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Message |
    
Da_bear
flint knapper
Username: Da_bear
Post Number: 790
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, January 11, 2006 - 5:32 pm: |     |
US warns world of Pluto probe's nuclear payload
15:16 10 January 2006
New Horizons' journey to the edge of the solar system means solar panels provide very little power, which is why NASA is using a radioactive power source
The US has officially notified the United Nations and the International Atomic Energy Agency that NASA is preparing to launch New Horizons, its Pluto-bound mission carrying 10.9 kilograms of radioactive material.
The New Horizons probe is scheduled to begin its nine-year journey on 17 January. It is carrying plutonium dioxide to power its instruments during its frozen odyssey through the solar system.
The spacecraft's trajectory is expected to take it near southern Africa and Australia. The UN is notifying these nations of the upcoming launch, says William Armbruster, senior public diplomacy officer with the US State Department.
NASA has estimated the probability of a launch accident involving the release of plutonium dioxide at about 4 in 1000. If there were a launch accident, the US would offer clean-up help to affected nations.
NASA's environmental impact statement for the mission says potential launch accidents that prevented the craft leaving the Earth "could result in a release of plutonium dioxide in the launch area, southern Africa following suborbital re-entry, and other global locations following orbital re-entry. However, in each of these regions an accident resulting in a release of plutonium dioxide is unlikely."
Less protesters
At least 25 other US spacecraft have launched into space with radioisotope power supplies. Seven of these satellites are still orbiting Earth.
Accidents have been rare. When the Apollo 13 mission was aborted in 1970, the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package and its 3.8 kilograms of plutonium were lost in the Tonga Trench in the Pacific Ocean. In 1964, a radioisotope thermoelectric generator from the Transit 5BN-3 spacecraft re-entered Earth's atmosphere and burned up, releasing 17,000 curies of radiation that was eventually scattered across Earth's surface.
NASA says it needs plutonium for New Horizons because it is heading for Pluto, and solar arrays would not provide enough power that far away from the Sun. As New Horizons reaches the ninth planet, the solar illumination will be less than one-thousandth of that experienced on Earth.
Over the weekend, about 30 protestors gathered outside of the gates of the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, US, where New Horizons will launch. In contrast, about 800 people protested the launch of the Saturn-bound Cassini probe in 1997. That mission actually swung past Earth once to use the planet's gravity as a slingshot, sparking fears that it would re-enter Earth's atmosphere and spread radioactive material around the planet.
Last week, the mission team completed inspections of the Atlas 5 rocket's RP-1 fuel tank to look for cracks. NASA had delayed the launch by six days to conduct the checks after Lockheed Martin, which makes the Atlas 5, found a failure in a similar tank.
I'd launch it, anyone have any opinions??
http://www.newscientistspace.com/article.ns?id=dn8560
If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice. |
Annie
storyteller
Username: Annie
Post Number: 1693
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, January 11, 2006 - 6:18 pm: | |
I'd launch it too.
Besides, Plutonium to Pluto seems very appropriate... 
Chess is the purest form of debate, unadulterated by a topic. |
Colpul
hunter
Username: Colpul
Post Number: 261
Registered: 8-2005
| | Posted on Wednesday, January 11, 2006 - 7:11 pm: | |
Nuke Pluto! Now that's American as apple pie and hot dogs.lol
My only worry is Dub-ya might get a little confused and launch at the wrong Pluto. Bush font, "In a unilateral action today we took out the heart of the Disney Axis of Evil and its leaders Pluto, Goofy and Mickey. America cannot sit an allow Disney World to develop weapons of mass destruction and spread it wonderful world around the planet."
With the troubles Bush is having does WMD now stand for ‘weapons of mass distraction’?
Have you heard this one?:
Disney World divorcé court:
Judge: "Mr. Mouse, you cannot divorcé your wife because of her insanity."
Mickey Mouse: "I didn't say she was insane, I said she was fucking Goofy!"
A note on Pluto (the planet, or is it?) there is now some question as to whether or not Pluto is a planet among astronomers.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,41328, 00.html
So I got me a pen and a paper and I made up my own little sign it said, "Thank you, Lord, for thinkin' 'bout me. I'm alive and doin' fine." |
Angakuk
hunter
Username: Angakuk
Post Number: 471
Registered: 6-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, January 12, 2006 - 4:40 am: | |
Next thing you know they will be reclassifying Australia as an island just because it is smaller than all the other continents and completely surrounded by water. Wait just a minute. Why isn't Australia an island?
"It takes all kinds to make a world and I'm just one of them." My Grandmother
I don't blame you for not believing in the kind of god you think I believe in. I don't believe in that god either. George MacDonald (paraphrase)
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Ted
hunter
Username: Ted
Post Number: 377
Registered: 5-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, January 12, 2006 - 6:22 am: | |
It is.
We call it the island continent.
But then so are the americas.
Ted
Do not go gentle into that good night...Rage, rage against the dying of the light
Benjamin Disraeli: "The Jews are a nervous people. Nineteen centuries of Christian love have taken a toll." |
Angakuk
hunter
Username: Angakuk
Post Number: 473
Registered: 6-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, January 12, 2006 - 6:49 am: | |
Amended to specify water in a liquid state.
"It takes all kinds to make a world and I'm just one of them." My Grandmother
I don't blame you for not believing in the kind of god you think I believe in. I don't believe in that god either. George MacDonald (paraphrase)
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Ted
hunter
Username: Ted
Post Number: 378
Registered: 5-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, January 12, 2006 - 10:13 am: | |
Ah, but nuclear powered submarines can travel to the north pole.
And with global warming, the surface ice is rapidly disappearing.
And in any case, even if ice were a permanent fixture at the top of north america, would that make it part of the asian continent, joined to the former USSR?
Ted
Do not go gentle into that good night...Rage, rage against the dying of the light
Benjamin Disraeli: "The Jews are a nervous people. Nineteen centuries of Christian love have taken a toll." |
Da_bear
flint knapper
Username: Da_bear
Post Number: 794
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, January 12, 2006 - 5:41 pm: | |
Aren't they ALL islands,of which parts are continents?
If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice. |
Thales
gatherer
Username: Thales
Post Number: 81
Registered: 9-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, January 12, 2006 - 6:58 pm: | |
I would love to press the launch button myself. But I suppose it's done by a computer, and there is no physical launch button. Well, I would love to write the computer program.
Heisenberg was here ... or over there ... well, maybe somwhere else ... |
Miisa
flint knapper
Username: Miisa
Post Number: 744
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, January 12, 2006 - 7:54 pm: | |
So someone has to push "enter", right? |
Ted
hunter
Username: Ted
Post Number: 379
Registered: 5-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, January 12, 2006 - 9:36 pm: | |
bear:
Aren't they ALL islands,of which parts are continents?
My point exactly.
Ted
Do not go gentle into that good night...Rage, rage against the dying of the light
Benjamin Disraeli: "The Jews are a nervous people. Nineteen centuries of Christian love have taken a toll." |
Da_bear
flint knapper
Username: Da_bear
Post Number: 795
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Friday, January 13, 2006 - 1:20 am: | |
So someone has to push "enter", right?
Wouldn't you push "exit"?
}
If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice. |
Miisa
flint knapper
Username: Miisa
Post Number: 745
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Friday, January 13, 2006 - 7:15 am: | |
My computer keyboard doesn't have an "exit" button. "Esc", perhaps? |
Da_bear
flint knapper
Username: Da_bear
Post Number: 798
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Friday, January 13, 2006 - 5:46 pm: | |
For "escape velocity", perhaps?
If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice. |
Miisa
flint knapper
Username: Miisa
Post Number: 746
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Friday, January 13, 2006 - 6:25 pm: | |
"Insert", "End", "Break" ...?  |
Annie
storyteller
Username: Annie
Post Number: 1696
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, January 14, 2006 - 5:21 am: | |
"Insert" is boarding time for any explorer robots.
"End" - abort mission. 
"Break" can be used for "braking" (or just stop boosting). Most people don't know the difference between "break" and "brake" anyhoo. 
At least there's an automatic return program, with "Home". 
Chess is the purest form of debate, unadulterated by a topic. |
Cavebear
cave painter
Username: Cavebear
Post Number: 2413
Registered: 9-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, January 14, 2006 - 6:54 am: | |
I'll be under the staircase in my basement...
Machiavelli was pretty devious. For a guy... |
Iza
bear cub
Username: Iza
Post Number: 25
Registered: 12-2005
| | Posted on Saturday, January 14, 2006 - 11:24 am: | |
Well their excuse if they do manage to blow it up is that Pluto's status as a planet has been iffy for a while anyway & there was every chance of it being down graded, so what's your problem? |
Frebec
gatherer
Username: Frebec
Post Number: 113
Registered: 6-2004
| | Posted on Saturday, January 14, 2006 - 3:17 pm: | |
I would launch it and given the odds well there is a lot more stuff out there with better odds to get us.
I can understand there needs for more power as on another story I read that this probe will be traveling faster than the older ones that were used years ago.
I also was watching a videotape where that scientist was arguing saying that Pluto wasn't a planet because if you put it closer to the sun it would act like a comet and grow a tail.
I am fearful when I see people substituting fear for reason. |
Cavebear
cave painter
Username: Cavebear
Post Number: 2414
Registered: 9-2003
| | Posted on Sunday, January 15, 2006 - 4:11 am: | |
Pluto probably wasn't formed in the way other solar planets were. Personaly, I consider it really shouldn't be considered a planet. It seems to be a more like a really large asteroid in some ways (orbit and angle from the other planets). Until we can study it in more detail, we won't know for sure.
Machiavelli was pretty devious. For a guy... |
Frebec
gatherer
Username: Frebec
Post Number: 114
Registered: 6-2004
| | Posted on Sunday, January 15, 2006 - 6:23 pm: | |
On that note about it being a planet another point brought up was Ceres was once called a planet when it was first discovered. Then they unplaneted it.
Because of all the other asteroids being discovered.
I am fearful when I see people substituting fear for reason. |
Bartholomewcm
hunter
Username: Bartholomewcm
Post Number: 486
Registered: 9-2003
| | Posted on Monday, January 16, 2006 - 8:11 pm: | |
A note on Pluto (the planet, or is it?) there is now some question as to whether or not Pluto is a planet among astronomers.
--The periodicity of Pluto with respect to Neptune, in addition to the eccentricity of its orbit, indicates that it is likely the largest object in the Kuiper belt.
Interesting that in "The Martian Chronicles" Australia is destroyed in a nuclear explosion.
To die will be an awfully big adventure.
--Sir James Barrie |
Head-Clash-In