Updates NASA New Horizons Mission Updates

[garyw]

Pluto and Charon, colour movie:

http://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video/CJApiVyUkAArp7H.mp4

 

[Artlav]

That's so weird.
I was so expecting that Pluto will be yet another boring gray rock.
And here it is, actually having a colour.

 

[garyw]

It looks like a minature Mars, certainly it's shaping up to be another interesting world.

 

[Urwumpe]

How do you pronounce Ceres?

Like "Zeres" usually. But some traditionalists insist on using "Keres" or [kerε:s]

 

[Marg]

I already expected Pluto to be more interesting than Ceres. Far away from the sun, there is more chance to have some atmosphere, etc...
Someone in another forum wrote - what if we do not see any surface features at all (Titan's case)? Of course, he did not believe in such thing himself, but even imagining it would be rather annoying.

 

[Thunder Chicken]

Kinda reminds me... :shifty:

No hate StaticKid, but you've got some weird stuff tucked away in your brain attic. I am glad you are here to share it - it keeps things interesting

 

[Kyle]

NASA briefly lost contact with New Horizons today. They were able to regain communication from the spacecraft, but let's hope they can regain the ability to collect science before the flyby. The extreme distances between Earth and Pluto is the primary reason for the downtime to be able to recover the spacecraft.

http://www.nasa.gov/nh/new-horizons-responds-spacecraft-anomaly

The New Horizons spacecraft experienced an anomaly the afternoon of July 4 that led to a loss of communication with Earth. Communication has since been reestablished and the spacecraft is healthy.

The mission operations center at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Maryland, lost contact with the unmanned spacecraft -- now 10 days from arrival at Pluto -- at 1:54 p.m. EDT, and regained communications with New Horizons at 3:15 p.m. EDT, through NASA’s Deep Space Network.

During that time the autonomous autopilot on board the spacecraft recognized a problem and – as it’s programmed to do in such a situation - switched from the main to the backup computer. The autopilot placed the spacecraft in “safe mode,” and commanded the backup computer to reinitiate communication with Earth. New Horizons then began to transmit telemetry to help engineers diagnose the problem.

A New Horizons Anomaly Review Board (ARB) was convened at 4 p.m. EDT to gather information on the problem and initiate a recovery plan. The team is now working to return New Horizons to its original flight plan. Due to the 9-hour, round trip communication delay that results from operating a spacecraft almost 3 billion miles (4.9 billion kilometers) from Earth, full recovery is expected to take from one to several days; New Horizons will be temporarily unable to collect science data during that time.

Status updates will be issued as new information is available.

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

NASA briefly lost contact with New Horizons today. They were able to regain communication from the spacecraft, but let's hope they can regain the ability to collect science before the flyby. The extreme distances between Earth and Pluto is the primary reason for the downtime to be able to recover the spacecraft.

http://www.nasa.gov/nh/new-horizons-responds-spacecraft-anomaly

At least this didn't happen a week later on the 12th/13th.....

 

[Andy44]

This is a really lousy time to have a vehicle anomaly like this. They will miss days worth of data even if they don't miss the fly-by. Murphy's Law strikes again...

 

[N_Molson]

Come on little probe, don't let us down now !

 

[K_Jameson]

:facepalm:

This remainds me the infamous "error 1202" during Apollo 11 landing...
Maybe too much work in too little time for that small probe?

Surely, is the worst thing at the worst time...

 

[statickid]

Definitly not what i was hoping to see when i saw there were new posts on this thread !!

 

[steph]

So...supposing this goes to s&%t in the worst way possible and we lose most, if not all of the data and maybe tha probe itself too, how much time would pass before we can hope for a new shot at Pluto? I'm eyeballing two decades, maybe more, but I don't know how realistic that is.

 

[Artlav]

So...supposing this goes to s&%t in the worst way possible and we lose most, if not all of the data and maybe tha probe itself too, how much time would pass before we can hope for a new shot at Pluto? I'm eyeballing two decades, maybe more, but I don't know how realistic that is.

Jupiter flyby style launch window happens every 11 years or so, plus the time to built a new probe, plus the time to convince the bureaucracy that we need to spend tax money on taking pictures of Pluto...

Decades, we are talking decades.
Unless SpaceX takes a shot at it first.

They should have sent two identical probes, like they did in the early days.

This is a really lousy time to have a vehicle anomaly like this.

Was that the only glitch for this mission?
I can't recall any other instances of safe mode.

 

[K_Jameson]

So...supposing this goes to s&%t in the worst way possible and we lose most, if not all of the data and maybe tha probe itself too, how much time would pass before we can hope for a new shot at Pluto?

I think I will die before it happens.

---------- Post added at 02:26 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:21 PM ----------

Decades, we are talking decades.
Unless SpaceX takes a shot at it first.

We all remember that Elon Musk is not the Savior...

They should have sent two identical probes, like they did in the early days..

New Horizons 2

 

[tl8]

Update: http://www.nasa.gov/nh/new-horizons-plans-july-7-return-to-normal-science-operations

Basically a tiny bug in a program they needed to get ready for the fly by.

A lot of people are relieved I think. I hope there are no other issues.

 

[Thunder Chicken]

Update: http://www.nasa.gov/nh/new-horizons-plans-july-7-return-to-normal-science-operations

Basically a tiny bug in a program they needed to get ready for the fly by.

A lot of people are relieved I think. I hope there are no other issues.

These missions are on timescales that can completely consume scientists' and engineers' entire careers, all spent just for this brief encounter. I can't imagine the stress they must be experiencing right now.

The post-encounter party is going to be epic, I'm sure!

 

[Artlav]

These missions are on timescales that can completely consume scientists' and engineers' entire careers, all spent just for this brief encounter. I can't imagine the stress they must be experiencing right now.

I would imagine they spent most of the time doing something else, only really getting focused at the probe in the last few months.

It's like flying to Pluto in Orbiter - you would time accelerate most of the way there. Now substitute "getting another job" for "time acceleration", and that's it.

 

[garyw]

So...supposing this goes to s&%t in the worst way possible and we lose most, if not all of the data and maybe tha probe itself too, how much time would pass before we can hope for a new shot at Pluto? I'm eyeballing two decades, maybe more, but I don't know how realistic that is.

30 or 40 years most likely. They would have to review what went wrong, how to fix it, work out the programme, apply for funding, and so on.

however, even if it all went to hell today we'd still have this:

which is already many times better resolution than what we had just a few months ago.

 

[Andy44]

I would imagine they spent most of the time doing something else, only really getting focused at the probe in the last few months.

It's like flying to Pluto in Orbiter - you would time accelerate most of the way there. Now substitute "getting another job" for "time acceleration", and that's it.

Yes, but many of them stay connected to this, knowing the importance of it. And the agencies and contractors who employ them make an effort to keep them around for their expertise. Some will put off retirement just for this.