Pluto fly-over after 9-yr trek

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pokerguy
Posts: 56
Joined: Wed Jun 10, 2015 10:45 am

Pluto fly-over after 9-yr trek

Post by pokerguy » Thu Jul 09, 2015 8:06 am

I remember when this little ship was launched. as light weight and fast as it was moving it sort of surprised me that it made such a long distance undamaged. as I said then if it makes it we will have new volumes of information about our solar system to explore.


June 26, 2015
http://www.examiner.com/article/pluto-f ... te-to-rest


You are about to see history in the making when the New Horizons space craft arrives at its destination for a fly-over Pluto, the planet furthest from the Sun. With all the space crafts launched in the last decade it is hard to keep track of what NASA and the rest of the world’s space agencies are monitoring today, but this is one of space travel’s biggest feat yet!

According to MPORA on June 25, New Horizons will make its first fly-over Pluto and its five moons on July 14. Then it will start sending high resolutions images of the dwarf planet. This space craft is the fastest ever made and from the day it was launched back in 2006 it has been hurling toward Pluto at 35,000 mph. It has been on this trek for almost a decade now.

The craft is expected to send back never-before-seen images of that ball of ice that was once called a planet. Ironically New Horizons was launched the same year that Pluto was downgraded from a planet to a dwarf planet.

According to News Works, Alan Stern, principal investigator of the New Horizons mission, is hoping this mission will prove that Pluto is a planet. If this is the case, it will put a decade-long debate of planet vs. dwarf planet to rest. If it does show Pluto is indeed a planet, then the mission would result in the reversal of deeming this celestial body a dwarf planet and Pluto will be listed as a planet once more.

When New Horizons launched nine years ago in January of 2006, it was aimed toward the "ruddy-colored planet frozen to about 400 degrees below zero." Back in those days this mission was dubbed the "first mission to the last planet."

The excitement in the scientific world is growing as this space craft draws closer to Pluto. As MPORA suggests today, this is somewhat of a bitter-sweet mission. It is not only a sweet feat of science and engineering, but it is also a reminder that NASA has closed down its space program, which is the bitter part. This type of exploration coming from the U.S. will soon be grinding to a halt.

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