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Pluto

Moon-Watcher

By Moon-Watcher
in The Astro Lounge

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kalasinman

kalasinman

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I realize that the complexity of this achievement is dazzling. I find the analogy of hitting a golf shot from the US East coast and making a predicted hole in one on the West coast an extreme over simplification. My handicap would be far lower if I could have an board computer, a motor, and a ground control team to make course corrections. :grin:

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Scott

Scott

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I realize that the complexity of this achievement is dazzling. I find the analogy of hitting a golf shot from the US East coast and making a predicted hole in one on the West coast an extreme over simplification. My handicap would be far lower if I could have an board computer, a motor, and a ground control team to make course corrections. :grin:

Not to mention it's actually impossible to hit a golfball 3000 miles (or whatever it is from coast to coast :)

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Moon-Watcher

Moon-Watcher

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Still, not bad!

The Ranger probes of the early '60's were essentially million dollar bullets fired at the moon.

Now we can land on a comet, have a "mother ship" orbiting that comet, have probes enjoying themselves roaming around Saturn and its moons AND we can send a Billion dollar bullet to Pluto and miss!

Its a great time to be alive...

Cheers,

Mark

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DRT

DRT

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Yes, I appreciate the science, it's the commentary that's thick.

There are lots of silly comments going on in the media this week, the best one I heard yet was from the commentator of The Open Championship today who enthralled the golfing masses with the knowledge that "the probe had taken 18 years to get there and took 9 hours to send the pictures back at the speed of sound". :eek: + :eek: + :eek:

I took comfort from the fact that he chose to mention it and smiled at the naivety of his description.

Let's not worry too much about the fact that much of the reporting lacks accuracy and let's rejoice in the fact that the world is showing signs of waking up to the idea that spending time and money on this sort of exploration is a better idea than most of the other things reported equally inaccurately on the news.

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bejay1957

bejay1957

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There are lots of silly comments going on in the media this week, the best one I heard yet was from the commentator of The Open Championship today who enthralled the golfing masses with the knowledge that "the probe had taken 18 years to get there and took 9 hours to send the pictures back at the speed of sound". :eek: + :eek: + :eek:

I took comfort from the fact that he chose to mention it and smiled at the naivety of his description.

Let's not worry too much about the fact that much of the reporting lacks accuracy and let's rejoice in the fact that the world is showing signs of waking up to the idea that spending time and money on this sort of exploration is a better idea than most of the other things reported equally inaccurately on the news.

Think the Mirror's piece yesterday may have topped that, alongside a photo of the mountains they said the were named after the discoverer of Pluto - Tombaugh Reggio..

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Alien 13

Alien 13

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Heads up for Sky At Night tonight BBC4 @ 10 pm.  They will be talking about New Horizons mission.

Also @ 9 pm on BBC4, Horizon will be looking at a manned mission to Mars.

Cheers,

Mark

And we get the Horizon program "how big is the universe" too, happy days. 

Alan

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