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posted by takyon on Tuesday July 14 2015, @06:00AM   Printer-friendly

Mission page at JHUAPL
Eyes on Pluto application

New Horizons mission to Pluto prepares for huge letdown on Tuesday AM:

On Tuesday morning at 0449 PDT (1149 UTC), the New Horizons space probe will make mankind's first visit to Pluto, and there will be much rejoicing; but we won't actually know if the mission is a success until much later in the day. At a press conference on Monday the team, some of whom have been working on the project for more than 20 years, explained that despite all the celebrations planned for tomorrow morning, the real crunch time will come at around 1800 PDT (0100 UTC), when the first signals for the probe are returned.

Update: New Horizons is expected to call home at 8:53 PM EDT.

NASA TV Schedule for Tuesday-Wednesday [More detail here]

Channel Title Time (UTC)   (EDT)
    Tuesday    
All Live Satellite Interviews with NASA Administrator
Charles Bolden on the New Horizons Mission
09:30-10:45   5:30-6:45 AM
All New Horizons Mission Celebration 11:30-12:30   7:30-8:30 AM
All NASA News Briefing on New Horizon Mission 12:00-13:00   8:00-9:00 AM
NTV-3 Live Satellite Interviews with NASA Administrator
Charles Bolden on the New Horizons Mission (Starts at 13:15am)
13:00-15:30   9:00-11:30 AM
NTV-1 & 2 The Year of Pluto – a Documentary 17:00-18:00   1:00-2:00 PM
    Wednesday    
All NASA News Briefing on New Horizon Mission 01:30-02:30   9:30-10:30 PM
All Live Satellite Interviews on the New Horizons Mission 10:00-14:00   6:00-10:00 AM
All Live Satellite Interviews on the New Horizons Mission 16:00-20:00   12:00-4:00 PM

 
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  • (Score: 5, Informative) by martyb on Tuesday July 14 2015, @12:11PM

    by martyb (76) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday July 14 2015, @12:11PM (#208845) Journal

    Although the New Horizons probe is rightfully receiving a lot of attention right now, I'd like to point out that it would be useless were it not for NASA's Deep Space Network [nasa.gov] (DSN):

    Sites: Each of the three Deep Space Network, or DSN, sites has multiple large antennas and is designed to enable continuous radio communication between several spacecraft and Earth. All three complexes consist of at least four antenna stations, each equipped with large, parabolic dish antennas and ultra-sensitive receiving systems capable of detecting incredibly faint radio signals from distant spacecraft.

    DSN Locations: The Australian complex is located 40 kilometers (25 miles) southwest of Canberra near the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve. The Spanish complex is located 60 kilometers (37 miles) west of Madrid at Robledo de Chavela. The Goldstone complex is located on the U.S. Army's Fort Irwin Military Reservation, approximately 72 kilometers (45 miles) northeast of the desert city of Barstow, California. Each complex is situated in semi-mountainous, bowl-shaped terrains to shield against external radio frequency interference.

    There's much more information on the site including descriptions of the 70-, 34-, and 26-meter antennas. To get an idea of just how much space science is going on at any given moment, there's https://eyes.nasa.gov/dsn/dsn.html [nasa.gov] — "Deep Space Network Now" which provides visual depictions of the various antennas and the probes with which they are communicating. Data on each antenna's operations (azimuth/elevation, wind, data rate, power level, etc.) are also provided. As I write this, comms are currently taking place with: Maven, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Dawn, Mars Express, Chandra, Mars Odyssey, Voyager 1, AND Voyager 2!

    So, go ahead and admire the images and other data that are received from all these missions, but also give a nod to the folks who make it possible for us to actually receive that data, as well as transmit commands to those far-distant probes!

    --
    Wit is intellect, dancing.
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  • (Score: 2) by paulej72 on Tuesday July 14 2015, @02:16PM

    by paulej72 (58) on Tuesday July 14 2015, @02:16PM (#208895) Journal

    It looks like Canberra has acquired New Horizon's carrier and is now sending data to the probe.

    --
    Team Leader for SN Development