Starship Asterisk*

APOD Robot wrote:Suggesting surprising geological activity, they are also likely young with an estimated age of 100 million years or so based on the apparent absence of craters.

ceelias wrote:My understanding is that Jupiter forces many objects to be diverted inwards, towards Mars, Earth, Venus and Mercury.
Since Pluto is not affected by Jupiters gravity forcing objects towards Pluto, would the rate of cratering on Pluto be significantly less than that observed on the inner (rocky) planets?

Hengchun wrote:Amazing to me that with the sun so far away from Pluto, it still is able to cast such deep dark shadows.

geckzilla wrote:Yes, gosh darn it, as long as 'Murica is the one sending out the probes, we're going to use miles.

Ann wrote:A Swedish tabloid claimed there is snow (I guess ice) on the mountaintops of Pluto. Any thoughts?

Ann

Craine wrote:

geckzilla wrote:Yes, gosh darn it, as long as 'Murica is the one sending out the probes, we're going to use miles.

And crash probes in the Martian desert?

WIKI wrote:Starting in 1960 the Soviets launched a series of probes to Mars inluding the intended first flybys and hard (impact) landing (Mars 1962B).[9] The first successful fly-by of Mars was on July 14–15, 1965, by NASA's Mariner 4.[10] On November 14, 1971 Mariner 9 became the first space probe to orbit another planet when it entered into orbit around Mars.[11] The amount of data returned by probes increased dramatically as technology improved.[9]

The first to contact the surface were two Soviet probes: Mars 2 lander on November 27 and Mars 3 lander on December 2, 1971—Mars 2 failed during descent and Mars 3 about twenty seconds after the first Martian soft landing.[12] Mars 6 failed during descent but did return some corrupted atmospheric data in 1974. [13] The 1975 NASA launches of the Viking program consisted of two orbiters, each with a lander that successfully soft landed in 1976. Viking 1 remained operational for six years, Viking 2 for three. The Viking landers relayed the first color panoramas of Mars[14] and the Viking orbiters mapped the surface so well that the images remain in use.

The Soviet probes Phobos 1 and 2 were sent to Mars in 1988 to study Mars and its two moons, with a focus on Phobos. Phobos 1 lost contact on the way to Mars. Phobos 2, while successfully photographing Mars and Phobos, failed before it was set to release two landers to the surface of Phobos.[15]

Roughly two-thirds of all spacecraft destined for Mars have failed without completing their missions, and it has a reputation as difficult space exploration target.[16] Missions that ended prematurely after Phobos 1 & 2 (1988) include Mars Observer (Launched in 1992), Mars 96 (1996), Mars Climate Orbiter (1999), Mars Polar Lander with Deep Space 2 (1999), Nozomi (2003), Beagle 2 (2003), and Fobos-Grunt with Yinghuo-1

tomatoherd wrote:I read through yesterday's comments, and didn't find an answer: Since both the Charon and Pluto photographs are shot pretty much face-on (sunward facing), I presume New Horizons must have passed by on a trajectory radially outwards from the inner solar system, but almost aimed directly AT Pluto et al, with cameras at its leading surface. For it doesn't sound like it would still possess fuel to change trajectories at this stage in the process, e.g to curve and pass in front of them.
And did it pass between the two?

NGC3314 wrote:
NH passed opposite Charon - probably because of constraints needed to get both objects to occult the Sun and radio signals from Earth for atmospheric measurements.

Ron-Astro Pharmacist wrote:The Nova last night was a nice overview of the New Horizons project start to finish. Except that it still may have new objects to investigate. I haven't heard how it will navigate to the next target. Chance encounter? Or was it directed into areas of the highest density of TNO's.

Objects.jpg

Also looking forward to seeing a close-up of the entire planet though it's hard to image from what illumination angle it will be viewed during the parting images. Thanks NGC3314 – that link helps visualize its trajectory.

Ron-Astro Pharmacist wrote:I haven't heard how it will navigate to the next target. Chance encounter? Or was it directed into areas of the highest density of TNO's.

henrystar wrote:
When will there be a human colony on Pluto?