NASA probe new horizons powers up Ok

[Pesty]

After 9 years 3 billion miles away.

Its going to examine Pluto.

AN AMERICAN probe that will explore Pluto has woken from its slumber, after a nine-year journey to take a close look at the distant body for the first time.
“New Horizons is healthy and cruising quietly through deep space, nearly three billion miles from home, but its rest is nearly over,” said Alice Bowman, the craft’s operations manager at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory outside Washington.
The probe came out of hibernation on Saturday and transmitted a message to Earth.
New Horizons was launched in January 2006 and was in hibernation for about two thirds of its journey, to preserve its electric power and minimise resources needed to monitor it.
During its trip, NASA engineers woke the craft every few months to check if its systems were still functioning.
The craft’s computer has also been sending a weekly message to Earth that takes four hours to arrive.

http://www.news.com.au/technology/science/its-awak...

[Eric Mc]

Good to hear.

Is Alice Bowman David Bowman's daughter?

[scubadude]

I'm kinda hoping New Horizon's finds something interesting/new as reward for being sent to a planet that got demoted while it was sleeping on the way there :-)

[Moonhawk]

scubadude said:

I'm kinda hoping New Horizon's finds something interesting/new as reward for being sent to a planet that got demoted while it was sleeping on the way there :-)

A big sign which reads:

"Donald's a duck, Pluto's a dog - what's Goofy?"

[Eric Mc]

It's a fly by so it won't have long at Pluto - a few days at most.

[Simpo Two]

It will wake up and say 'You mean I came all this way to see a planet and now I get here after 9 goddamn years and 3 billion miles it's not a fking planet any more?'

[jmorgan]

Reading that the other day but they have had many slumbers and a constant heart beat back home?

Either way, looking forward to this one.

[scubadude]

Eric Mc said:

It's a fly by so it won't have long at Pluto - a few days at most.

A few days on the way in and out but the transit through the Pluto "system" is quick, its doing 34000mph, they have 22hours of observation scheduled before it begins transmitting stuff back so by the time we see anything Pluto will be a dot in the rear view mirror!