peterson wrote:

biddie67 wrote:Is the New Horizons spacecraft to go into orbit around Pluto -or- flyby?

A flyby, for the simple reason that there is no way to slow it down once it gets there. And it would have to slow down a LOT to remain in orbit around Pluto. It's going to zip by Pluto very fast- a short encounter after a long trip.

biddie67 wrote:Is the New Horizons spacecraft to go into orbit around Pluto -or- flyby?

biddie67 wrote:
What does "round trip light time" mean?

biddie67 wrote:
Is the New Horizons spacecraft to go into orbit around Pluto -or- flyby?

biddie67 wrote:
if there is a component of the Sun's escape velocity that has to be dealt with during a spacecraft's lift through Earth's escape vlocity, is it great enough that there is a difference whether the launch site on Earth is facing the Sun or away from the Sun?

Jim Leff wrote:
Curious: is the solar escape velocity from earth greater than the escape velocity of earth?