ICEINSPACE
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Moon Phase
CURRENT MOON
Waning Gibbous 90.6%
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05-07-2015, 04:23 PM
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Registered User
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Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Adelaide
Posts: 817
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New Horizons - Yikes!
After 10 years and just 10 days away from the much-anticipated Pluto system flyby, New Horizons has unexpectedly entered 'safe mode':
http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily...ary.org/blogs/
Quoting Emily: "This is scary".
Not really what we wanted to hear but let's hope they can still pull it all together in time...
Dean
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05-07-2015, 05:00 PM
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Astro Noob
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Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Sydney
Posts: 1,982
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Yes, not good!
However the discussion over at UMSF seems to hint that, as NH is downlinking at ~1kb/s, it may now be out of safe mode.
http://eyes.nasa.gov/dsn/dsn.html
Fingers crossed!
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05-07-2015, 11:45 PM
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Registered User
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Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Adelaide
Posts: 9,944
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06-07-2015, 10:05 AM
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Registered User
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Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Sydney
Posts: 1,003
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I have a friend working on the NH Pluto flyby (god I'm jealous!) ... as some wag channeling the IT Crowd put on her facebook wall:
"Have you tried turning it of and on again?" 
So far no real signs of panic stations though, so hopefully it'll all still go smoothly...
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06-07-2015, 10:15 AM
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ze frogginator
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Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Sydney
Posts: 22,062
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Imagine the bloke who got that notification from the spacecraft. Must have missed a heart beat. Pluto is just a flyby. There's a lot more to do and a lot farther to go. Hopefully it's nothing at all but they are running on the back up computer now so that's it. 10 years is a long time in very harsh conditions so no complaints there.
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06-07-2015, 01:21 PM
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Supernova Searcher
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Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Cambroon Queensland Australia
Posts: 9,315
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06-07-2015, 01:25 PM
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Registered User
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Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Mornington Peninsula, Australia
Posts: 3,950
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Quote:
Originally Posted by astroron
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06-07-2015, 01:29 PM
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Highest Observatory in Oz
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Join Date: May 2006
Location: Canberra
Posts: 17,176
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Imagine the adrenalin in that control room...calm professional operators I am sure but still....
Shame NH doesn't have thrusters to slow its pass and go into orbit around Pluto, that would be good.....bah, next time
Mike
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06-07-2015, 01:36 PM
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Registered User
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Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Sydney, Australia
Posts: 292
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latest update from NASA is that they have found the "glitch". It was caused by a timing issue. They should have NH up and running by 7July (US time)
http://www.nasa.gov/nh/new-horizons-...nce-operations
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06-07-2015, 01:39 PM
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Registered User
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Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Sydney, Australia
Posts: 292
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Quote:
Originally Posted by astroron
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Oops, didn't see you post mate, sorry for the double-up.
Am excited that NH will be back in operation soon!
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06-07-2015, 02:49 PM
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Supernova Searcher
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Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Cambroon Queensland Australia
Posts: 9,315
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Draco
Oops, didn't see you post mate, sorry for the double-up.
Am excited that NH will be back in operation soon!
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No worries,all good. 
Cheers
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06-07-2015, 03:04 PM
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Registered User
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Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Sydney
Posts: 17,903
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I am amazed they can even pick up a signal sent back from that far away at all.
Then how come my mobile phone drops out so often???
Greg.
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06-07-2015, 04:58 PM
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Registered User
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Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Adelaide
Posts: 817
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Mike - having thrusters is no issue: it's the enormous quantity of propellant that would be needed to decelerate into Pluto orbit.
Orbit-matching approaches to targets, as successfully performed by Dawn, Hayabusa, Rosetta etc. work, but take a long time.
The 10 years to Pluto direct (as was done by New Horizons) would be much inflated by a similar orbit-matching scenario.
Dean
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06-07-2015, 05:05 PM
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Highest Observatory in Oz
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Join Date: May 2006
Location: Canberra
Posts: 17,176
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Quote:
Originally Posted by deanm
Mike - having thrusters is no issue: it's the enormous quantity of propellant that would be needed to decelerate into Pluto orbit.
Orbit-matching approaches to targets, as successfully performed by Dawn, Hayabusa, Rosetta etc. work, but take a long time.
The 10 years to Pluto direct (as was done by New Horizons) would be much inflated by a similar orbit-matching scenario.
Dean
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He he yeah, well aware of that...but it would be cool, even if the required craft looked more like the Daedalus 
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06-07-2015, 06:11 PM
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Thylacinus stargazoculus
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Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: Judbury, Tasmania
Posts: 1,203
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Thank goodness. When I saw the news event come up on my Pluto Safari app this morning, my heart jumped more than one beat!
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06-07-2015, 07:32 PM
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pro lumen
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Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: ballina
Posts: 3,264
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Optus Greg
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