For us Vintage folks that remember the Apollo missions to the moon and the first launch of the Saturn V, when Walter Cronkite "lost it" and started screaming because the news blockhouse (that was where it had always been, before the Saturn V) started shaking with the ground.

If you recall, it took the Apollo astronauts three days to reach the moon. The "Supercharged Saturn V" that was used to launch the New Horizon yesterday accelerated at a rate of eight miles per second (28,800 MPH) and only took eight hours to fly passed the earth's moon. It is then going use the gravitational pull of Jupiter (in Febuary of 2007) to sling shot it to a speed of almost 50,000 MPH. Even at this rate it is still going to take nine years to reach Pluto. The spacecraft takes less power to run than a standard 100 Watt light bulb.

Oh, the minds that can thing and develop this stuff. Where would you start even trying to calculate the launch window with the math required to figure out where Pluto will be in it's orbit nine years from now?

How would you like to have the "mental horse power" to be in charge of this $650,000,000 program that will take nine years to see if you are successful?

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhoriz...main/index.html

What do you think?

 

That's not very hard at all, especially since computers can handle the tedious bits. Some of the results are a bit counter-intutitive, though.

The real trick is to use the other planets as slingshots to accelerate the spacecraft.

 

I think we should launch a manned mission to Sirius, a star 8.57 light-years away. If we could get Howard Stern to fly the mission, that would be even better!


Anyway, I wish somebody would explain something to me - if Goofy could talk, why couldn't Pluto?
















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I acquired the software to track New Horizons with my Meade LX200 this AM. It was truly beautiful. It's going to be an exciting mission. I'm stoked!

 

on your first point. I am still scratching my head on your second point.

 

And what was up with Mickey and Donald having all those nephews? Where were their parents?

But Goofy had a son, rather than nephews. Who was the mother?

 

<<<<< I acquired the software to track New Horizons with my Meade LX200 this AM. It was truly beautiful. It's going to be an exciting mission. I'm stoked!

Way Cool.

 

I think that you have a terrific idea in your manned mission.

The explanation to your question is: That after Pluto heard Howard Stern talking, he choose to use a different form of communication!