First ever color images of Pluto and Charon

[Xfing]

http://www.sciencealert.com/nasa-s-new- ... s-of-pluto

What do you think? Descent's artists weren't far off, were they?

[Duper]

Nice!

Sure that isn't dust on the lens?

[vision]

Needs more jpeg.

The next couple weeks are going to be so kick ass.

[Xfing]

Needs more jpeg.

The next couple weeks are going to be so kick ass.

★■◆● yeah, can't wait!

But all this begs the question: why the hell are the first images ever taken of Pluto and Charon in color, and Dawn's been around Ceres for over a month now and still all we get is grayscale?

[Pumo]

This is so exciting, I can't wait to see a close up of Pluto!

[Spidey]

Guess I would be more exited if Pluto was still a planet. >smirk<

[Avder]

Wish it was feasible to put a probe in orbit of pluto-charon. Unfortunately I have to imagine that decelerating the probe would be a huge problem.

Speaking of orbiters, when are we gonna put one around Uranus or Neptune?

[Krom]

Actually gravity slingshots also work in reverse, meaning if you approach a planet from a different angle you can use it to slow down a probe too. Of course that would mean it would take a lot more time to reach the outer planets, so it would require a considerably longer mission duration.

[Avder]

In other words, ideally, you slingshot with Jupiter, and then brake using Uranus or Neptune.

So that route should be available in a few hundred years or something?

Would love it if someone could actually crunch the numbers on just how hard it would be to put a probe in orbit of Pluto-Charon.

[Xfing]

What I'm wondering is if the probe is able to fly by some particular interesting object from the Kuiper Belt later in its time. Like Makemake or even Eris. I'm not sure if the mission directors even care, though.

[Krom]

In other words, ideally, you slingshot with Jupiter, and then brake using Uranus or Neptune.

So that route should be available in a few hundred years or something?

Would love it if someone could actually crunch the numbers on just how hard it would be to put a probe in orbit of Pluto-Charon.

I'm thinking it wouldn't be quite that bad, it'd bump the travel time of a mission from like 10 years to 15 or 20 or something like that, depending on where everything is and how well they pull off the slingshots. IIRC it took a fair amount of time to get a probe in orbit around Mercury because it took a couple passes of gravity braking, so it was actually a bit harder to reach the inner solar system than it was to reach the outer solar system even though the distances involved are much smaller. But who knows what they will be able to pull off with more and more advanced engine/thruster technology, maybe they will be able to use traditional slingshots to get all the way out there, but hold some fancy ion engine and all its fuel in reserve to slow down after using the last flyby for a gravity brake so they can get there without having to spend an impractical amount of time in transit.

[Sirius]

What I'm wondering is if the probe is able to fly by some particular interesting object from the Kuiper Belt later in its time. Like Makemake or even Eris. I'm not sure if the mission directors even care, though.

That would only be possible if one of the known KBOs is in or near its current path... chances of that probably aren't good.

[Avder]

In other words, ideally, you slingshot with Jupiter, and then brake using Uranus or Neptune.

So that route should be available in a few hundred years or something?

Would love it if someone could actually crunch the numbers on just how hard it would be to put a probe in orbit of Pluto-Charon.

I'm thinking it wouldn't be quite that bad, it'd bump the travel time of a mission from like 10 years to 15 or 20 or something like that, depending on where everything is and how well they pull off the slingshots. IIRC it took a fair amount of time to get a probe in orbit around Mercury because it took a couple passes of gravity braking, so it was actually a bit harder to reach the inner solar system than it was to reach the outer solar system even though the distances involved are much smaller. But who knows what they will be able to pull off with more and more advanced engine/thruster technology, maybe they will be able to use traditional slingshots to get all the way out there, but hold some fancy ion engine and all its fuel in reserve to slow down after using the last flyby for a gravity brake so they can get there without having to spend an impractical amount of time in transit.

Slowing down with an ion engine would take forever. Don't they generate less thrust than we do just exhaling? I mean just regular calm breathing. They'd probably haveto switch it on not long after the Jupiter gravity boost. And with a mission that long they'd have to build a pretty big RTG to keep it powered for 30-40 years depending on how long they want to be able to observe Pluto-Charon after the 15-20 year travel time it takes to get in orbit.

It would be nice to get probes in orbit around Uranus and Neptune too because we know so little about them compared to Jupiter and Saturn. And IMO, Neptune is the prettiest planet in the solar system after Saturn.

[Tunnelcat]

Pluto has lots of mountains, maybe water-ice mountains, not rock, and a heart-shaped polar ice cap feature. Plus, it's relatively young compared to many of our solar system's other planets. Cool. Can't wait for more pics in color this time.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newho ... index.html

[Duper]

[sigma]

[Isaac]

Hahah. This could be a meme

[Avder]

If you look at Pluto's "heart" it looks a lot like Pluto, the Disney dog, in profile.

What do you guys make of that coincidence?

I wonder how much of the surface will be completely different the next time we send something to view Pluto.