NASA's IBEX Ready For Launch 28
dj writes "NASA has designed a mission to map the boundary of the solar system. The mission is called IBEX (Interstellar Boundary Explorer) and it is ready to launch. The data collected by IBEX will allow scientists to understand the interaction between our Sun and the galaxy for the first time. Understanding this interaction will help us protect future astronauts from the danger of galactic cosmic rays."
The IBEX Launch Blog will go active "about 2 hours before launch scheduled for 1:48 p.m. EDT," and the Southwest Research Institute will be running webcasts of the event. The IBEX fact sheet provides more details about the mission (PDF). IBEX will reach space via a Pegasus rocket launched from an L-1011 "Stargazer" carrier plane. You can see the launch countdown schedule at NASA's site.
Powered by Ubuntu ... (Score:5, Funny)
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IBEX 35 [wikipedia.org] is the name of the Spanish stock market index. For a moment I thought NASA was issuing shares.
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Re:2 different airplanes? (Score:2)
Image above: The L-1011 aircraft takes off carrying the Pegasus XL rocket under its belly. Image credit: NASA
Image above: The Pegasus XL rocket is released from a NASA B-52 aircraft. Photo credit: NASA/ Dryden
That can't be right... (Score:1, Redundant)
I thought the title said "Ibis" for a second. (Score:2, Funny)
You EVE-fags know what I'm talking about.
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Regular blog updates (Score:4, Funny)
> The IBEX Launch Blog will go active
> "about 2 hours before launch
The blog will be updated every two hours until the probe reaches the edge of the solar system.
27 years from now.
sPh
Re:Regular blog updates (Score:5, Informative)
The probe is not going to the edge of the solar system. This is a remote sensing mission. The instruments measure the Energetic Neutral Atoms (ENAs) created through charge exchange at the boundary of the heliosphere and the interstellar medium. Its a cool/novel way to get data without the crazy cost of going to the edge of the solar system.
Amazingly it takes 6 months to make one image (one half an orbit of Earth around the sun)
Re:Regular blog updates (Score:5, Interesting)
The probe is not going to the edge of the solar system.
Yup, that's what disappointed me. I was hoping this'd be a new mission to out-race the Voyager probes in a few decades when it gets to the outskirts, but it's actually only going into a 200,000-mile altitude orbit above the Earth. Oh well.
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The New Horizons probe launched in 2006 to explore Pluto and other bodies is on a solar escape velocity and is the fastest man-made object to date. Eventually it will over take the Voyagers, however they do have a 30 year head start.
Although it can be said that urban myth travels faster and starts earlier, in the case of a certain manhole cover. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhole_cover [wikipedia.org]
Pegasus info instead of lame Wikipedia links (Score:5, Informative)
Orbital Sciences has much better information on the Pegasus [orbital.com] and its launch aircraft [orbital.com].
(Damn, I've got to do something with the L1011 and Pegasus that are sitting in my 'to build' pile of scale models)
subgenius (Score:1)
Gotta love the webcast (at least for Windows). A video camera pointing at a mac screen running quicktime. Hopefully this is just for the L-1011 liftoff...
Ibex? (Score:2)
Why would NASA want to launch a goat [wikipedia.org] into orbit?
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Wait! (Score:1)
I sense the impending loss of one of the greatest superhero teams of all time.