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Send your name to Pluto
Posted by
ScuttleMonkey
on Mon Aug 29, 2005 04:26 PM
from the great-ad-infinitum-grand-children dept.
from the great-ad-infinitum-grand-children dept.
hatredman writes "NASA is preparing to send the New Horizons probe to Pluto. It will be the first earth device to get intimate with the icy planet. And you can be there too - or, at least, your name. NASA is asking everyone to send them their names, which will be attached in the space device. The New Horizons probe will be launched in January 2006 to explore Pluto and the Kuiper belt, in the outskirts of the Solar System. It is expected that the probe will return to earth in approximately 50 thousand years."
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Doesn't work (Score:5, Funny)
For some reason they don't want us to know Pluto Nium is on-board.
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You didn't know. [tinyurl.com]
Re:Doesn't work (Score:4, Funny)
>
> For some reason they don't want us to know Pluto Nium is on-board.
All hail the second coming of Archimedes! [wikipedia.org] Fifty thousand years hence, all shall see the wisdom of the PLUTONIUM ATOM TOTALITY!
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Re:Doesn't work (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:Doesn't work (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:Doesn't work (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:Doesn't work (Score:3, Funny)
Oh the possibilities! (Score:5, Funny)
Plutonian #2: I'll get the can opener!
*fooom*
P1: It's full of names, here is one, "Ivana Tinkle."
P2: I told you to go before we left the glarflog.
clones (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Oh the possibilities! (Score:5, Funny)
P2: So, what did it find?
P1: "Slashdot crowd"
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Will people even be able to read the names?? (Score:5, Interesting)
So what's the point of putting the names on the satellite? Is it the Gen-Xer's version of Voyager 1 [wikipedia.org]?
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Re:Will people even be able to read the names?? (Score:5, Insightful)
Chances are, the probe will be retrieved and placed into some sort of museum much earlier. If all goes well, the humanity will have nuclear drives and all that stuff for interstellar flights in mere few hundred of years. However, if it happens so that the humanity in, say, the next 500 years won't be interested in retrieving its earlier probes as historical artefacts, won't have the means of doing so or won't exist, THEN the next 49500 years or whatever long time won't change the situation either. The point is, the fate of the probe will be likely decided in the next 500 years, and not when it returns to Earth without interruption.
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Great! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Great! (Score:3, Funny)
That must be some Plutonian-speak.
Re:Great! (Score:3, Funny)
URGENT AND CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS PROPOSAL (Score:5, Funny)
I am Plutonia Pluton, widow of the late Plutonian Head of State, Gen. Plutonius Pluton...
Parent
Kinda depressing (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Kinda depressing (Score:5, Informative)
Of course, the trip to Pluto is going to take a couple of years, but not that much - you're certainly going to see it in your lifetime. Well, assuming you don't die first (but that goes without saying).
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Re:Kinda depressing (Score:3, Insightful)
I would pay $1,000... (Score:5, Funny)
50,000 years?? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:50,000 years?? (Score:5, Interesting)
And I suspect it's simply a fuel saving to have it end up heading inwards, so point it at the earth, it might be useful.
Parent
Re:50,000 years?? (Score:3, Funny)
So... (Score:5, Funny)
I'm game.
Re:So... (Score:5, Funny)
Pseudo Planet? Impudent Earthling!!
Prepare to be vaporized.
Parent
50,000 Years? (Score:5, Funny)
Can Pluto read? (Score:5, Funny)
Fate brought us together (Score:3, Funny)
I am barrister JOSEPH ZOOMANEENE from Earth. 2 Years ago a space probe crashed on Jupiter, killing my rich uncle....
you normally would say (Score:5, Funny)
however, it's either that or get intimate with uranus
Binary CD? (Score:5, Insightful)
I have trouble enough making sure my Windows using friends don't send me documents in PowerPoint format, let alone intelligent life understanding our alphabet, then working out ASCII code, then working out binary.
It's a standards nightmare to make Tim Berners-Lee cry.
Re:Binary CD? (Score:5, Interesting)
What I'm not inclined to is the hope that the CD will last that long! Damn things barely last 2-3 years on Earth, let alone the radiation in space.
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Re:Binary CD? (Score:3, Funny)
Alien 2: "Excellent... I wonder what insight this will give us on the universe!?"
Alien 1: "Awwww SHIT!"
Alien 2: "What!? What's wrong?!"
Alien 1: "We were too late. We only decoded it in time to catch the credits..."
It's for kids (Score:3, Insightful)
My 4-year-old will think it's neat. (The 8-month old might not really understand.) It gets them to think about science, and costs a few grams added to the probe. Why not?
Re:Binary CD? (Score:3, Informative)
Um, am I the only one wondering what the point of sending a CD is? Apart from the "prestiege" for the people on said CD, if any intelligent life picks it up, they're not exactly going to be able to read it are they?
Who said anything about intelligent life finding it? Since the article summary says it may return near earth in 50,000 years it's not leaving the solar system. The only intelligent life that might possibly find it is us in 50,000 years. Though I doubt any information will still be readable aft
Re:Binary CD? (Score:4, Funny)
Well duh...thats what readme.txt is for
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Re:Binary CD? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Binary CD? (Score:3, Funny)
"I will copy them down and have them translated immediately!"
"It's a pretty thing, but what a terribly inefficient writing surface they use. Haven't they heard of paper?"
"Imagine passing notes in class like this!"
"Ha ha! Clunk! Busted!"
"Ha! Indeed! Prepare the invasion fleet."
Dear Pluto (Score:5, Funny)
Dear Pluto,
Following the sudden death of my husband General Sani
Abacha the late former head of state of Nigeria in
june 1998, I have been thrown into a state of utter
confusion, frustration and hopelessness by the present
civilian administration, I have been subjected to
physical and psychological torture by the security
agents in the country. My son was just released from
detention few months ago by the Nigerian Government
for an offence he did not commit. As a widow that is
so traumatized, I have lost confidence with anybody
within the country.
You must have heard over the media reports and the
internet on the recovery of various huge sums of money
deposited by my husband in different security firms
abroad, some companies willingly give up their secrets
and disclosed our money confidently lodged there or
many outright blackmail. In fact the total sum
discovered by the Government so far is in the tune of
$700. Million dollars. And they are not relenting to
make me poor for life. I got your contacts through my
personal research, and out of desperation decided to
reach you through this medium.I will give you more
information as to this regard as soon as you reply.
I repose great confidence in you hence my approach to
you due to security network placed on my day to day
affairs I cannot afford to visit the embassy so that
is why I decided to contact you and I hope you will
not betray my confidence in you. I have deposited the
sum of 30.000.000 million dollars with a security firm
abroad whose name is witheld for now until we open
communication.I shall be grateful if you could receive
this fund into your account for safe keeping. This
arrangement is known to you and my son Ahmed alone, so
my son will deal directly with you as security is up
my whole being.I am seriously considering to settle
down abroad in a friendly atmosphere like yours as
soon as this fund get into your account so that I can
start all over again if only you wish, but if it is
impossible,just help me in diverting this fund into
your account which will accrue you 30% of this fund.
Please honesty is the watch word in this transaction.I
will require your telephone and fax numbers so that we
can commence communication immediately and I will give
you a more detailed picture of things. In case you
dont accept please do not let me out to the security
as I am giving you this information in total trust and
confidence
proposal in good faith. Please expedite action by
sending your reply to my son email address below.
Sincerely Yours,
MBUMBE ABACHA.
The point is... (Score:3, Informative)
The point of NASA doing this is not to send your name to aliens, and it's not to send your name to archaeologists 50,000 years in the future. They're doing it to make you feel like a part of you is on that probe, that a part of you is being launched into the depths of the solar system, exploring, etc. It's a discovery thing. It's also a marketing thing, and for what you get (a whole bunch of kids saying, cool), it's pretty cheap.
Since it's unlikely that it'll be picked up by aliens or archaeologists, it doesn't really matter what form the names take. Of course, the weight of the probe is finely tuned, so something light is preferable. Kids understand what a CD is, so that's a good choice.
NASA did a similar thing for the Deep Impact probe - collected names and included them on the impactor. Definitely no chance of that being picked up by aliens, but there's something cool about having your name on a big chunk of metal that will smash into a comet on the 4th of July (more marketing there).
Not surprising (Score:3, Funny)
Heywood Jablome 103982 2005-08-09 21:04:33
Hugh G. Rection 241557 2005-08-29 17:34:56
Mike Hunt 77369 2005-06-29 23:41:56
Homer Sexual 38139 2005-04-24 06:31:23
But not one Phil McCracken!
50'000 years (Score:3, Insightful)
"It is expected that the probe will return to earth in approximately 50 thousand years."
unlikely. the probe will be picked up by one of our own spacecraft long before then. it will sit in a museum for a while, and in 50'000 years it will be long returned to dust and forgotten by whatever we've evolved/mutated into by then.
We completed an RFP in '97.. (Score:3, Informative)
Being the only EE in the class, it fell to me to design the complete communications system for it.
I wish I had an electronic document of the whole thing, it makes for fascinating reading. I just pulled it out of my closet to compare notes after reading about the mission. Our RFP weighs in at 175+ pages.
Our proposal is very close on several key design elements. We proposed a 452kg spacecraft - damn close to the final weight. I see that the actual mission calls for a 2.1m dish, which is close the 2m dish I proposed using a total of 82W DC (including transponders, SSPA, etc). We designed the mission using a Delta rocket to lower the cost and achieve a decent altitude.
We figured a total of 200MB of compressed science data would need to be transmitted back to complete the objectives at the time. They don't seem to have changed much, so that means a minimum data rate of 514bps is required to transmit the data to one DSN over 6 months. Using two 34 dishes of the DSN gets an average rate of about 900bps.
In other words, I'm thrilled our original design has held up. We actually proposed a NSTAR ion engine rather than LTG's, but it's great NASA went with the LTG. You get a shitload more power, and that's awesome. Especially considering they missed the launch window for an ion engine.
Re:No way (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:I. C. Weiner (Score:5, Funny)
Al Coholic
Oliver Clothesoff
I. P. Freely
Jacques Strap
Seymour Butz
Homer Sexual
Mike Rotch
Hugh Jass
Bea O'Problem
Amanda Huggenkiss
Ivana Tinkle
Anita Bath
Maya Buttreeks
Eura Snotball
Heywood U. Cuddleme
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HO HO! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:How will the probe come back? (Score:5, Informative)
here's the wikipedia article [wikipedia.org].
Unless it has enough energy to leave the system, anything launched will eventually (after a long enough time) to Earth.
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Re:How will the probe come back? (Score:3, Informative)
The probe only needs to attain escape velocity of Earth's gravity to get out of orbit. It doesn't need to leave the system. It's quite possible for the probe to get captured by another planet, or by the Sun. At a certain point, the gravitational force exerted by Earth will be far less than that of closer and more massive planets such as Jupiter.
In truth, it is likely that the probe will never return to Earth, unless it has some means of propulsion and control to
Re:How will the probe come back? (Score:3, Interesting)
The probe will be launched into solar orbit. Perapsis (the low point in the orbit) will still be near earth. It will eventually come back round to this point, hence it will come back to near earth, even if not to it.
That doesn't mean earth will be at that spot in its orbit at the time, of course.
Everything in earth orbit is already 'captured' by the sun, as the earth is orbiting the sun. Anything that reaches escape velocity and leaves earth goes into 'heliocentric',
Re:How will the probe come back? (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:It seems kinda pointless (Score:3, Insightful)
What have you been smoking? Please tell us, so we can avoid it. It obviously burns way too many brain cells.
Re:This is idiotic! (Score:3, Insightful)