Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Pluto Probe Launches

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the ground-control-to-major-tom dept.

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."

4 of 312 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Don't suppose the No Nukes freaks will apologiz by Gojira+Shipi-Taro · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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
  2. Re:Fastest too.. by Quadraginta · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Well, to be fair, Apollo had to slow down so it could stop at the Moon...

  3. Re:The website that changed policy by ichandarin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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
  4. Re:Kinda Slow by Unholy_Kingfish · · Score: 5, Insightful
    This mission has been planned for a long time. Lots of R&D. On and off funding. The building of this probe started the better part of a decade ago. When you build space fairing vehicles you build them on CURRENT tech, not what might be around in a few years. Ion engines are new technology in its infancy that wouldn't have been available to the designers then.

    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