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Pluto Probe Launches
Artem S. Tashkinov writes "The US space agency, Nasa, has successfully launched its New Horizons mission to Pluto. The $700m probe will gather information on Pluto and its moons before - it is hoped - pressing on to explore other objects in the outer Solar System. Pluto is the only remaining planet that has never been visited by a spacecraft."
Gotta agree with you there. I can't stand people that are ignorant enough to protest anything with the word "nuclear" attached to it. Blind ignorance is all that is. They don't even have the most basic understanding of what they are protetsting. They're simply doing it because some hippy teacher during their education told them that they should.
Lemmings.
"Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I'm fucked."; ~ Donald J. Trump
This is the internet I try to hold onto.
People coming together for a common good.
I'd love to see more of that.
Pretty Pictures!
Well, to be fair, Apollo had to slow down so it could stop at the Moon...
Another big source of publicity was the planetary society, http://planetary.org./ They deserve a lot of the credit for getting this mission finished, finally. Their web site on the New Horizons mission also has some great info, at http://www.planetary.org/explore/topics/new_horizo ns/
Denn wir sind wie Baumstaemme im Schnee. Scheinbar liegen sei glatt auf, mit kleinem anstoss sollte man sie wegschieben
Now I don't really care what it's powered by and what's on it. But will you and the parent poster apologize if one of these probes do explode on lift off?
I mean it's not like anything NASA does ever goes wrong?
I expect that if it ever does happen you'll either be very quiet, or you'll find someone else to take a cheap shot at.
dnuof eruc rof aixelsid
Not to mention this is a flyby mission, not an orbiting mission like Cassini or the MESSENGER mission. You do not want to zoom by and get less data.
These space probes are in for the long haul, not just a quicky.
Fear Is the Only God
Luck? That's an insult to the engineers who designed those things, and you should apologise. They are professionals, and the reason there hasn't been an accidental release from a US spacecraft is that they were *designed* to survive these accidents. There's nothing magic here. Something that small can be built far far stronger than the minimum requirements. When you do that, to think you're going to have a major nuclear release from a probe like this one is just a bit like saying a stick of dynamite will crack the Earth in half. If you're claiming that the rules of physics are going to be broken, then it's up to you to prove it.
A lemming in this instance is someone who blindly repeats something without understanding it. Consider the carefully the walls of your house before casting stones.
Well, I guess that shuts me up! Oh wait, it doesn't. My walls obey the laws of physics. Do yours?
Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
The slingshot technique works because Jupiter is also moving--it's in orbit around the Sun, at about 30,000 mph (48,000 km/hr). When the probe approaches Jupiter from behind, the probe is gravitationally attracted to something (Jupiter) traveling at 30,000 mph, so it speeds up. Relative to Jupiter, you're right, it's a zero-sum game (i.e., the probe does seem to speed up and then slow down again, relative to the planet) but the velocity of concern is the so-called heliocentric velocity, or the velocity relative to the Sun, and that is greatly increased.
Note that there is conservation of energy, of course; Jupiter also slows down in its orbit slightly in response to the energy it adds to the probe, but the amount is unmeasurable due to the mass ratio between Jupiter and the probe. The speedup is therefore considered "free."
Google is your friend; see this page, this page, this page for more information.
Regarding your second question, the probe doesn't slow down again, and does do a very fast flyby. However, we know so close to nothing about Pluto that we don't have to get very close to get new information--for example, the resolution of the New Horizons cameras will exceed that of the best Earth telescopes (including Hubble) for 150 days. (Of course, it will take 4-9 months, depending on which estimate you like, to transmit the data back to the earth at the probe's minimum data rate--which it likely will use at that distance--of 800 bits/s.)
Why would poking fun at the idiot christians cause a rift between science and everything christian? Unless of course you're saying that all christians are idiot christians? I'm not a christian, so I wouldn't know... I presume you are a christian, so I'll have to take your word for it.
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tell ya what, sparky - if you pro-science christians don't want others to think the anti-science crowd represents all of you, then DO something about it. Do we hear any christian leaders denouncing this baloney? NO. Do we hear any christians standing up and saying "YOU DON'T SPEAK FOR ME!" NO.
The anti-science christians are monopolizing the discussion. That is ALL you hear from church-types.
When there were court battles to try to stop the anti-science crowd from ruining school systems, where were the pro-science christian leaders? Were they trying to stop it? No. The only ones fighting it were the people you accuse of CAUSING the problem. The only christian voices we hear are those trying to ruin things, and we are trying to fight their negative influence.
Demand that christian leaders oppose this. Demand of your clergy that they not stay silent and let the only public voice of christianity be anti-science. It's not OUR business to try to save your christianity from them, it's yours. If you can't be bothered, if christian leaders are willing to let the anti-science voice be the ONLY voice of christianity, then don't complain to those who see this bullshit and point it out.
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