Discovering Pluto etc...

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Above is a site from spacedaily about Pluto. Just a litle read.

However, the thing that captures my mind is the fact it is very far away from the sun.

Would there be enough sunlight to light the surface to take some snapshops during flyby? And surely the 'DARkside' of Pluto will be 'in the dark' just like our moon!

So, I'm thinking, that if one travels in space, say, between suns,(these are very great distances indeed) would the traveller encounter planets, objects or anything else he wouldn't recognize in the dark, and crash into them, obviously 'radar' such devices would have to be built to 'see' into the void.

We may be living the dream today with our planetary exploration techniques etc..., but lets face it...it ain't no Startrek. (mind the compilation of words to make that last statement).

Has anyone else thought of this? Or is it not a problem at all.

yt
dx

Many Science Fiction novels consider astronavigation as a very tricky task. There, the usual concern is about flying through a star. Hans Solo comments on this in the first Star Wars movie but they were going at warp speed.

Your point is much more practical. I would suspect radar would be used. Of course once you got close to the planet the background stars would be blocked just as the moon does here. But with any speed up at all you would hit the planet and not be able to avert collision.

Rick H>>>
Thanks for your comment. I remember that scene well.

So, the trip to Pluto seems to be not a problem, nor is the flyby, but my real point was to establish a reasonable assessment for picture taking.

I beleive it will be dark out that far from the sun. There are no other illumination sourses.
However, the planet can be seen with the aid of Hubble, and other teresstial scopes that some light can be reflected for the picture taking process.

It will be 10 years before the flyby occurs, I trust I will be around for those pics!!!lol

yt
dx

At 30+ AU pluto will receive roughly 1/1000 the light Earth does. This is not exctly dark though, for comparison from wikipedia:
"From Pluto, the Sun is still very bright, having a magnitude 1,500 times that of the full Moon from Earth. Nonetheless, human observers would find a noticeable decrease in available light."

I'm not sure this guy "gets" the reason why we explore space, are you..?

If the New Horizons spacecraft remains in good condition and additional funding becomes available, the spacecraft will be aimed toward one or two "Kuiper Belt objects," mysterious icy worlds which can barely be seen in the largest Earth-based telescopes. Mr. Stern called the Kuiper Belt "the largest structure in our solar system, dotted with almost a half-million worlds and worldlets that are 4 billion years old."

Think about that, too! And multiply 500,000 worlds (and worldlets) times $650,000,000. That equals $325 trillion!

Like most reporters, Les Kinsolving even got the math wrong .

No, Les you must DIVIDE the price of $650m by 500,000 worlds, not multiply them. That works out to about $1300.00 bucks per world.

An imagine: what if just ONE of those worlds is composed of gold, or of diamond ! Boggles the little mind, doesn’t it Les ?

If the New Horizons spacecraft remains in good condition and additional funding becomes available, the spacecraft will be aimed toward one or two "Kuiper Belt objects," mysterious icy worlds which can barely be seen in the largest Earth-based telescopes. Mr. Stern called the Kuiper Belt "the largest structure in our solar system, dotted with almost a half-million worlds and worldlets that are 4 billion years old."

Think about that, too! And multiply 500,000 worlds (and worldlets) times $650,000,000. That equals $325 trillion!

Like most reporters, Les Kinsolving even got the math wrong .

No, Les you must DIVIDE the price of $650m by 500,000 worlds, not multiply them. That works out to about $1300.00 bucks per world.

And imagine: what if just ONE of those worlds is composed of gold, or of diamond ! Boggles the little mind, doesn’t it Les ?

Remember, we can take pictures of Pluto from earth orbit.

Stu...et al>>

I read the article and even though he seems to look old enough to believe in space exploration from the very beginning of the USA decision to ramp-up and explore all the planets in our solar system, he is definitly lead-foot bound. He does talk up a storm, put the pics from this Pluto adventure will wipe out even his thoughts of deminishing space exploration!

good luck to him.

...and yes ups, pics can be taken from earth's orbit.

So lets build our little ships and get some free land...its ours for the taking, Henry...first come first served. Klondike all over again. Yipeeeeee!

Geeezzzz, if we all had ships (Firefly-Serenity) we'd have a blast...ehh!

Come on 'Scaled' ..et al, get those ships built, were in the market.

yt
dx

[link]

Go Rocket Go!!!

yt
dx

Hold until 1:45PM EDT.

Watch in on NASA TV

The wind gusts is an issue at the moment.

Also some problems with a fill/drain valve,
but seems to been properly working at the moment.

Winds have delayed the launch to 2:10 PM.

I can personally attest that a few miles away in the jungle of Nool the wind is a howling.

Do you think you are able to see the column of smoke during the launch Horton ?

T zero further delayed to 2:30 PM.

I'll look outside after launch -- if they go today. But it's cloudy towards the Cape.

Nail biting waiting ...
New time: 3:05.

Just wondering ... after the launch...
Then years of waiting to continuation of this thread ?

No go today.

shit...........

yt
dx

up and running again for 1:15 PM EST today...

all the best boys!

yt
dx

well, its called off again today and NASA will now try for Thursday...

yt
dx

How ironic that we're sending a rocket to [Hades](Pluto) with 24 lbs of [Plutonium,] the most poisonous substance on our planet.