posted 07-21-2015 06:10 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by onesmallstep:
Good to know that someone from across the pond is putting NASA's feet to the fire for not releasing images 'fast' enough to satisfy the public's craving (or lack of) - and he's not even a US taxpayer!

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Always a valid point (taken in the spirit in which it was made!) but believe me, as a non-U.S. taxpayer, I envy those of you who get the chance to pay for NASA's amazing expeditions. I wish more of my taxes would go towards space exploration.

I hope I have made it sufficiently clear that my frustration has merely been at the data management issue. As always over the last 50 years of NASA's planetary explorations, I have the utmost admiration and respect for the dedication of the people who have achieved these amazing successes.

And perhaps that is the real point: I've been around to see all of those 50 years of exploration. Perhaps I'm getting impatient. I'll probably not be around to see what wonders NASA performs in the 2030s, and there are others who post here in the same position. (You know who you are!)

posted 07-23-2015 09:24 AM               

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) - Technical analysis, Co-I support and the Deep Space Network

posted 09-17-2015 11:58 AM               

Above: Just 15 minutes after its closest approach to Pluto on July 14, 2015, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft looked back toward the sun and captured this near-sunset view of the rugged, icy mountains and flat ice plains extending to Pluto's horizon.

The smooth expanse of the informally named icy plain Sputnik Planum (right) is flanked to the west (left) by rugged mountains up to 11,000 feet (3,500 meters) high, including the informally named Norgay Montes in the foreground and Hillary Montes on the skyline. To the right, east of Sputnik, rougher terrain is cut by apparent glaciers.

The backlighting highlights over a dozen layers of haze in Pluto's tenuous but distended atmosphere. The image was taken from a distance of 11,000 miles (18,000 kilometers) to Pluto; the scene is 780 miles (1,250 kilometers) wide. (NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI)

posted 09-24-2015 03:33 PM               

The agency also released this full resolution, false color image of the full face of the planet (click to enlarge):

posted 05-29-2016 02:33 PM            

Warming up for a possible extended mission as it speeds through deep space, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has now twice observed 1994 JR1, a 90-mile (145-kilometer) wide Kuiper Belt object (KBO) orbiting more than 3 billion miles (5 billion kilometers) from the Sun.

posted 07-15-2016 08:32 AM               

New Horizons: Imagining a Landing on Pluto

Imagine a future spacecraft following New Horizons' trailblazing path to Pluto, but instead of flying past its target – as New Horizons did to explore Pluto and beyond – the next visitor touches down in the midst of tall mountains on the icy plains of Pluto's heart.

There's no need to wait for that fantasy trip, thanks to new video produced by New Horizons scientists. Made from more than 100 New Horizons images taken over six weeks of approach and close flyby, the video offers a "trip" to Pluto. It starts with a distant spacecraft's view of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon – closing the distance day by day – with a dramatic "landing" on the shoreline of Pluto's informally named Sputnik Planum.

"Just over a year ago, Pluto was just a dot in the distance," said New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colorado. "This video shows what it would be like to ride aboard an approaching spacecraft and see Pluto grow to become a world, and then to swoop down over its spectacular terrains as if we were approaching some future landing."

After a 9.5-year voyage covering more than three billion miles, New Horizons flew through the Pluto system on July 14, 2015, coming within 7,800 miles (12,500 kilometers) of Pluto. Carrying powerful telescopic cameras that could spot features smaller than a football field, New Horizons has sent back hundreds of images of Pluto and its moons.

"The challenge in creating this movie is to make it feel like you're diving into Pluto," said Constantine Tsang, a New Horizons scientist at SwRI who worked with Stern to create the movie. "We had to interpolate some of the frames based on what we know Pluto looks like to make it as smooth and seamless as possible. It's certainly fun to see this and think what it would feel like to approach a landing on Pluto!"

posted 12-12-2016 11:47 AM               

All of the New Horizons [raw] data received through January 2016 has now been formally released.

This data set contains Raw data taken by the New Horizons Long Range Reconnaissance Imager instrument during the Pluto encounter mission phase. This is VERSION 2.0 of this data set. This data set contains LORRI observations taken during the the Approach (Jan-Jul, 2015) and Encounter mission sub-phases, including flyby observations taken on 14.July, 2015; the data are limited to those downlinked from the spacecraft as of the end of January, 2016. The rest of the downlinked data for this mission phase will be delivered in a future data set.

posted 12-31-2016 12:12 PM               

Exactly two years from now, on 31 Dec 2018 and 1 Jan 2019, NASA's New Horizons will be completing its next flyby, a billion miles beyond Pluto!

posted 01-23-2017 01:25 AM               

What would it be like to actually land on Pluto? This movie was made from more than 100 images taken by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft over six weeks of approach and close flyby in the summer of 2015. The video offers a trip down onto the surface of Pluto — starting with a distant view of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon — and leading up to an eventual ride in for a "landing" on the shoreline of Pluto's informally named Sputnik Planitia.

To create a movie that makes viewers feel as if they're diving into Pluto, mission scientists had to interpolate some of the panchromatic (black and white) frames based on what they know Pluto looks like to make it as smooth and seamless as possible. Low-resolution color from the Ralph color camera aboard New Horizons was then draped over the frames to give the best available, actual color simulation of what it would look like to descend from high altitude to Pluto's surface.

posted 07-15-2017 08:34 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by Blackarrow:
It truly is a breathtaking image, but will the missing 35% (or thereabouts) of Pluto (i.e. the bottom bit) also be released?

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posted 05-06-2018 10:33 AM               

As of today [May 6], New Horizons is just 2 Astronomical Units to our next flyby target Ultima Thule — arrival on 1 Jan 2019!

posted 09-03-2018 09:38 AM               

As of today [Sep. 3], New Horizons is just 1 Astronomical Unit (AU) to our next target, the KBO Ultima Thule (aka 2014 MU69)! And we're homing in to be there and explore it on New Years Eve and New Years Day! Mark your calendars and join us!

posted 12-05-2018 03:14 PM               

'Beam' Your Greeting to New Horizons

Team to Transmit Messages to the Spacecraft During New Year's Flyby in the Kuiper Belt

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has traveled 13 years to reach the heart of the Kuiper Belt – but you can get there in a matter of hours!

In 2005, more than 430,000 people signed up online to place their names on New Horizons for its trek to Pluto and beyond. Now, with the intrepid spacecraft in the "beyond" phase of its voyage and poised to conduct the farthest planetary flyby ever, NASA's New Horizons mission team is offering the public another chance to send a message to New Horizons on its historic exploration of Ultima Thule — an ancient Kuiper Belt object a billion miles farther than Pluto!

Visit here to select a message to send to the New Horizons spacecraft. You'll be asked to confirm your submission through email, and you'll receive an electronic certificate commemorating your participation.

On Jan. 1, as New Horizons is flying past Ultima Thule four billion miles from home, the messages and names will be "beamed" by radio toward the spacecraft and Ultima from the satellite communications facility at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory – on the same Maryland campus as New Horizons mission control!

"Traveling at light speed, the signals carrying these messages will reach the spacecraft about six hours after being beamed from the Applied Physics Lab's largest dish antenna, on the very same day that New Horizons flies by Ultima Thule!" said New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colorado. "How cool is that?

Entries will be accepted through Dec. 21, 2018. Like the flyby itself, this is a one-shot chance to become part of deep-space exploration history – don't miss it!

posted 12-07-2018 06:49 AM               

This 60 second clip is the first of three brief tasters of my own new "New Horizons" track, which will pay homage to this mission. We will reveal the song in full on 1st Jan.

Thanks to the mighty John Miceli for epic drums on this track. Thanks to the legendary Don Black for helping me write it. Also to my co-producers and engineers Justin Shirley-Smith and Kris Fredriksson. And respects to Kris for putting this clip together. And. Special thanks to NH Project Instigator Alan Stern.

posted 12-18-2018 11:02 AM               

As happened at Pluto, New Horizons will not be communicating with Earth during closest approach, because it will be focused on gathering all the science it can during the high-speed flyby. Whenever it does turn back to point at Earth to transmit data it will take more than 6 hours for its data to traverse the distance between us. So when are we going to get to find out what MU69 looks like?

A few precious data downlinks in the days before and after the flyby will contain some small photos from New Horizons' Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI), which takes grayscale snapshots. Lower-resolution color comes from the Multicolor Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC), a component of the Ralph instrument. The first images that we get back from New Horizons will not be the best images that New Horizons has taken. The reasons for that are complicated; I'll explain...

posted 12-27-2018 05:49 PM               

At 12:33 a.m. EST on January 1, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft will make its closest approach to the enigmatic Kuiper Belt object Ultima Thule, just a few days shy of the thirteenth anniversary of the space probe's initial launch in 2006. If the flyby is successful, Ultima Thule will become the farthest object in the Solar System humanity has explored so far—and perhaps the most primitive.

The New Horizons mission is only just entering its teens, but the team of scientists, engineers, and personnel behind it at NASA can already boast a lifetime's worth of staggering findings from the spacecraft's tenure abroad. As New Horizons continues to close the gap between itself and Ultima Thule, here's what you need to know to get caught up.

posted 12-31-2018 08:28 AM               

December 31, 2018
• 2 p.m.: New Horizons media briefing and spacecraft final approach before flyby of Ultima Thule, a Kuiper belt object (KBO).
  
• 3 p.m.: Q&A with the New Horizons Team
  
• 8 p.m.: Panel Discussion: New Horizons Flyby of Ultima Thule

  January 1, 2019
  

• 12:15 a.m.: New Horizons flyby of Ultima Thule, a Kuiper belt objec
  
• 9:45 a.m.: New Horizons Signal Acquisition from Ultima Thule Flyby
  
• 11:30 a.m.: New Horizons Post-Flyby Press Conference

  January 2, 2019
  

• 2 p.m.: New Horizons press briefing on science results from Ultima Thule

  January 3, 2019
  

• 2 p.m.: New Horizons press briefing on science results from Ultima Thule

posted 01-01-2019 09:32 AM               

We have a healthy spacecraft. We've just accomplished the most distant flyby. We are ready for Ultima Thule science transmission. — Alice Bowman, Mission Operations Manager (MOM)

posted 01-02-2019 05:28 PM               

The nearly spherical shape of both lobes, as well as the fact the two lobes came together so perfectly without any collisional damage is a strong indication it is all formed through accretion and accretionary processes as opposed to some other mechanism.