Our Pluto
March 23, 2015 12:02 PM Subscribe
"On July 14, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft will fly past Pluto, offering the first close-up look at that small, distant world and its largest moon, Charon. These denizens of the outer solar system will be transformed from poorly seen, hazy bodies to tangible worlds with distinct features." Who gets to name those features? You do. Via Bad Astronomy.
Cool stuff. Outside of some moments of fanboy-ness (I couldn't pass up Z'Ha'Dum), I'm trying very hard to make sure non-western individuals and cultures get some representation in this.
posted by nubs at 12:34 PM on March 23, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by nubs at 12:34 PM on March 23, 2015 [1 favorite]
Oh sure. The Greeks already have stellar, if nebulous, hooks. Why should I have to vote for Orion's other dog?
Asimov and Bradbury already are covered. Nobody remembers the Appllo crews anyhow, except for Armstrong, who uttered those famous words: "Good luck, Mr. Gorsky."
I can't figure out how to vote for Mickey Crater, Goofy Gulch, or Mount Minnie. McDuck Canyon? I mean, you ask any baby-boomer what they associate with Pluto and I bet they're more likely to think of a Disney critter that something from classical mythology.
Oh, I know I'm going to love the pictures anyway. I always like this stuff, and reflect on the veritable rocket science that puts a spacecraft right on target at astronomical distances. (Sort of like hitting a bug flying around a lamppost in Beijing with a BB fired from San Diego.)
posted by mule98J at 12:38 PM on March 23, 2015 [1 favorite]
Asimov and Bradbury already are covered. Nobody remembers the Appllo crews anyhow, except for Armstrong, who uttered those famous words: "Good luck, Mr. Gorsky."
I can't figure out how to vote for Mickey Crater, Goofy Gulch, or Mount Minnie. McDuck Canyon? I mean, you ask any baby-boomer what they associate with Pluto and I bet they're more likely to think of a Disney critter that something from classical mythology.
Oh, I know I'm going to love the pictures anyway. I always like this stuff, and reflect on the veritable rocket science that puts a spacecraft right on target at astronomical distances. (Sort of like hitting a bug flying around a lamppost in Beijing with a BB fired from San Diego.)
posted by mule98J at 12:38 PM on March 23, 2015 [1 favorite]
FYI, New Horizons isn't going to orbit Pluto because it's moving to fast and doesn't have enough fuel to brake. That's ok, part of its mission to explore an object or two in the Kupier belt.
At the time of its launch, I don't think there was a rocket powerful enough to get it to Pluto so quickly and launch enough fuel for braking. Could be wrong there though
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 12:39 PM on March 23, 2015 [2 favorites]
At the time of its launch, I don't think there was a rocket powerful enough to get it to Pluto so quickly and launch enough fuel for braking. Could be wrong there though
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 12:39 PM on March 23, 2015 [2 favorites]
I still think it's amazing that we discovered that Pluto was out there and found it. Although I understand how it was done, I'm still pretty gobsmacked that we could track down something that is so far out there and about 2/3 the diameter of our moon with technology from the early 1900s. And then determine that it has a number of moons all its own. I'm really thrilled that we are going to see it up close.
posted by SpacemanStix at 12:52 PM on March 23, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by SpacemanStix at 12:52 PM on March 23, 2015 [1 favorite]
[2208.08.21 Log Start]
07:15 wake. sysnom, xcept scndry ARD. Reps ETA 14:00 approx. first sunrise on Pluto. beautiful, faint + cold.
07:45 brek. Baconeggs agin. Awfl. Chat with crew re: today actions. On sched.
08:30 John + Petra prep exsuits for EVA to 3 primaries: Trollface Plateau, Grumpycat Valley and Cheezburger Mountain.
posted by CynicalKnight at 12:53 PM on March 23, 2015 [4 favorites]
07:15 wake. sysnom, xcept scndry ARD. Reps ETA 14:00 approx. first sunrise on Pluto. beautiful, faint + cold.
07:45 brek. Baconeggs agin. Awfl. Chat with crew re: today actions. On sched.
08:30 John + Petra prep exsuits for EVA to 3 primaries: Trollface Plateau, Grumpycat Valley and Cheezburger Mountain.
posted by CynicalKnight at 12:53 PM on March 23, 2015 [4 favorites]
Surely we can muster an army of Pratchett supporters to have Pluto's biggest mountain - or its lowest valley depending on your preference - to be named Ankh-Morpork?
posted by mightygodking at 12:57 PM on March 23, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by mightygodking at 12:57 PM on March 23, 2015 [2 favorites]
There should be a ban on naming things based on recent pop culture. For one thing, the vote will turn into a contest between the different fandoms to see whose autovoting bot can sneak the most entries past the site's filters. For another, most will be minor footnotes in cultural history within a generation. For another other, most of the choices are US-centric.
My proposal: just as you can't name something after a living person, you shouldn't be able to name something after any fictional person/place/thing that is not in the public domain. Although if they did, say, name a crater "Battlestar Galactica", could I then sell T-shirts with the name and a picture of the crater and not have to pay a licensing fee? Or set a science fiction movie on Hoth (the moon of Pluto)? It might be that the entertainment megacorporations won't want this either.
posted by Tsuga at 1:01 PM on March 23, 2015 [1 favorite]
My proposal: just as you can't name something after a living person, you shouldn't be able to name something after any fictional person/place/thing that is not in the public domain. Although if they did, say, name a crater "Battlestar Galactica", could I then sell T-shirts with the name and a picture of the crater and not have to pay a licensing fee? Or set a science fiction movie on Hoth (the moon of Pluto)? It might be that the entertainment megacorporations won't want this either.
posted by Tsuga at 1:01 PM on March 23, 2015 [1 favorite]
These astronomers are aware enough of internet culture to have built in a bypass valve for bad faith or untenable public submissions. All submissions will be considered only suggestions to the official IAU naming committee, which should be bureaucratic enough to avoid anything blatantly illegal or problematic. Controversial on the other hand is probably unavoidable, because people will argue about anything.
It's a nice gesture to try to be more inclusive, and good public submissions will provide valuable input to the naming process (astronomers not typically being toponymical experts), but it shouldn't be confused for democracy.
posted by cardboard at 1:20 PM on March 23, 2015 [1 favorite]
It's a nice gesture to try to be more inclusive, and good public submissions will provide valuable input to the naming process (astronomers not typically being toponymical experts), but it shouldn't be confused for democracy.
posted by cardboard at 1:20 PM on March 23, 2015 [1 favorite]
Pretty sure megacorp contracts are written to be legal throughout the known universe. So whoever owns BSG would happily sue if you even looked like you were going to try this.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 1:21 PM on March 23, 2015
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 1:21 PM on March 23, 2015
I like that "Nostromo" (in the sense of the ship from Alien) is already up there.
posted by brundlefly at 1:24 PM on March 23, 2015
posted by brundlefly at 1:24 PM on March 23, 2015
Yah, New Horizons is moving at 14.5 km/sec so it can't hang around long. (Pluto itself orbits at around 4.7 km/sec.)
If we wanted to approach Pluto as close as possible to its own speed, and thus use the least fuel for braking, it would take about 45 years. Almost the entire team would be retired or dead by the time the spacecraft made it there!
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 1:40 PM on March 23, 2015 [4 favorites]
If we wanted to approach Pluto as close as possible to its own speed, and thus use the least fuel for braking, it would take about 45 years. Almost the entire team would be retired or dead by the time the spacecraft made it there!
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 1:40 PM on March 23, 2015 [4 favorites]
Like Gothic cathedrals, space missions beyond our system will be passed down through generations.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 1:47 PM on March 23, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 1:47 PM on March 23, 2015 [3 favorites]
This info is probably buried somewhere in that site, but what does an ice-dwarf look like when you're barrelling along at 33,000 mph? Is it akin to what, me aiming a cellphone at a kid waving behind the window inside a landing leer jet?
posted by gorgor_balabala at 1:54 PM on March 23, 2015
posted by gorgor_balabala at 1:54 PM on March 23, 2015
Some New Horizons videos on YouTube.
Also, good videos here produced as outreach from the Applied Physics Lab.
posted by newdaddy at 2:01 PM on March 23, 2015 [1 favorite]
Also, good videos here produced as outreach from the Applied Physics Lab.
posted by newdaddy at 2:01 PM on March 23, 2015 [1 favorite]
Here's to Mt Tsathoggua and/or the Tok'l Plain.
posted by octobersurprise at 2:17 PM on March 23, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by octobersurprise at 2:17 PM on March 23, 2015 [1 favorite]
Abehammerabia!
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 2:28 PM on March 23, 2015
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 2:28 PM on March 23, 2015
Mount Istooaplanet
Fleacollar Crater
Curbyourdog Escarpment
posted by Kirth Gerson at 2:28 PM on March 23, 2015
Fleacollar Crater
Curbyourdog Escarpment
posted by Kirth Gerson at 2:28 PM on March 23, 2015
This info is probably buried somewhere in that site, but what does an ice-dwarf look like when you're barrelling along at 33,000 mph? Is it akin to what, me aiming a cellphone at a kid waving behind the window inside a landing leer jet?
Nah, Pluto is much larger than the waving kid, which mitigates the blurryphotofromfastmovingobject physicss, so there will be nice images. Assuming someone remembers to take the lens cap off.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 2:42 PM on March 23, 2015
Nah, Pluto is much larger than the waving kid, which mitigates the blurryphotofromfastmovingobject physicss, so there will be nice images. Assuming someone remembers to take the lens cap off.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 2:42 PM on March 23, 2015
What, no MeFi names?
Mare Mathowie
Wendell Crater
Mount Cortex
Eponysterical Plane
posted by Hairy Lobster at 2:49 PM on March 23, 2015 [1 favorite]
Mare Mathowie
Wendell Crater
Mount Cortex
Eponysterical Plane
posted by Hairy Lobster at 2:49 PM on March 23, 2015 [1 favorite]
Yah, New Horizons is moving at 14.5 km/sec so it can't hang around long. (Pluto itself orbits at around 4.7 km/sec.)
The ΔV you need to shape an orbit with a perihelion at Earth and aphelion at Pluto is so close to solar escape that in terms of mission planning you just write in that as a starting value. Anything less and you just don't reach. And it's a big number - 42km/sec.
That's also why were blasting by. New Horizons is not a big probe, launch mass was under 500kg, it was launched on the largest Atlas V, the 551, it had a third stage, which no other Atlas V launch had, and it still needed a gravity assist at Jupiter to get there this year.
To be able to stay? You need to get rid of all that velocity you put in to get there. That mean you need to have enough fuel with you. Fuel is mass. Mass in the payload is expensive.
I haven't done the math, but I don't think the Saturn V or Energia could loft enough mass to that orbit to get it into Pluto orbit. You are look at an easy 80km/sec ΔV budget, probably much more.
So. This probe is going to be "clearance for the flyby", Pluto is going to say "negative, Horizons, the pattern is full," and New Horizons is going to go PHHHRRRROOOOOOOWWWWW. Whatever they have for coffee out there, it will be spilled.
posted by eriko at 3:58 PM on March 23, 2015 [7 favorites]
The ΔV you need to shape an orbit with a perihelion at Earth and aphelion at Pluto is so close to solar escape that in terms of mission planning you just write in that as a starting value. Anything less and you just don't reach. And it's a big number - 42km/sec.
That's also why were blasting by. New Horizons is not a big probe, launch mass was under 500kg, it was launched on the largest Atlas V, the 551, it had a third stage, which no other Atlas V launch had, and it still needed a gravity assist at Jupiter to get there this year.
To be able to stay? You need to get rid of all that velocity you put in to get there. That mean you need to have enough fuel with you. Fuel is mass. Mass in the payload is expensive.
I haven't done the math, but I don't think the Saturn V or Energia could loft enough mass to that orbit to get it into Pluto orbit. You are look at an easy 80km/sec ΔV budget, probably much more.
So. This probe is going to be "clearance for the flyby", Pluto is going to say "negative, Horizons, the pattern is full," and New Horizons is going to go PHHHRRRROOOOOOOWWWWW. Whatever they have for coffee out there, it will be spilled.
posted by eriko at 3:58 PM on March 23, 2015 [7 favorites]
Couple of things learned from newdaddy's video link:
1. Pluto was discovered in a quest to discover a theoretical body that was causing Neptune's and Uranus's orbits to wobble. It was posited as a Planet X, and it was found. But later it was determined that Pluto is not big enough to produce that effect. So, it was discovered by coincidence.
2. There are FIVE moons of Pluto, four of which were unknown on launch, so they became important to find out about so that New Horizons wouldn't crash into one or all of them.
3. The moons other than Charon revolve roughly at resonant frequencies. I.e., the second revolves at half its speed, and so on down the line, so the orbits basically line up.
Bonus Earth-centric tidbit: our Moon is spiralling away from us at about the same speed as our fingernails grow.
posted by gorgor_balabala at 4:29 PM on March 23, 2015 [3 favorites]
1. Pluto was discovered in a quest to discover a theoretical body that was causing Neptune's and Uranus's orbits to wobble. It was posited as a Planet X, and it was found. But later it was determined that Pluto is not big enough to produce that effect. So, it was discovered by coincidence.
2. There are FIVE moons of Pluto, four of which were unknown on launch, so they became important to find out about so that New Horizons wouldn't crash into one or all of them.
3. The moons other than Charon revolve roughly at resonant frequencies. I.e., the second revolves at half its speed, and so on down the line, so the orbits basically line up.
Bonus Earth-centric tidbit: our Moon is spiralling away from us at about the same speed as our fingernails grow.
posted by gorgor_balabala at 4:29 PM on March 23, 2015 [3 favorites]
Yuggoth
I threw in "Mi-go" as a suggestion just because transporting people from Earth to Pluto in brain canisters that could be plugged into things like seeing devices seemed appropriate as all hell.
posted by Avelwood at 5:55 PM on March 23, 2015 [1 favorite]
I threw in "Mi-go" as a suggestion just because transporting people from Earth to Pluto in brain canisters that could be plugged into things like seeing devices seemed appropriate as all hell.
posted by Avelwood at 5:55 PM on March 23, 2015 [1 favorite]
I think Nasa should just auction off the names in order to generate more funding. I'd be willing to tolerate a Coca Cola mountain on Pluto if it meant Nasa actually had the cash to do more stuff.
posted by Pyry at 6:55 PM on March 23, 2015
posted by Pyry at 6:55 PM on March 23, 2015
Congress would suck up that money before NASA saw any of it, then turn around and yell at them for being reckless with funding.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:14 PM on March 23, 2015
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:14 PM on March 23, 2015
Considering how cheap something like a stadium; whose name gets mentioned on news broadcasts on a daily basis; goes for I can't imagine naming rights for Pluto features to be all that lucrative. Besides companies would want to change the name when corporate names changed.
posted by Mitheral at 7:20 PM on March 23, 2015
posted by Mitheral at 7:20 PM on March 23, 2015
There is one sure-fire way to get rid of excess velocity: an old technique known as "lithobraking". (Unlikely to be approved by mission planners.)
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 9:30 PM on March 23, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 9:30 PM on March 23, 2015 [4 favorites]
Noted scientist Emily Lakdawalla has written a great article about "What to expect when you're expecting a flyby: Planning your July around New Horizons' Pluto pictures".
Long story short, we won't be getting the really good photos until the sometime after September, even though the flyby occurs on July 14th. There will be a few shots sent after flyboy, but the bulk of good stuff will have to wait.
New Horizons has to physically spin its body to transmit data, which means science can't be done during this time. This was done to save weight and money, but man what a tradeoff.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:47 AM on March 24, 2015
Long story short, we won't be getting the really good photos until the sometime after September, even though the flyby occurs on July 14th. There will be a few shots sent after flyboy, but the bulk of good stuff will have to wait.
New Horizons has to physically spin its body to transmit data, which means science can't be done during this time. This was done to save weight and money, but man what a tradeoff.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:47 AM on March 24, 2015
Long story short, we won't be getting the really good photos until the sometime after September, even though the flyby occurs on July 14th. There will be a few shots sent after flyboy, but the bulk of good stuff will have to wait.
My first recponse was oh, come on! Then I remembered Louis C.K.'s standup about how everything is awesome and nobody is happy, and I realized I can be patient for a couple more months.
posted by SpacemanStix at 8:54 AM on March 24, 2015 [1 favorite]
My first recponse was oh, come on! Then I remembered Louis C.K.'s standup about how everything is awesome and nobody is happy, and I realized I can be patient for a couple more months.
posted by SpacemanStix at 8:54 AM on March 24, 2015 [1 favorite]
From the linked article:
"On September 14, New Horizons will begin downlinking a "browse" version of the entire Pluto data set, in which all images will be lossily compressed. It will take about 10 weeks to get that data set to the ground. There will be compression artifacts, but we'll see the entire data set. Then, around November 16, New Horizons will begin to downlink the entire science data set losslessly compressed. It will take a year to complete that process."
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 9:26 AM on March 24, 2015
"On September 14, New Horizons will begin downlinking a "browse" version of the entire Pluto data set, in which all images will be lossily compressed. It will take about 10 weeks to get that data set to the ground. There will be compression artifacts, but we'll see the entire data set. Then, around November 16, New Horizons will begin to downlink the entire science data set losslessly compressed. It will take a year to complete that process."
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 9:26 AM on March 24, 2015
It will take a year to complete that process.
*flips table*
posted by SpacemanStix at 10:45 AM on March 24, 2015
*flips table*
posted by SpacemanStix at 10:45 AM on March 24, 2015
*waits six weeks for video of table flipping*
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 11:44 AM on March 24, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 11:44 AM on March 24, 2015 [1 favorite]
New Horizons has to physically spin its body to transmit data, which means science can't be done during this time. This was done to save weight and money, but man what a tradeoff.
Yeah. The camera and high gain antennas are fixed on the spacecraft. Voyager had a scan platform for the instruments, but they also had problems with it. Given the mission duration, they decided simple was better than fast.
At Jupiter, with the high gain, NH could push about 32kbps, that's going to drop to about 1kbps at Pluto.
posted by eriko at 2:32 PM on March 24, 2015
Yeah. The camera and high gain antennas are fixed on the spacecraft. Voyager had a scan platform for the instruments, but they also had problems with it. Given the mission duration, they decided simple was better than fast.
At Jupiter, with the high gain, NH could push about 32kbps, that's going to drop to about 1kbps at Pluto.
posted by eriko at 2:32 PM on March 24, 2015
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posted by entropicamericana at 12:31 PM on March 23, 2015