Waiting on New Horizons
Jan 17th, 2006 by Moonage
The New Horizons spacecraft is set to launch in about 30 minutes (1:24 EST). I’m going to watch it on NASATV.. I won’t exactly be waiting for it’s first pictures of Pluto tho. That should occur sometime in 2015.
Well, 1:24 came and went. Too much wind and a sticky valve means I have about 15 minutes more to kill. So, some facts on New Horizons:
- In the time it takes me to drive to a beach, it will pass the Moon ( about nine hours ).
- Top speed will be about 47,000 mph. About 10 times the speed of a bullet.
- It will be powered by Plutonium-238. I would think a lot of people would be pleased that the Bush administration is sending Plutonium to Pluto. But, a lot are not. They think we should keep our Plutonium on Earth. Guess we should called it Earthonium instead.
- If New Horizons blows up on takeoff, all mankind east of Cape Canaveral will die instantly. Well, not really. Most likely no one will be harmed as it is encased in stuff that will very easily withstand the percussion of the rocket BELOW it exploding. I for one love the idea of using nuclear energy for space travel. It gives us a better understanding of how to work with it on Earth to get men out of caves some 100,000 years after man figured out living in caves wasn’t safe ( see West Virginia Coal Mine Disaster ).
- New Horizons will travel about 3 billion miles to get to Pluto.
- Arthur Clarke envisioned the "gravity" thrust New Horizons will use slingshotting around Jupiter in his 2001
Trilogy. 2010
- This launch is on the anniversary of the death of Clyde Tombaugh, the man who discovered Pluto. There is debate to this day of whether Pluto is a planet or not. It’s so small and ugly I tend to think it’s just a very large asteroid in the Kuiper Belt with two smaller asteroids circling it. Will find out for sure what it is in about nine years.
It’s 1:47 and we’re still at four minutes and holding.
Is it just me, or does it seem that space travel is a lot more difficult now than it was in 1969?
2:26 - Pushed back to 2:50.
2:59 - Pushed back to 3:23. Did I mention that Pluto is a place far, far, away? It doesn’t even get sunlight from our sun. It takes about 258 years for one orbit. The last time it was in the same spot it is now, George Washington was sixteen years old. Johann Sebatian Bach gave his final public recital. About 20 years later, Beethoven would be born. Things were a little different then.
For what it’s worth, if it doesn’t launch at 3:23, it won’t today.
3:21 - Countdown started, 1:30 seconds later, aborted until tomorrow.
Did I mention that space travel sure seems awful difficult these days?
Well, not only did New Horizons finally take off today, but in just a few hours, it will pass the Moon. That bugger is gettin it. Congrats New Horizons team!