runs around with undies over head

http://arstechnica.com/science/2015/07/new-horizons-enters-safe-mode-9-days-before-pluto-rendezvous/

In nine short days, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft will make history by becoming the first spacecraft to fly past Pluto. Unfortunately on July 4, just days before the team was to send the approach command to the vehicle, an anomaly occurred at 1:54pm EST and communications with the spacecraft were lost. Communications were quickly restored through the deep space network (DSN), with signal confirmation at 3:15pm EDT.

The spacecraft’s autonomous autopilot recognized a problem and switched from the main to the backup computer—as it’s programmed to do. The autopilot then placed the spacecraft in “safe mode,” and commanded the backup computer to reestablish communication with Earth. New Horizons then began to transmit telemetry to help engineers diagnose the problem.

At this point, there’s no need to worry. The New Horizons spacecraft is healthy and will likely remain in safe mode until normal operations mode can be restored. But during this time, no science data can be collected.

Dropbear said:

runs around with undies over head

http://arstechnica.com/science/2015/07/new-horizons-enters-safe-mode-9-days-before-pluto-rendezvous/

In nine short days, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft will make history by becoming the first spacecraft to fly past Pluto. Unfortunately on July 4, just days before the team was to send the approach command to the vehicle, an anomaly occurred at 1:54pm EST and communications with the spacecraft were lost. Communications were quickly restored through the deep space network (DSN), with signal confirmation at 3:15pm EDT.

The spacecraft’s autonomous autopilot recognized a problem and switched from the main to the backup computer—as it’s programmed to do. The autopilot then placed the spacecraft in “safe mode,” and commanded the backup computer to reestablish communication with Earth. New Horizons then began to transmit telemetry to help engineers diagnose the problem.

At this point, there’s no need to worry. The New Horizons spacecraft is healthy and will likely remain in safe mode until normal operations mode can be restored. But during this time, no science data can be collected.

You’d be quite upset if your probe carked it, it’s probably 20 years of work from design, building and launch to actual data returned.

Update, 10pm ET: NASA has announced that “There was no hardware or software fault. The underlying cause was a hard-to-detect timing flaw in the spacecraft command sequence that occurred during an operation to prepare for flyby.” Science operations are set to resume on July 7.
———————————————————————————————————————

Stand down.

we’re nearly there.. nearly there…nearly there… hey lets change some code..

and we’ve missed it

Hopefully it’s just a dodgy Windows update and they’ll be able to use System Restore.

Peak Warming Man said:

Stand down.

Does that mean, sit?

Peak Warming Man said:

Update, 10pm ET: NASA has announced that “There was no hardware or software fault. The underlying cause was a hard-to-detect timing flaw in the spacecraft command sequence that occurred during an operation to prepare for flyby.” Science operations are set to resume on July 7.
———————————————————————————————————————

Stand down.

That’s what they WANT you to believe.

It could be the 1 second adjustment we made since the code was written.

Peak Warming Man said:

It could be the 1 second adjustment we made since the code was written.

Considering the distance, that may well matter? ;)

Peak Warming Man said:

It could be the 1 second adjustment we made since the code was written.

Simple matter of sending it an extra second by radio. It doesn’t have to be a hardware second.

Peak Warming Man said:

It could be the 1 second adjustment we made since the code was written.

they probably sent it a metric second by mistake

A technician sent it a second but then someone asked “Did you send a second?”, so he sent another one.

Bubblecar said:

A technician sent it a second but then someone asked “Did you send a second?”, so he sent another one.

he seconded the motion?

So it’s in “safe mode” is it?

That bad eh?

How long does it take to switch it off and back on again?

The Rev Dodgson said:

So it’s in “safe mode” is it?

That bad eh?

How long does it take to switch it off and back on again?

|________|{+1 second}

The Rev Dodgson said:

So it’s in “safe mode” is it?

That bad eh?

How long does it take to switch it off and back on again?

Being in Safe mode is only bad if they can’t get it out of safe mode.. at the moment all science functions have stopped.

Its pretty impressive we can make probes that survive the environment of outer space.

Dropbear said:

we’re nearly there.. nearly there…nearly there… hey lets change some code..

and we’ve missed it

You don’t need to read that text all you need is to see that text in that font on that background to know you’re in big trouble.

Robert De Niro
Jean Reno
Stellan Skarsgård
Sean Bean

Ronin?

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2015/07061400-new-horizons-back-in-action.html

Kingy said:

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2015/07061400-new-horizons-back-in-action.html

Yep, back on track, fingers crossed. No new images yet released since the outage on July 4.
Keep an eye on the raw Lorri images page http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounter/index.php

Best image so far – image from Lorri but coloured by Ralph (ie. colour in much lower resolution)

Charon is showing surface features as well.

In other spacecraft malfunction news: Contact was lost with Philae on 67P again, trying again on Friday. Dawn at Ceres had two problems with its imagers (camera and spectrometer) during the survey orbit on June 27- some data was lost, both instruments reset automatically so no action was taken. Also, Dawn experienced an “anomaly” in the system that controls its orientation, putting it into safe mode on June 30, now out of safe mode, but they’ve delayed the spiral down towards Ceres and are holding it in “survey orbit” until they’re sure that nothing else is going to go wrong.

Apparently it will take some 16 months for the data to be transmitted.

There has been no shortage of CG artist’s impressions of the surface so it will be interesting to compare these to reality

dv said:

Apparently it will take some 16 months for the data to be transmitted.

There has been no shortage of CG artist’s impressions of the surface so it will be interesting to compare these to reality

Kingy said:

dv said:

Apparently it will take some 16 months for the data to be transmitted.

There has been no shortage of CG artist’s impressions of the surface so it will be interesting to compare these to reality

!http://egotvonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/mars_car.jpg

Hahahahahaha!

Seriously – I laughed out loud!

:) :)

Kingy said:

http://egotvonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/mars_car.jpg

Like :)

Will it start?

Jeez, we all hope so.

I mean the VW…

Doubt it…

Too cold.

Probably needs a block heater, and a new battery.

Kingy said:

dv said:

Apparently it will take some 16 months for the data to be transmitted.

There has been no shortage of CG artist’s impressions of the surface so it will be interesting to compare these to reality

http://egotvonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/mars_car.jpg

LOL. In a seminar on the Australia Synchrotron, the presenter showed a slide with a plan view of the synchrotron inside Endeavour Crater on Mars. Took me a while to realise it.

Starting to get decent pictures now

dv said:

Starting to get decent pictures now

I spy with my little eye something beginning with i.

Don’t know about the dark stuff though.

Certainly a more varied terrain than I’d anticipated.

Looks like reslly reslly big columnsr jointing…

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-33491454

dv said:

Looks like reslly reslly big columnsr jointing…

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-33491454

>>But for the moment, features still have a rather blurred look about them.<<

Are there specially made cameras that take these fuzzy outer-space photos. Seems to be quite a large market for them.

it is the light passing through the ether that makes them fuzzy. the probe is still a long way away from pluto.

PermeateFree said:

dv said:

Looks like reslly reslly big columnsr jointing…

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-33491454

>>But for the moment, features still have a rather blurred look about them.<<

Are there specially made cameras that take these fuzzy outer-space photos. Seems to be quite a large market for them.

Hi, PF, and thanks for your interest.

They achieved this effect by having the camera 5 million km away from the subject. Maybe you should try this technique.

pffft they could have just reconfigured the hubble and sent it out there.

dv said:

PermeateFree said:

dv said:

Looks like reslly reslly big columnsr jointing…

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-33491454

>>But for the moment, features still have a rather blurred look about them.<<

Are there specially made cameras that take these fuzzy outer-space photos. Seems to be quite a large market for them.

Hi, PF, and thanks for your interest.

They achieved this effect by having the camera 5 million km away from the subject. Maybe you should try this technique.

Shame you don’t have a sense of humour, but I suppose you can’t have everything when you have such a big brain.

ChrispenEvan said:

pffft they could have just reconfigured the hubble and sent it out there.

ROFL. Nice tribute.

PermeateFree said:

dv said:

PermeateFree said:

>>But for the moment, features still have a rather blurred look about them.<<

Are there specially made cameras that take these fuzzy outer-space photos. Seems to be quite a large market for them.

Hi, PF, and thanks for your interest.

They achieved this effect by having the camera 5 million km away from the subject. Maybe you should try this technique.

Shame you don’t have a sense of humour, but I suppose you can’t have everything when you have such a big brain.

That’s right, I’m a dry branch.

dv said:

PermeateFree said:

dv said:

Hi, PF, and thanks for your interest.

They achieved this effect by having the camera 5 million km away from the subject. Maybe you should try this technique.

Shame you don’t have a sense of humour, but I suppose you can’t have everything when you have such a big brain.

That’s right, I’m a dry branch.

Dry branches are usually dead branches.

PermeateFree said:

dv said:

PermeateFree said:

Shame you don’t have a sense of humour, but I suppose you can’t have everything when you have such a big brain.

That’s right, I’m a dry branch.

Dry branches are usually dead branches.

If it is any consolation to you, I’ll be dead one day, and all subsequent days.

dv said:

PermeateFree said:

dv said:

That’s right, I’m a dry branch.

Dry branches are usually dead branches.

If it is any consolation to you, I’ll be dead one day, and all subsequent days.

Hmmmm, interesting thought.

dv said:

I’ll be dead one day, and all subsequent days.

is that a promise? ;)

dv said:

Looks like really really big columnar jointing…

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-33491454

Yes, it does.

Picture from yesterday.

This is probably about as good as pictures of this particular face get. NH will not come close to this side on flyby, and it will be in darkness in the day afterward.

dv said:

Picture from yesterday.

!https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/full_width_feature/public/thumbnails/image/nh-pluto-7-11-15.jpg

This is probably about as good as pictures of this particular face get. NH will not come close to this side on flyby, and it will be in darkness in the day afterward.

Definitely a few big craters there.

Those big hexagons intrigue me.

Well, Tuesday evening can’t arrive soon enough.

24 hours to go.

Might be looking at a Tritonesque rockmelon texture in some of those regions.

Bubblecar said:

Might be looking at a Tritonesque rockmelon texture in some of those regions.

On Tritons it is usually described as orange peel.

AwesomeO said:

Bubblecar said:

Might be looking at a Tritonesque rockmelon texture in some of those regions.

On Tritons it is usually described as orange peel.

its a shame they couldn’t have carried some solid fuel with the probe and slowed it down so it could go into Pluto orbit

if the Saturn V was still operational you could have sent a manned crew for a venus flyby and also have sent some big probes to orbit and study the outer planets by virtue of being able to carry fuel for the deceleration

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manned_Venus_Flyby

dv said:

AwesomeO said:

Bubblecar said:

Might be looking at a Tritonesque rockmelon texture in some of those regions.

On Tritons it is usually described as orange peel.

Did you mean to add something there?

Bubblecar said:

dv said:

AwesomeO said:

On Tritons it is usually described as orange peel.

Did you mean to add something there?

Can’t remember. Possibly a Triton joke?

wookiemeister said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manned_Venus_Flyby

Pointless

Any good live streams available for tonight?

Spiny Norman said:

Any good live streams available for tonight?

NASA TV,Spiny. Although I understand they will need 24 hours to fully process all the flyby images before they are released to the media.

Tejay said:

Spiny Norman said:

Any good live streams available for tonight?

NASA TV,Spiny. Although I understand they will need 24 hours to fully process all the flyby images before they are released to the media.

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-pluto-new-horizons-july-13-media-briefing-time-change-media-center-open

Yep, NASA TV in about 6 hours.

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/main/index.html

Thanks blokes.

Tejay said:

Spiny Norman said:

Any good live streams available for tonight?

NASA TV,Spiny. Although I understand they will need 24 hours to fully process all the flyby images before they are released to the media.

So can Pluto now be re-promoted to planet status?
Looks good enough to be a planet to me.

Spiny Norman said:

Any good live streams available for tonight?

I think I’ll wait for it to be repeated on FTA.

gaghalfrunt said:

So can Pluto now be re-promoted to planet status?
Looks good enough to be a planet to me.

It’s a dwarf planet so can be referred to as a “planet of short stature”.

Bubblecar said:

gaghalfrunt said:

So can Pluto now be re-promoted to planet status?
Looks good enough to be a planet to me.

It’s a dwarf planet so can be referred to as a “planet of short stature”.

pituatory?

Postpocelipse said:

Bubblecar said:

gaghalfrunt said:

So can Pluto now be re-promoted to planet status?
Looks good enough to be a planet to me.

It’s a dwarf planet so can be referred to as a “planet of short stature”.

pituatory?

I’d imagine, since it’s a proportionate dwarf.

It’s a dwarf planet so can be referred to as a “planet of short stature”.

——

“Radially challenged astronomical object”

Ian said:

It’s a dwarf planet so can be referred to as a “planet of short stature”.

——

“Radially challenged astronomical object”

….. I call it “The Ass End Of The Universe” Bob…..

You won’t see anything until 10 hours after periplute, minimum, as NH goes behind Pluto (from an Earth perspective) shortly afterwards.

Be some well hewn fingernails until she’s out of the shade.

@NASANewHorizons

Can’t forget the little moon, Nix! Taking our best color image of Nix, resolving at 1.2 miles per pixel! #PlutoFlyby pic.twitter.com/2lm14NiEG5

View image on Twitter
——————————————
I don’t do Twitter for cultural reasons but you Twitteratti can go look at the photo.

Peak Warming Man said:

@NASANewHorizons

Can’t forget the little moon, Nix! Taking our best color image of Nix, resolving at 1.2 miles per pixel! #PlutoFlyby pic.twitter.com/2lm14NiEG5

View image on Twitter
——————————————
I don’t do Twitter for cultural reasons but you Twitteratti can go look at the photo.

that’s no moon

wookiemeister said:

Peak Warming Man said:

@NASANewHorizons

Can’t forget the little moon, Nix! Taking our best color image of Nix, resolving at 1.2 miles per pixel! #PlutoFlyby pic.twitter.com/2lm14NiEG5

View image on Twitter
——————————————
I don’t do Twitter for cultural reasons but you Twitteratti can go look at the photo.

that’s no moon

That gets a rare LOL

Pluto, the small, frozen dwarf planet at the edge of the solar system, has been officially declared the largest known world in its neighborhood. The planet is just one of many icy bodies in the Kuiper Belt, a vast debris ring beyond the orbit of Neptune. There’s been some uncertainty over the last decade about whether Pluto is the biggest among those worlds, or if recently discovered dwarf planet Eris might take that title.

Today, we wonder no longer.

“Pluto is a little bit larger than we anticipated,” said New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern at a press conference this morning. “That settles the debate about the largest object in the Kuiper Belt.”

—-

Seems odd that this minor upgrade would “settle the debate”, given that there remain major uncertainties in the size of Eris.

courtesy George Takei……

Amazing stuff in a great year for solar system exploration.

What others are calling a heart looks more to me like a dove with spreading wings, but the boss lady said it was more like a head spewing to the right.

people reckon that white feature looks like a heart or a bum. i reckon if you looked on the other side you’d find a prawn cutlet.

dv said:

Amazing stuff in a great year for solar system exploration.

What others are calling a heart looks more to me like a dove with spreading wings, but the boss lady said it was more like a head spewing to the right.

I think I have to agree with your wife.

JudgeMental said:

people reckon that white feature looks like a heart or a bum. i reckon if you looked on the other side you’d find a prawn cutlet.

Frozen prawn cutlets. Not as good as fresh prawn cutlets…

Postpocelipse said:

courtesy George Takei……

That is pretty fucking amazing.

sibeen said:

Postpocelipse said:

courtesy George Takei……

That is pretty fucking amazing.

It is, you seen the impression of the sun from Pluto?

http://phys.org/news/2015-05-impending-pluto-encounter-class-worlds.html

The ape has come a long way.

Is nice.

Looks cold though

party_pants said:

Is nice.

Looks cold though

Could very well be cold, I reckon.

AwesomeO said:

The ape has come a long way.

Aye, with all the crap in the world, and there’s plenty of it, seeing something like that gives me some hope.

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Mission/Where-is-New-Horizons/index.php

I was surprised; Pluto is about 32 AU away (32 times the distance of the Earth from the Sun).

I had thought it much more distant than that.

And on triplej this arvo they had an interview where I learned on that ship they have the ashes of the man who discovered the planet…oid.

tombaugh, clyde. in about ’32.

JudgeMental said:

tombaugh, clyde. in about ’32.

Who the hell names their kid tombaugh?

AwesomeO said:

And on triplej this arvo they had an interview where I learned on that ship they have the ashes of the man who discovered the planet…oid.

Fascinating the stuff one learn on TripleJ. I heard that too. However, in the intro, they said Pluto was 5 million kilometres away. Should’ve said 5 Billion miles …

sibeen said:

JudgeMental said:

tombaugh, clyde. in about ’32.

Who the hell names their kid tombaugh?

Although it could work as a nickname for a girl who likes sport :)

sibeen said:

JudgeMental said:

tombaugh, clyde. in about ’32.

Who the hell names their kid tombaugh?

Mr and Mrs Clyde, obviously.

1930.

or mr and mrs tombaugh.

JudgeMental said:

tombaugh, clyde. in about ’32.

I’ve met his daughter, Annette. He died here in Cruces.

kii said:

(out of chat)

From the Museum of Science and Nature, just up the road:

Homemade telescope by Clyde Tombaugh

A Cassegrain secondary mirror blank cutter – homemade by Clyde Tombaugh. Note the cotton reel handle.

kii said:

From the Museum of Science and Nature, just up the road:

Homemade telescope by Clyde Tombaugh
https://scontent-ord1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xap1/v/t1.0-9/1509195_10152140055181030_838374744_n.jpg?oh=ebd9f68bec5e36d80d08a0750aff50c5&oe=561D95E2

A Cassegrain secondary mirror blank cutter – homemade by Clyde Tombaugh. Note the cotton reel handle.
https://scontent-ord1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xtp1/t31.0-8/r270/p720×720/1532041_10152140062456030_1332987779_o.jpg

His woodwork is not up to Party’s standard. Quite disappointing, really.

the cassegrain mirror tool is to cut a circular hole in the primary (not secondary) mirror . the eyepiece attaches to the rear of that mirror. the glass hasn’t been coated at this stage.

then again it could be the grinding tool. but it looks a bit weird for that.

And now, the waiting game…

Spectometry indicates the “ice” cap contains mainly methane and nitrogen.

Colour image of Pluto and its large moon Charon

New Horizons’ image of Pluto and its large moon Charon in exaggerated colours shows their differences in surface material and features.

colorful little planet this pluto…..

that is just so fucking awesome… this whole project. Amazing humans

Arts said:

that is just so fucking awesome… this whole project. Amazing humans

As I mentioned elsewhere, the USA is just amazing and perplexing. These achievements are being made by a country where nearly half the people think people walked with dinosaurs a few thousand years ago. My vision of the USA is that it is a very modern progressive, educated country with a second country, nosepicking and slackjawed, getting a free ride in a sidecar.

dv said:

Shopped.

dv said:

Arts said:

that is just so fucking awesome… this whole project. Amazing humans

As I mentioned elsewhere, the USA is just amazing and perplexing. These achievements are being made by a country where nearly half the people think people walked with dinosaurs a few thousand years ago. My vision of the USA is that it is a very modern progressive, educated country with a second country, nosepicking and slackjawed, getting a free ride in a sidecar.

Yerp…dagnabbit and tarnation!!!

Time to share, NASA.

dv said:

Time to share, NASA.

Patience my child, patience.

Let’s just hope it hasn’t returned a load of close-up snaps of empty space, due to a loose wingnut on the frangle.

With the closest pic we have so far, it looks more like Mars than any of the ice worlds. But presumably that illusion will be put to rest by the detailed images.

• With the closest pic we have so far, it looks more like Mars than any of the ice worlds. But presumably that illusion will be put to rest by the detailed images.

furious said:

• With the closest pic we have so far, it looks more like Mars than any of the ice worlds. But presumably that illusion will be put to rest by the detailed images.

img src=“http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/new_horizons.png” title=“Last-minute course change: Let’s see if we can hit Steve’s house.” alt=“Last-minute course change: Let’s see if we can hit Steve’s house.”

Heh!

:)

What they really need is a Grocery Code of Conduct.

poikilotherm said:

What they really need is a Grocery Code of Conduct.

Probably not a big issue on Pluto but I will look into it.

Now about 5:35AM, Wednesday, in Baltimore.

This artist’s impression of Pluto (and Charon), done long before New Horizons was anywhere near Pluto, is not that far removed from its actual appearance:

This is where they put some of the images:

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounter/index.php

http://eyes.nasa.gov/dsn/dsn.html

Check it out, NH data has started streaming

This is by the coolest thing I’ve read in a long time.

“Clyde Tombaugh ashes will be first to leave solar system New Horizons now travels to the mysterious Kuiper Belt or Third Zone before eventually leaving the Solar System altogether and taking Clyde Tombaugh’s ashes with it”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/11739941/Clyde-Tombaugh-ashes-will-be-first-to-leave-solar-system.html

Spiny Norman said:

This is by the coolest thing I’ve read in a long time.

“Clyde Tombaugh ashes will be first to leave solar system New Horizons now travels to the mysterious Kuiper Belt or Third Zone before eventually leaving the Solar System altogether and taking Clyde Tombaugh’s ashes with it”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/11739941/Clyde-Tombaugh-ashes-will-be-first-to-leave-solar-system.html

His ashes might be the very last things that ever remain of humanity. The rest consumed by the sun.

They ought to send a full batch of carefully-bottled human DNA out of the solar system.

Spiny Norman said:

This is by the coolest thing I’ve read in a long time.

“Clyde Tombaugh ashes will be first to leave solar system New Horizons now travels to the mysterious Kuiper Belt or Third Zone before eventually leaving the Solar System altogether and taking Clyde Tombaugh’s ashes with it”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/11739941/Clyde-Tombaugh-ashes-will-be-first-to-leave-solar-system.html

And stay out

R79

Bubblecar said:

They ought to send a full batch of carefully-bottled human DNA out of the solar system.

Vandals, not satisfied with fucking up planet Earth, they want to stuff up the Universe

Michael V said:

R79

?

79. The traditional way of saying goodnight is now “AND STAY OUT!”

rules of luciferville.

My Awesome Life

The times when I try to take in the staggering achievement of the New Horizons flyby of Pluto.
5,000,000,000 kms over nine years this thing has been traveling!

Yesterday in a rare moment of quality customer interaction I helped a lady find the magazine she wanted because of an article about Pluto. We talked about how exciting the New Horizon journey and then how special it is for Las Cruces, with the Tombaugh connection. I might visit the museum this weekend and see if they have an updated display to commemorate this event.

Also at work there was no mention of it, just the usual blatter about the Pop Culture crap we are running. I had to cut out 100 Minion eyes :(

Interestingly, the spectral analysis image indicates that the two halves of the “heart” are covered in completely different materials.

Okay so you can expect first results and announcements at 5 am Thursday AEST.