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[ Invalid Attachment ] Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institutehttp://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounter/index.phpClosest approach will be in about two weeks.
I don't understand. I thought that they had a probe that came very close to Pluto, so close as to get much better photos of it than that?
This is the first probe to flyby Pluto : it's taken 9 years to get there.The pictures will get exponentially better over the next two weeks.
... I wish they'd simply put a satellite into orbit that has ultra quality resolution so we can see what the surface is like.
Quote from: PmbPhy on 27/06/2015 04:36:53... I wish they'd simply put a satellite into orbit that has ultra quality resolution so we can see what the surface is like.They'd have to equip the probe with huge retro-rockets to decelerate [ from 13km/s] so it could orbit, which would make the mission hugely more expensive.
So you can have a man-made satellite in orbit around Pluto if you don't mind waiting a century for it to get there, or spend something like the Apollo-budget, (~1% of America's GDP), on craft with a monster retro-rocket.
The SLS will be the most powerful rocket ever built, and it will be safe, affordable and sustainable.