Posted on 10/27/2016 9:52:28 PM PDT by BenLurkin
15 months after the mission’s flyby of the Pluto system, the final bits of science data from the historic July 2015 event has been safely transmitted to Earth.
“The New Horizons mission has required patience for many years, but we knew the results would be well worth the wait,” New Horizons project scientists Hal Weaver told me earlier this year.
Because of New Horizons’ great distance from Earth and the spacecraft’s low power output (the spacecraft runs on just 2-10 watts of electricity), it has a relatively low ‘downlink’ rate at which data can be transmitted to Earth, just 1-4 kilobits per second. That’s why it has taken so long to get all the science data back to Earth.
Because it was a flyby, and the spacecraft had just one chance at gathering data from Pluto, New Horizons was designed to gather as much data as it could, as quickly as it could – taking about 100 times more data on close approach to Pluto and its moons than it could have sent home before flying onward. The spacecraft was programmed to send select, high-priority datasets home in the days just before and after close approach, and began returning the vast amount of remaining stored data in September 2015.
New Horizons is now over 3.1 billion miles (5 billion km) away from Earth as it continues its journey through the Kuiper Belt. That translates to a current radio signal delay time of five hours, eight minutes at light speed. The science team created special software to keep track of all the data sets and schedule when they would be returned to Earth.
(Excerpt) Read more at universetoday.com ...
Drink your Ovaltine.
I check the New Horizons site fairly regularly to see what new images they’ve posted. There have been some real WOW’s posted and I’ve saved many of them. Pluto and Charon turned out to be fascinating and beautiful.
Longest distance file copy operation in history.
Well, local history, anyway.
Amazing they can even A. Find the planet B. take the photos. The planet must be pretty dark. Imagine the flash they use to take the photos....
When ever I try to take a photo the subject moves and it is blurry. Examples of mine are Bigfoot and the various UFOs flying around.
I am glad they did not leave the lens cap on before taking off for Pluto.
People today don't understand what it takes to transmit the data that keep them "connected". I recently tried explaining analog data transmission to a young co-worker. His eyes glazed over and I felt like I was trying to explain quantum mechanics to a cat.
Yep. New Horizons was really one of the gems in space exploration. Everyone involved in that project should be proud of what they accomplished.
50 gigs at the speed of a 2400 bit per second Hayes Smartmodem with a signal strength of 2 to 10 Watts from a distance of over 3,100,000,000 miles.
People today don’t understand what it takes to transmit the data that keep them “connected”.
...
I remember the days when 2400 baud was fast and thinking that multimedia would never be transferred in real time.
Friis Transmission equation. It was likely less than 2-10 watts. That number quoted was for the electricity the spacecraft used. The actual RF power transmitted was probably lower.
We’re still reaping the benefits of Big Science which started many decades ago. I hope Trump’s policies can put us back on track.
It took a long time to fabricate all of the CGI.
A. Finding Pluto is not particularly difficult. Its orbit has been well known since it was calculated from astronomical data shortly after its discovery. Getting a spacecraft there is similarly a fairly easy task, at least navigationally speaking. Calculate the thrust vector needed to achieve an orbit that intersects Pluto’s and fire the rockets in the right direction, with the right force, and for the right time, and gravity will get it there.
B. Were the images done in the visible spectrum? Even if they were, that’s not exactly a smartphone camera they’re using to capture images. Light detectors sensitive enough to count individual photons exist (and more importantly existed at the time of New Horizon’s launch). I am pretty sure on a mission like this, the best available imaging equipment would have been used. No flash needed for these detectors - Pluto would be bright for such sensitive photodetectors.
I’d like to see a view looking back towards the sun; more than a speck, less than a dollop.
You also have top take into account the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn; to close to them will pull you way off course. Or can you “slingshot” off of them with a properly timed burn?
to take...too close...
more coffee
You would have to account for any planet that the probe might approach, but I am not sure that the probe actually got anywhere near any other bodies. And certainly the probe can do a slingshot maneuver if it engages in the proper burn near a planet. My point though was that there’s nothing particularly amazing or difficult about getting a probe into an orbit that will closely approach Pluto. Once the proper orbit is achieved it’s just a matter of time until the probe inevitably gets to its destination.
You laugh, but tradition dictates that the PI keeps the lens cap (or, in this case, red-tag cover) in his back pocket during launch.
Thanks, we are. ;)
That’s exactly what New Horizons did, flying by Jupiter in February 2007 to pick up speed. Otherwise, the journey would have been even longer.
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