https://edition-m.cnn.com/2019/01/0...success/index.html?r=https://edition.cnn.com/

Although the flyby occurred at 12:33 a.m. ET on January 1, the spacecraft is so far from Earth that the "phone-home" signal didn't reach us until about 10:30 a.m. ET. Mission scientists were notably relieved about the success because there was only one chance to get it right as New Horizons screamed past Ultima at 31,500 miles per hour.

 

I guess different missions get different treatment. When they advertised the mars landing.....they timed it for humans.

We monitored the landing and RX first pic. It wasn't hurray........come back in hrs to see.

Well....it is nasa. I shouldn't complain......people might think I am anti-science.

 

https://us.cnn.com/2019/01/01/world/new-horizons-ultima-thule-flyby-success/index.html

 

That first picture sure doesn't jive with that article about the light reflected from the object.

Maybe it was a DSP software problem.

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/News-Article.php?page=20190101

 

For me to think about all that humanity has achieved in my lifetime, to me is astounding. Everyday, Week etc we are discovering new things, makes me feel like a kid again. 31,500 mph is 46,200 fps don't blink

kv

 

31,500 mph is 46,200 fps don't blink

Better yet, 31,500 mph is 50,694 Kph = 14,082 mps ...

 

kv.......can you imagine what would happen if they spotted a building or some non natural structure on that thing?

All focus would be on getting man there as soon as possible. A new orbital probe would be sent immediately.

Can you image the cost of a crew, craft and supplies......and time, to get there?

A verifiable non human structure. Imagine the health and safety risks that would be ignored.

Mars would be forgotten.

 

kv.......can you imagine what would happen if they spotted a building or some non natural structure on that thing?

All focus would be on getting man there as soon as possible. A new orbital probe would be sent immediately.

Can you image the cost of a crew, craft and supplies......and time, to get there?

A verifiable non human structure. Imagine the health and safety risks that would be ignored.

Mars would be forgotten.

Who in their right mind would put a building on a spinning peanut.

Better yet, 31,500 mph is 50,694 Kph = 14,082 mps ...

Since when is Meters better than Feet, non-english people so smug </sar/>. And to further confuse things for me they changed Pounds to Dollars.

Dare to be different I guess.

kv

 

One KB per second. I wonder what the protocol looks like. Does it use CRC, checksum, parity, all of the above? Or does it use something more sophisticated?

https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/scienc...oys-tremendous-success-one-billion-ncna953566

At only 1000 bytes of data transmitted per second whenever the Deep Space Network’s antennas are available to this mission among the others it is monitoring, it will take 20 months for all the data to come back.

 

https://phys.org/news/2019-01-nasa-icy-pluto-reddish-snowman.html

 

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Galleries/Featured-Images/index.php

 

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/latest-picture-ultima-thule-reveals-remarkably-smooth-face

The closest-yet image of the ancient Kuiper Belt object, captured as the New Horizons spacecraft flew by January 1, shows a relatively smooth face unmarred by impact craters.

 

Isn't it terrible that it takes so long for that to download. We wait years to get there, and once we know it got the data.........we want it now. I know I do. I want more.

The data rate problem. We need a new method of modulation. We need a way of modulating "in", instead of modulating out, sorta speak.

We need to be able to embed a lot, into a little. Inside out modulation.

And years waiting to get there is no fun.....why not much faster?

 

for me it's still weird that Pluto is no longer considered a planet

 

It turns out that Ultima Thule is not a snowman:

https://edition-m.cnn.com/2019/02/1...li-intl/index.html?r=https://edition.cnn.com/

 

New Horizons keeps going and going... it has just recently transmitted a couple of very interesting photos showing how the position of Proxima Centauri and Wolf 359 have both shifted against the background of stars compared to how they look from earth.

https://www.space.com/amp/nasa-new-horizons-star-shift-parallax-photos.html

 

And my respects to the team that wrote the firmware... which was responsible for rebooting the thing if something unexpected (like this) ever happened. Visualizing all possible scenarios is an enormous challenge.

Not as hard as one thinks, if one has a mind for identifying limits in both directions, and what can be handled, what can't be handled, and what to do in a simple, robust way in such events. There is only so much you can do, so you make the code do it. Flow chart, flow chart, flow chart. That era of programming was an era of what is known as 'defensive progamming'. You assume nothing, you take full responsibility for everything happening, and you manage it all to the best possible way that can be managed within the constraints you have to work in.

 

NASA’s Pluto Spacecraft Begins New Mission at the Solar System’s Edge

​

On March 1, the spacecraft will exit its hibernation mode, switching on its systems to truly begin its new extended mission (although some instruments have already been taking data while the rest of the spacecraft has been hibernating). In April, the spacecraft will cease to spin, allowing it to snap images of the planet Uranus. It will image both Uranus and Neptune again in the fall of 2023, and Uranus again in spring 2024. This will let astronomers track the motion of clouds as the planets rotate to better understand their energy balance as the sun shines upon them particularly when, in the fall of 2023, New Horizons will observe the planets edge-on while Hubble and other ground-based telescopes near-simultaneously observe their nearsides from Earth.

 

NASA's New Horizons will investigate Uranus from the rear (Neptune, too)

​

To ensure wide coverage of the two planets from a variety of angles, New Horizons will be joined in this endeavor not only by the Hubble Space Telescope, but also by amateur astronomers all over the world who are being asked to contribute observations throughout the month.

 

Something about "investigate Uranus from the rear" just doesn't sound right...