Re: Where New Horizons is
Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2013 11:19 am
You can keep up with New Horizons progress here; http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/index.php
APOD and General Astronomy Discussion Forum
https://asterisk.apod.com/
Published on Oct 22, 2013Click to play embedded YouTube video.
<<What does New Horizons say when it calls home? Nothing, without the help of software that transforms zeros and ones from New Horizons' computers into images, instrument readings, or useful information on the spacecraft's status. Those datasets are then transmitted to Earth by the telecommunications (radio) system aboard New Horizons. But if our Pluto-bound spacecraft could talk, it would sound something like the 'tune' members of the New Horizons communications team created from actual ranging signals that New Horizons traded with NASA Deep Space Network (DSN) receiving stations earlier this year.>>
Wow ; cool! Turn your sound lower before playing! I liked it very much Art!neufer wrote:Published on Oct 22, 2013Click to play embedded YouTube video.
<<What does New Horizons say when it calls home? Nothing, without the help of software that transforms zeros and ones from New Horizons' computers into images, instrument readings, or useful information on the spacecraft's status. Those datasets are then transmitted to Earth by the telecommunications (radio) system aboard New Horizons. But if our Pluto-bound spacecraft could talk, it would sound something like the 'tune' members of the New Horizons communications team created from actual ranging signals that New Horizons traded with NASA Deep Space Network (DSN) receiving stations earlier this year.>>
New Horizons's cameras are an order of magnitude smaller than Hubble so it needs to be less than 4 AU to get better pictures of Pluto.orin stepanek wrote:
Only 5 AU for encounter with Pluto! Did I say only? Let's see that is only 93 million miles (rounded up) times 5 = 465 million miles to go!
Right.Beyond wrote:
Dawn has vacuum brakes, right
http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php? ... 29#p119429Beyond wrote:
Only when there is no air, or the roads are slick. (snow/ice/ETC)
For dry roads and big loads, you can't beat air-brakes.
So, you've had that breaking train of thought already. STOP THATneufer wrote:http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php? ... 29#p119429Beyond wrote:
Only when there is no air, or the roads are slick. (snow/ice/ETC)
For dry roads and big loads, you can't beat air-brakes.
For recovering a broken thought train or for long hauls coffee breaks are essentialBeyond wrote:So, you've had that breaking train of thought already. STOP THATneufer wrote:http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php? ... 29#p119429Beyond wrote:
Only when there is no air, or the roads are slick. (snow/ice/ETC)
For dry roads and big loads, you can't beat air-brakes.
yes, it's like 40 minutes for the light to go.orin stepanek wrote:Only 5 AU for encounter with Pluto! Did I say only?
If humans are to go (and/or reason rocket accelerations to be assumed)makc wrote:
updated calculator says that we could get to P.C. in 10 years at only 0.39c (did I say "only" ) corresponding Earth time would be 4.2/0.39 = 10.77 years, quite manageable time spans for both the crew and their relatives.
Rob, you had me worried there for a moment 75,650 seemed an untenable timespan to make the trip worthy, 74,700 is much more practicalrstevenson wrote:One light-year is about 63,240 AUs, and Proxima Centauri is about 4.2 ly from here, or about 265,600 AUs by this calculation. I picked the 269,000 figure off the web somewhere, so I should have checked it. Using 265,600 AUs instead, I get about 74,700 years to get there if our interstellar probe is moving about as fast as New Horizons. Not that we know how to do even that -- yet.
Rob
If such a technology could be created, we would do better with a constant 1g acceleration for 1/2 the trip then a 1g deceleration for the other half. No more ravages of time in zero gneufer wrote:If humans are to go (and/or reason rocket accelerations to be assumed)makc wrote:
updated calculator says that we could get to P.C. in 10 years at only 0.39c (did I say "only" ) corresponding Earth time would be 4.2/0.39 = 10.77 years, quite manageable time spans for both the crew and their relatives.
then the first ~11,000 AU will have to be achieved at about 1g acceleration
But this ~10 months acceleration phase will only tack on an additional ~5 months to the journey.
http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/R ... ocket.html
http://spacetravel.nathangeffen.webfact ... travel.php
After multiple gravity assists the 5,600 kg Cassini spacecraft finally left the Earth/Moon system just ~3 km/s shy of Solar System escape velocity. Presumably a Saturn V could place a 47,000 kg spacecraft into a similar (near solar system escape velocity) trajectory. Such a 47,000 kg spacecraft could (given an effective Xenon ion exhaust velocity (Ve) of 29 km/s) launch a ~800 kg interstellar probe that escapes the solar system at a velocity of 120 to 150 km/s = a relative velocity vis-a-vis α Centauri of 140 to 170 km/s. Such a probe could reach α Centauri (or Barnard's star) in from 7700 to 9400 years near to their closest approaches.rstevenson wrote:
One light-year is about 63,240 AUs, and Proxima Centauri is about 4.2 ly from here, or about 265,600 AUs by this calculation. Using 265,600 AUs, I get about 74,700 years to get there if our interstellar probe is moving about as fast as New Horizons. Not that we know how to do even that -- yet.
If you were just to accelerate for the whole trip (instead of only the first 11,000 AU) for a simply flybyBMAONE23 wrote:If such a technology could be created, we would do better with a constant 1g acceleration for 1/2 the tripneufer wrote:If humans are to go (and/or reason rocket accelerations to be assumed)makc wrote:
updated calculator says that we could get to P.C. in 10 years at only 0.39c (did I say "only" ) corresponding Earth time would be 4.2/0.39 = 10.77 years, quite manageable time spans for both the crew and their relatives.
then the first ~11,000 AU will have to be achieved at about 1g acceleration
But this ~10 months acceleration phase will only tack on an additional ~5 months to the journey.
http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/R ... ocket.html
http://spacetravel.nathangeffen.webfact ... travel.php
then a 1g deceleration for the other half. No more ravages of time in zero g