New Horizons


Goodnight, New Horizons. Sleep Well.


IN BRIEF
The New Horizon's space probe is being put into a 5-month-long hibernation to reduce wear and tear while allowing for the allocation of resources to other missions. During this time, the probe will be prepared for the next leg of its extended mission.
DO SPACE PROBES DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP?
NASA’s Pluto probe, New Horizons, has been hard at work for the past 852 days and has earned its epic five-month-long nap that just began on Monday, April 10. Imagine working for almost two-and-a-half years straight — you’d welcome a bit of hibernation yourself.



The period of rest is meant to reduce wear and tear and allow for the allocation of resources, such as funds and personnel, to other NASA missions. According to New Horizons mission operations manager Alice Bowman in a news release, “We’re looking forward [to] taking advantage of the reduced mission operations workload during this hibernation, as well as one early next year, to plan much of the MU69 flyby.”
The hibernation will continue until September 11. At that point, the extended New Horizons mission begins its next leg, which will focus on observing objects in the Kuiper Belt.
PEEKING AT PLUTO
New Horizons has been an invaluable contributor to NASA’s space exploration initiative. Since the mission’s launch in January 2006, it has helped the space agency meet its goal to “explore the mysterious, icy worlds at the edge of our solar system and tell us about the origin and evolution of our planetary neighbors.”

Image Credit: NASA

Alan Stern, the head of the mission, shared some inspiring words on the goals of the New Horizons mission in an interview with Futurism:
Beyond the obvious — that we’re creating new knowledge — we create a greater society. We do something which is, in the case of great exploration, historic. It’s something people read about, not just days and weeks later, but decades and centuries later. It makes a mark for our time of what we aspire to be, which is a greater society.

New Horizons is bringing us closer to that greater society. Learning more about the farthest reaches of our solar system will help us understand our place here in the Universe.
References: Space.com, NASA

Patrick Caughill April 13, 2017

Comments

Post a Comment

POPULAR

This is Why Experts Think All People Should Have a Universal Basic Income

Image
IN BRIEF Universal Basic Income not only can prepare society for increasing automation but also spur innovation and growth. Establishing a equal base level of security will ensure that when automation takes over, people out of a job will not be left behind. Consider for a moment that from this day forward, on the first day of every month, around $1,000 is deposited into your bank account —  because you are a citizen . This income is independent of every other source of income and guarantees you a monthly starting salary above  the poverty line  for the rest of your life. What do you do? Possibly of more importance, what  don’t  you do? How does this firm foundation of economic security and  positive freedom  affect your present and future decisions, from the work you choose to the relationships you maintain, to the risks you take? The idea is called  unconditional or universal basic income, or UBI . It’s like social security for all, and it’s taking root within minds aro
Read more

Pluto Reclassification

Image
I N BRIEF In 2006, the planet known as Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf world. Over a decade later, this error is finally being corrected by astronomers. Welcome to a solar system that, once again, has nine planets. Today is a historic day—one that will bring joy to the hundreds of millions of Pluto lovers around the globe. The International Astronomical Union (IAU), the body that is responsible for naming and classifying objects in the cosmos, has just announced that Pluto has been reclassified as a major planet. Image credit: Quark Tees That’s right, the little dwarf will be rejoining the ranks of Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Planet-X (the planet that will surely spell doom for all humanity). As many of you know, in 2006, the IAU made their  infamous vote, deciding to demote  everyone’s favorite planet to a “dwarf planet.” Their reasoning was that too many people would confuse Pluto (the doggy of Disney fame) with Pluto (the pl
Read more