Pluto

[VelociRapture]

Oh, I think it's fascinating too. I'm not sure where the accusation that I wanted to cut all sciencey stuff and jobs came from. :huh

Please see the bolded portion of something you said below to understand why people think you want to cut funding for science programs.

What do you all think of New Horizons landing on Pluto? Do you think space exploration is a wise use of billions of dollars? What do you think they are hoping to discover and why? I'm curious because I don't follow it very closely but it just seems like a lot of money and for what?

Maybe you didn't mean for it to come across that way, but that's how it came across.

[Snarkylark]

No:) I meant "do YOU think," not saying that I do. Just looking for opinions. And I got some good answers:)

[VelociRapture]

No:) I meant "do YOU think," not saying that I do. Just looking for opinions. And I got some good answers:)

The last sentence was the portion that probably threw people.

I'm curious because I don't follow it very closely but it just seems like a lot of money and for what?

You just need to try and speak as clearly as possible. Saying

It seems like a lot of money to me, but I don't follow space exploration closely and was wondering what other people thought. What sort of information is this mission looking for?

is different than saying:

I'm curious because I don't follow it very closely but it just seems like a lot of money and for what?

The first makes what you're attempting to say more clear.

[Snarkylark]

Apparently they are trying to find out the vaccination rate of aliens. Fascinating!

Well that's ridiculous. Everyone knows aliens don't vaccinate. They just kidnap humans when they need spare parts.

[RosyDaisy]

Bitch, please! You know damn well what you're doing here. Thanks for soiling an interesting topic with your bullshit!

[Snarkylark]

Bitch, please! You know damn well what you're doing here. Thanks for soiling an interesting topic with your bullshit!

Um, no? What's your problem? It was a legitimate thread and question. Why don't you just hit "ignore?!" Smh

I'm the one who started this thread.

[Snarkylark]

The last sentence was the portion that probably threw people.

You just need to try and speak as clearly as possible. Saying

is different than saying:

The first makes what you're attempting to say more clear.

Gotchya. I know tone sometimes doesn't come across over a keyboard. I'm really just curious what other people think. I don't know that I have much of an opinion either way.

[RosyDaisy]

Back to Pluto. Those pictures are amazing! It will be interesting to see what new discoveries are made.

[FundieFarmer]

There is a fair amount of money that goes into it, but not a lot comparatively to the other departments with much more funding. Plus, it generates a fair amount of tourism in the area that I'm from. The Space Coast is a huge tourist area as well as a great center for education. I used to tour it as a child, and it was awesome to see space launches from the playground at school every once in a while.

I also think it's important to continue the exploration because of a few reasons: we don't know when we may need to evacuate earth (haha!) and also because I think it's possible that we could have some very significant technological and medical advancements from information in space.

And if my wee heart could take it, why, strap me into the rocket and shoot me on up, y'all!

[CallmeChaCha]

How is the spacecraft transmitting pictures/data back to Earth?

[guitar_villain]

Back to Pluto. Those pictures are amazing! It will be interesting to see what new discoveries are made.

One interesting one we don't understand: What *don't* you see on the LORRI closeup of the mountains posted above?

Craters. Anything in the solar system accumulates craters as time goes along. This area has almost none, so it has to be very young, less than 100 million years. (Young in geological time) So how did Pluto manage to get the energy to make 11000+ foot high mountains of ice in the recent past? We've seen similar features on ice moons, but those are generated by tidal forces: Pluto and Charon are tide locked and so that's not the cause. Plate tectonics doesn't exist on Pluto, and if it's radioactive heating Pluto has a lot more hot stuff than we knew. Some other process? If so, we have to go back and rethink how all those other mountains formed after all.

One other neat one- the heart formation that everyone enjoys seeing isn't a monolithic feature. Spectral data shows the two sides are nothing alike on the surface.

[VelociRapture]

One interesting one we don't understand: What *don't* you see on the LORRI closeup of the mountains posted above?

Craters. Anything in the solar system accumulates craters as time goes along. This area has almost none, so it has to be very young, less than 100 million years. (Young in geological time) So how did Pluto manage to get the energy to make 11000+ foot high mountains of ice in the recent past? We've seen similar features on ice moons, but those are generated by tidal forces: Pluto and Charon are tide locked and so that's not the cause. Plate tectonics doesn't exist on Pluto, and if it's radioactive heating Pluto has a lot more hot stuff than we knew. Some other process? If so, we have to go back and rethink how all those other mountains formed after all.

One other neat one- the heart formation that everyone enjoys seeing isn't a monolithic feature. Spectral data shows the two sides are nothing alike on the surface.

. . . can you post more often on more topics? I think I love you for how amazing that post was. :clap: :lol:

[guitar_villain]

How is the spacecraft transmitting pictures/data back to Earth?

It's got a 7 foot radio dish on it. Two transmitters, each putting out a grand total of 12 watts of power. In other words, less than a CFL bulb in your house lights.

Power received here on earth after 3 billions miles of distance? ~0.00000000000000000002 watts. (I think I counted the number of zeros right) Even with the big 70 meter receivers in the Deep Space Network here on Earth, they can only transmit 1.5Kbps. It takes ~45 minutes to send back one picture. The probe will be sending back data for the next 16 months before it manages to dump everything it has from the flyby.

Next time you complain your internet is slow.... :lol:

[CallmeChaCha]

It's got a 7 foot radio dish on it. Two transmitters, each putting out a grand total of 12 watts of power. In other words, less than a CFL bulb in your house lights.

Power received here on earth after 3 billions miles of distance? ~0.00000000000000000002 watts. (I think I counted the number of zeros right) Even with the big 70 meter receivers in the Deep Space Network here on Earth, they can only transmit 1.5Kbps. It takes ~45 minutes to send back one picture. The probe will be sending back data for the next 16 months before it manages to dump everything it has from the flyby.

Next time you complain your internet is slow.... [emoji38]

We all had dial-up. That's not too bad. Haha. For some reason I was thinking it would take days to transmit a single picture.

[RandomTrivia]

How is the spacecraft transmitting pictures/data back to Earth?

Radio waves, which at that distance are taking something like 4.5 hours to get back here. Apparently it's pretty low bandwidth, too, because of the distance, so it's going to take a long time for the data to be transmitted.

This articleis from January, seems pretty informative. And this Gizmodo article says it will take 16 months for all the data to be sent; I'm trying to figure out how the transmission speed compares to my first dial-up modem.

[CallmeChaCha]

I just can't fathom waiting almost ten years to see not only if it would even work, but to see the actual data. How exciting to work on something like this and see the results.

[Snarkylark]

It's got a 7 foot radio dish on it. Two transmitters, each putting out a grand total of 12 watts of power. In other words, less than a CFL bulb in your house lights.

Power received here on earth after 3 billions miles of distance? ~0.00000000000000000002 watts. (I think I counted the number of zeros right) Even with the big 70 meter receivers in the Deep Space Network here on Earth, they can only transmit 1.5Kbps. It takes ~45 minutes to send back one picture. The probe will be sending back data for the next 16 months before it manages to dump everything it has from the flyby.

Next time you complain your internet is slow.... :lol:

WOW

[thoughtful]

One other neat one- the heart formation that everyone enjoys seeing isn't a monolithic feature.

[DaffyDill]

Considering it is so cold and so dark and so, so far away to poor Pluto, I saw this and thought it summed it up :)

[OkToBeTakei]

Well that's ridiculous. Everyone knows aliens don't vaccinate. They just kidnap humans when they need spare parts.

Let's hope they don't kidnap you, they will be mighty fucking disappointed :(

[ShepherdontheRock]

Let's hope they don't kidnap you, they will be mighty fucking disappointed :(

[ladyamylynn]

What do you all think of New Horizons landing on Pluto? Do you think space exploration is a wise use of billions of dollars? What do you think they are hoping to discover and why? I'm curious because I don't follow it very closely but it just seems like a lot of money and for what?

Trying to figure out its suitability of a penal colony for trolls, no doubt.

[zebra #13]

When I was growing up, the general rule of thumb was NO BAD SCIENCE. All knowledge feeds into other knowledge, and you do not know ahead of time what will be important, and what won't be.

If you compare the budget for war vs the budget for space, I think I'll go with space any ol' time.

We're human, we're dumb and our interests often outweigh good sense--the Crusades, Tulipmania, and the Holocaust pretty much prove that we know nothing. Attempts TO know something meet with my personal approval.

[Blahblah]

Where iz mah kitteh frenz? Iz they still bein vaccinated?

[RandomTrivia]

When I was growing up, the general rule of thumb was NO BAD SCIENCE. All knowledge feeds into other knowledge, and you do not know ahead of time what will be important, and what won't be.

If you compare the budget for war vs the budget for space, I think I'll go with space any ol' time.

We're human, we're dumb and our interests often outweigh good sense--the Crusades, Tulipmania, and the Holocaust pretty much prove that we know nothing. Attempts TO know something meet with my personal approval.

I agree with the "no bad science" point. How many things have been discovered accidentally? I can think of penicillin and (I think) vulcanized rubber, to start with.

To put it in perspective, New Horizons cost roughly $750 million. Vikings Stadium cost $1 billion (According to http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2015/07/15/reality-check-trip-to-pluto-costs-less-than-vikings-stadium/

Vox.com has a list of things that cost more than the New Horizons mission - including the annual cost to mint pennies and nickels.

And Googling all this led me to http://costsmorethanspace.tumblr.com/ where I learned that NASA's FY2014 budget ($17.6 billion) is roughly equal to the reported American spending on a single Valentine's Day.