Warrigal
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- Location
- Sydney, Australia
In about an hour and a half the New Horizons space probe will be very close to Pluto, which up till now has had to be imagined because it's too far away and too small to be seen clearly, and images will be transmitted back to earth, taking four hours to arrive.
Has anyone seen the film The Dish? I hope Tidbinbilla doesn't have the same problems that they had in Parkes when the first moon walk took place.
New Horizons Pluto mission: Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex to receive data from dwarf planet close encounter
By Adrienne Francis
A team of more than 92 Canberra space scientists, engineers, operators and communication specialists are anxiously awaiting the culmination of a nine-year voyage to the far edge of our solar system. The New Horizons probe is expected to make its closest encounter with Pluto on Tuesday night (Australian EST), bringing it within 12,500 kilometres of the icy dwarf planet.
The piano-sized spacecraft is expected to make the close flyby past Pluto just before 9:50pm (AEST) but it takes four hours for images taken at that time to be received on Earth due to the distance of 5.3 billion kilometres. The Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex at Tidbinbilla in the ACT's west will be the first place on Earth to receive those first close encounter images captured and sent from space.
CSIRO spokesman Glen Nagle said the high resolution cameras onboard the spacecraft were expected to capture surface conditions and send them back to Tidbinbilla between 1:00am and 2:00am on Wednesday. "Literally seeing things the size of a few suburban houses on the surface of Pluto, not that anybody expects to see a few suburban houses on the surface of Pluto!" Mr Nagle said.
NASA will live telecast the first full-frame close-up image of the Pluto encounter on its website in the hours after the flyby.
Mr Nagle likens the imminent close encounter with Pluto to Neil Armstrong's historic Moon walk and the recent Mars Curiosity Rover mission.
"New Horizons is another one of those moments," Mr Nagle said. "You will remember where you were and what you were doing on that day when the whole world sees a brand new place in our solar system for the very first time. You will take a deep breath and go: 'Wow this is something that no human has ever seen before.'"
"A world that has been out there for 5 billion years, waiting for human eyes to stare and ponder its mysteries for decades and centuries to come."
It could take 18 months for all the data from New Horizons to be received on Earth.
Has anyone seen the film The Dish? I hope Tidbinbilla doesn't have the same problems that they had in Parkes when the first moon walk took place.
New Horizons Pluto mission: Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex to receive data from dwarf planet close encounter
By Adrienne Francis
A team of more than 92 Canberra space scientists, engineers, operators and communication specialists are anxiously awaiting the culmination of a nine-year voyage to the far edge of our solar system. The New Horizons probe is expected to make its closest encounter with Pluto on Tuesday night (Australian EST), bringing it within 12,500 kilometres of the icy dwarf planet.
The piano-sized spacecraft is expected to make the close flyby past Pluto just before 9:50pm (AEST) but it takes four hours for images taken at that time to be received on Earth due to the distance of 5.3 billion kilometres. The Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex at Tidbinbilla in the ACT's west will be the first place on Earth to receive those first close encounter images captured and sent from space.
CSIRO spokesman Glen Nagle said the high resolution cameras onboard the spacecraft were expected to capture surface conditions and send them back to Tidbinbilla between 1:00am and 2:00am on Wednesday. "Literally seeing things the size of a few suburban houses on the surface of Pluto, not that anybody expects to see a few suburban houses on the surface of Pluto!" Mr Nagle said.
NASA will live telecast the first full-frame close-up image of the Pluto encounter on its website in the hours after the flyby.
Mr Nagle likens the imminent close encounter with Pluto to Neil Armstrong's historic Moon walk and the recent Mars Curiosity Rover mission.
"New Horizons is another one of those moments," Mr Nagle said. "You will remember where you were and what you were doing on that day when the whole world sees a brand new place in our solar system for the very first time. You will take a deep breath and go: 'Wow this is something that no human has ever seen before.'"
"A world that has been out there for 5 billion years, waiting for human eyes to stare and ponder its mysteries for decades and centuries to come."
It could take 18 months for all the data from New Horizons to be received on Earth.
