Updates NASA New Horizons Mission Updates

[GLS]

Nix

Pluto and Charon

Frozen carbon monoxide

Plains

 

[boogabooga]

Polygonal terrain? Where have I seen that before? :hmm:

 

[Artlav]

I foresee people talking about fields and cities on Pluto...

...cause many don't understand what JPEG artefacts are, and if you don't know about them, that photo's content looks damn well artificial.

 

[MaverickSawyer]

Polygonal terrain? Where have I seen that before? :hmm:

Damn. Harv and co. were rather prescient!

 

[Quick_Nick]

Breathtaking!

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydU-YrG_INk"]Animated Flyover of Pluto’s Icy Mountain and Plains - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Cairan]

Wait a few months, and we'll get stereo pairs and topography derived from them... THAT will be something to see!

 

[N_Molson]

So how much of the surface of Pluto is covered by the flyby ? I'd say 70% ?

 

[SolarLiner]

So how much of the surface of Pluto is covered by the flyby ? I'd say 70% ?

According to this map:

I'd say about 70%, yeah.



ALICE data has been collected from the Sun-Pluto occultation, and reveals a higher atmosphere than previously observed, reaching 1 600 km in altitude:

 

[Astro SG Wise]

You can see my report of the New Horizons mission here.

 

[N_Molson]

I'd say about 70%, yeah.

Ok so lets launch another one and fly by the other side to get the 30% remaining.

 

[MaverickSawyer]

Ok so lets launch another one and fly by the other side to get the 30% remaining.

Nah, if we go back, we should aim for orbit.

Hmmm... anyone seen a small nuclear reactor we can use for a power source?

 

[Quick_Nick]

Nah, if we go back, we should aim for orbit.

And bring it back!

 

[Thunder Chicken]

Ok so lets launch another one and fly by the other side to get the 30% remaining.

It would be great if it were possible to design "split" probes that could separate into two just before encounter to get imagery from both sides of the planet. They wouldn't necessarily have to be two identical capability probes. One "mother" probe would have the power to talk to Earth and would take images on one side. The other "daughter" probe could be much smaller, having just enough stored power to snap a few pictures pictures and to transmit them to the mother probe for transfer to earth.

 

[Cairan]

I remember reading that during the early post-flyby phase, they were going to use Charon's illumination of Pluto's surface (Charonshine) to take long exposure shots of areas that couldn't be pictured in daylight during the approach phase.

---------- Post added at 09:08 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:04 PM ----------

It would be great if it were possible to design "split" probes that could separate into two just before encounter to get imagery from both sides of the planet. They wouldn't necessarily have to be two identical capability probes. One "mother" probe would have the power to talk to Earth and would take images on one side. The other "daughter" probe could be much smaller, having just enough stored power to snap a few pictures pictures and to transmit them to the mother probe for transfer to earth.

Love the idea ... Not only that, but if you use a laser link between the two, you can also double that into a laser altimeter / gravimeter experiment by pointing the lasers at the surface during flyby and doing a whisk-broom scanning pattern, and by measuring precisely the variation of separation of the mothership / probes pre-encounter and post-encounter... Heck even do atmospheric profiling, like slicing an egg with a metal wire!

Let's write a project proposal and get some grants

 

[Thunder Chicken]

Love the idea ... Not only that, but if you use a laser link between the two, you can also double that into a laser altimeter / gravimeter experiment by pointing the lasers at the surface during flyby and doing a whisk-broom scanning pattern, and by measuring precisely the variation of separation of the mothership / probes pre-encounter and post-encounter... Heck even do atmospheric profiling, like slicing an egg with a metal wire!

Let's write a project proposal and get some grants

Power and weight are your enemies here. The more power-consuming features (lasers, etc) you add to the daughter probe, the more mass is needed, and the tyranny of the rocket equation bites you. You eventually get to the point where two full probes are needed.

My thought was really something more throw away - a small spherical probe, insulated with aerogel, with a battery, a small reaction wheel for orientation, a camera, and a low power radio. No RTG, so survival is limited by how long you can keep the electronics warm enough to work out in the Kuiper belt. Separate it maybe a day before encounter so it can transit the far side, have it take a few pictures and transmit them to the mother ship before it succumbs to the cold.

Maybe you could arrange a simple retro-reflector on the daughter probe and do the laser ranging and atmosphere profiling using a laser on the mother probe.

 

[Cairan]

Power and weight are your enemies here. The more power-consuming features (lasers, etc) you add to the daughter probe, the more mass is needed, and the tyranny of the rocket equation bites you. You eventually get to the point where two full probes are needed.

My thought was really something more throw away - a small spherical probe, insulated with aerogel, with a battery, a small reaction wheel for orientation, a camera, and a low power radio. No RTG, so survival is limited by how long you can keep the electronics warm enough to work out in the Kuiper belt. Separate it maybe a day before encounter so it can transit the far side, have it take a few pictures and transmit them to the mother ship before it succumbs to the cold.

Maybe you could arrange a simple retro-reflector on the daughter probe and do the laser ranging and atmosphere profiling using a laser on the mother probe.

Well if you need to power a dozens of watts laser for 90 minutes, I think non-rechargeable batteries might cut it, à-la-Phillae. Your idea of a retroreflector is great however! :thumbup: But given the distances involved, laser communication might be the most energy and mass efficient, highest-bitrate one could achieve in the near future for a short duration main probe / micro probes duo or constellation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_communication_in_space#Demonstrations

 

[K_Jameson]

Separate it maybe a day before encounter so it can transit the far side, have it take a few pictures and transmit them to the mother ship before it succumbs to the cold.

Due to the high flyby speed (a dozen of km/sec) and the usually low separation speed between spacecrafts (few meters/sec), the resulting trajectory of the twin probes actually don't diverge so much. The two probably will pass above the same side of Pluto, unless the flyby is very narrow (not desirable because of the high speed, which would make observations difficult). And even in this case, the second probe probably will impact the surface. Likely, the separation must occur well before the flyby - several weeks, IMHO.

Brilliant concept, anyway.

 

[Thunder Chicken]

Due to the high flyby speed (a dozen of km/sec) and the usually low separation speed between spacecrafts (few meters/sec), the resulting trajectory of the twin probes actually don't diverge so much. The two probably will pass above the same side of Pluto, unless the flyby is very narrow (not desirable because of the high speed, which would make observations difficult). And even in this case, the second probe probably will impact the surface. Likely, the separation must occur well before the flyby - several weeks, IMHO.

Brilliant concept, anyway.

Good point. To separate the probes by a distance of 2 Pluto diameters, assuming an initial separation speed of 10 m/s, requires a release six days prior to closest encounter. To accomplish the mission the daughter probe would probably need to stay alive on its own for 2 weeks. That is a long time out in the cold without an RTG.

The bulk of the probe would have to be an insulated battery. Assuming a power draw of 5 W for 2 weeks is ~1700 Wh. Li-on batteries have an energy density of something like 100 Wh/kg, so we're talking about 17 kg of just battery. Insulation, camera, computer, radio, gyroscope - maybe a 50 kg probe overall? A cold gas thruster could provide the separation speed.

 

[K_Jameson]

I would prefer a larger separation, for a flyby at higher altitude, as New Horizons did. A 25,000 km separation would require nearly one month to be accomplished. We can assume that the sub-probe can have a sort of timer that commands the wake up in the hours immediately preceding the flyby.

Galileo probe (battery-powered) was detached five months before the Jupiter encounter.

 

[Quick_Nick]