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Space Science

Philatelists Push Petition For Pluto Probe Postage 79

Posted by samzenpus from the mi-go-mail dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "Space.com reports that an online petition directed at the USPS and its Citizen Stamp Advisory Committee (CSAC) hopes to collect 100,000 signatures or more by March 13, the 82nd anniversary of the announcement of Pluto's discovery as the New Horizons robotic spacecraft gets closer to flyby Pluto and its moons in 2015. 'This is a chance for us all to celebrate what American space exploration can achieve though hard work, technical excellence, the spirit of scientific inquiry, and the uniquely human drive to explore,' reads the petition. Whether or not the New Horizons team is successful in getting the USPS to honor their spacecraft's mission, the probe will have delivered a stamp to Pluto. New Horizons includes nine stowaways including one of the 1991 'Not Yet Explored' Pluto stamps together with other mementos including a Florida quarter, a small container with an ounce of the ashes of Clyde Tombaugh, discoverer of Pluto, and a small segment of 2004 Ansari X Prize winner SpaceShipOne, the first privately-funded crewed spacecraft. 'Why nine mementos? I bet you can guess,' says Dr. Alan Stern, New Horizons' Principal Investigator adding why he wanted to send one of the Pluto stamps on the mission. 'Pluto may not have been explored when that stamp set came out, but we were going to conquer that,' says Stern. 'I wanted to fly it as a sort of 'in your face' thing.'"
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Philatelists Push Petition For Pluto Probe Postage More

Philatelists Push Petition For Pluto Probe Postage

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  • What a waste... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Briareos ( 21163 ) * on Sunday February 05, 2012 @07:59PM (#38938011)

    Why would anyone replace the perfectly good "pertaining" with "for" in that subject?

  • Please do not forget that Pluto has been and always will be a planet and yes I'm aware of the current definition.

    Regards
    Slashdotgirl

    • Re:Pluto is a Planet (Score:5, Insightful)

      by ColdWetDog ( 752185 ) on Sunday February 05, 2012 @08:12PM (#38938079) Homepage

      Planet or planetesimal, it's just tremendously sad that

      'This is a chance for us all to celebrate what American space exploration can achieve though hard work, technical excellence, the spirit of scientific inquiry and the uniquely human drive to explore ...'

      The "chance" happens to be a frigging stamp.

      Somehow, I had hoped for a bit more.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Seumas ( 6865 )

        Instead of a strong space program pushing our species into space to fulfill that hope-filled drive to explore, we're going to give you a stamp.

      • The spacecraft is the example of what can be achieved by "hard work, technical excellence, the spirit of scientific inquiry and the uniquely human drive to explore ..." If it were easy, someone else would have done it, or even attempted it. The stamp is just a stamp. Get a clue.

        There's a lot of 'Hurf durf, the space program is no more. Our technical edge is gone. Oh, woe!' on Slashdot, and it really ticks me off. Hey, why don't you read a bit what NASA's been up to lately, rather than griping about how

    • Always will be...

      I dont think phrase that means what you think it means, as Pluto has no longer been a planet (according to our definition of 'planet') since a few years ago.

      • Once a planet, always a planet.

      • whom do you mean by "our". I don't have to follow some organisation's (IAU) definition of a planet which is disputed by plenty of reputable scientists. nor yours.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      What people don't realize is that in a short time, the new definition of the Solar System will contain 16 planets, not 8. Pluto will be "reinstated" by the few who incorrectly "demoted" it, actually they will be TOLD this and they will accept it or lose their funding, or be relegated to a future not in astronomy, as well as adding Eris, 2005 FY9, 2003 EL61, Sedna, Orcus, Quaoar, and Varuna. Proper names will be given to 2005 FY9 and 2003 EL61 of course. The rest of the Kuiper Belt will be designated from

  • With apologies to Monty Python... (Score:4, Funny)

    by TWX ( 665546 ) on Sunday February 05, 2012 @08:25PM (#38938123)

    Philatelists Push Petition For Pluto Probe Postage

    Don't practice your alliteration on me!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Nimey ( 114278 )

      If only we had some kind of missile!

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by sjames ( 1099 )

      Let me guess, you're a lifetime member of the American Association for the Abatement of Alliteration?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by TWX ( 665546 )

        At least I'm not a member of the AA-AAA...

        An organization for drunks who drive...

    • Philatelists Push Petition For Pluto Probe Postage

      Don't practice your alliteration on me!

      Alliteration poorly practiced pursuiant to pluto pissoff preview.

    • But they need to practice their alliteration somewhere. Ph has an "f" sound...

  • Good grief... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Frosty Piss ( 770223 ) * on Sunday February 05, 2012 @08:28PM (#38938137)

    Philatelists Push Petition For Pluto...

    I'm not sure what oral sex has to do with Pluto...

    • Have I I've swallowed a mouse, or are you taking the Mickey. If i'd had known it was that sort of a cartoon, I wouldn't have shown it to mum or dad.

  • Why? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by uvajed_ekil ( 914487 ) on Sunday February 05, 2012 @08:35PM (#38938163)
    Why should New Horizons get a stamp, and why not Cassini-Huygens, the Galileo probe, the Magellan orbiter, or MESENGER? The others all completed their missions and studied real planets, while New Horizons has not arrived at the minor planet Pluto yet. Get over it, Pluto fanboys, your boring little ice ball is not a planet!!!

  • Culture (Score:4, Interesting)

    by gmuslera ( 3436 ) * on Sunday February 05, 2012 @08:36PM (#38938165) Homepage Journal
    In 2015 we will be more aware that we don't have flying cars nor MrFusion than that we got near Pluto. When Doc Brown appears in his Delorean will be badly disappointed.

  • AAAAAA (Score:3)

    by djlemma ( 1053860 ) on Sunday February 05, 2012 @08:50PM (#38938213)
    The American Association Against Abusively Applied Acronyms has a problem with the title of this submission.

    • The American Association Against Abusively Applied Acronyms has a problem with the title of this submission.

      AAAAAA . . . Fat Albert is that you?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dissy ( 172727 )

      I wonder if they answer their toll free number with "Hello, you've reach the sextuple A! How may we help you?"

      I would sure love to hear the hilarious confusion that should ensue...

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Tablizer ( 95088 )

      Refer them to the Department of Recursion Department because they broke their own rules

    • This advanced application of alliteration is almost accepted to ask for an avalanche of aspirin.

  • The probe will be pretty much to Pluto by then, and it will be the 85th anniversary of the {dwarf}-planet's discovery. A nice round number that people normally reserve such celebrations for.

  • Something to replace commemorative stamps? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by DanielRavenNest ( 107550 ) on Sunday February 05, 2012 @09:03PM (#38938265)

    My personal use of stamps is down about 50%, as more of my bills are paid electronically. As more and more data replaces first class letters, postage stamps will soon be a relic. So what can replace them as a way to publicly commemorate an event? I recognize the Post Office will not vanish entirely, since we still need to deliver physical items sometimes, but those rarely use regular stamps.

    • $75 commemorative coins.
    • Don't worry, the post office killed off the stamp collecting hobby years ago. And the US mint is threatening to do the same to (commemorative) coin collecting.

      The post office kept making stamps for the silliest things and so the hobby died due to over-saturation. Perhaps we need to realize that not -everything- needs to be commemorated in coin or stamp format and keep it for the big things that happen.

    • So what can replace them as a way to publicly commemorate an event?

      Google's custom logos.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Seumas ( 6865 )

      I don't think I have used a stamp since the 90s and I could get by just fine if the USPS just made a monthly visit to my house, instead of daily. All they do is bring me crap I have to pay to dispose of (and it all DOES go into the trash on my way back from the mail box).

  • Rats, my snail mail is slow enough already (three weeks for a package from NJ to MD, by way of side trips to Florida and Virginia--maybe they got a slingshot gravity boost down there?). If my mail has to go to Pluto, I'll have to get relativistic to live long enough for my snail mail to get to me.

  • Thread titles with so many "P"s (Score:3)

    by AnalogDiehard ( 199128 ) on Sunday February 05, 2012 @09:30PM (#38938367)
    Keep it down with the "P"s, willya? My shirt is soaked, I had to wipe my face, and I had to disinfect my keyboard.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dissy ( 172727 )

      Keep it down with the "P"s, willya? My shirt is soaked, I had to wipe my face, and I had to disinfect my keyboard.

      Wow, talk about missing the rim by not keeping it down! That is some spectacularly bad aim sir!

  • Uniquely Human? (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Is the "drive to explore" uniquely human?
    I don't know.
    My chickens are pretty inquisitive.

    • Is the "drive to explore" uniquely human?
      I don't know.
      My chickens are pretty inquisitive.

      parent++

      We humans tend to think we're very special, and we are - we are more intelligent, we are more empathic, etc... but we cannot claim that we are the only ones possessing intelligence or inquisitiveness or even homosexuality.

      .... also, who cares about pluto. He lost his mojo long ago.

  • What if something goes wrong? Stamp will be egg on face.

  • The Post Office is losing money, do we really want to do this? I have a radical proposal. How about the Post Office printing just one stamp for each denomination. Once a stamp design is decided, NEVER change it. This printing up new stamps to satisfy stamp collectors is lunacy. If the stamp collectors want new stamps to collect why don't they hire a printing company to issue stamps just for their personal hobby. Yes, they will tell you that their hobby adds to the revenue of the Post Office. Does the

  • "...the uniquely human drive to explore." There is absolutely nothing unique about this. A great deal of the animal life that exists spends the majority of their time doing what could be interpreted exploring. From ants foraging for food to monkeys waving their arms running around in the jungle, nearly every animal explores. It is a fundamental behavior to many forms of life. Humans are actually much less likely to explore than other animals, since we live in dwellings with monotonously repetitive lives on

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