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Pluto probe swings by Jupiter »
Posted by: Wil 2 years, 10 months agoA small spacecraft en route to Pluto flew past Jupiter early on Wednesday, picking up enough speed from the giant planet's gravity field to shave three years off what would have been a 12-year voyage.
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Wil
I was a Propeller Scout, and I ran the Geeks Group. AOL sent me to the land of Wind and Ghosts, though, so I don ...
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Comments: 77
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Chunjinhao
Feb. 28, 2007, 8:21 a.m.PLUTO????
Is pluto STILL THERE? I heard that "big brain" removed PLUTO from our Solar system and it don't exist any more...
Oh please, do not teach me about Pluto, I know it is STILL THERE, but my question is: "How somebody can ad or remove something which was before we become aver it was there...?"
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jms4033
Feb. 28, 2007, 9:45 a.m.I wonder how much this project cost. And all the while, we still have homeless on the streets and children without medical insurance. . .
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Chunjinhao
Feb. 28, 2007, 10:04 a.m.Yes "jms4033" the Pluto probe will not bring any "better knowledge" how to build and create our own society to work the way Mother Natures provided us. That means for all her children, even us humans.
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LABELDUDE
Feb. 28, 2007, 10:26 a.m."The prospect of a liquid ocean increases the chances that life may exist on the moon."
HUH? I don't know why God would put little bugs n' stuff under the ice. Hmmm, I guess he has screwed everting else up so mebbe so.
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lehket
Feb. 28, 2007, 10:58 a.m.Yeah, Pluto is still there. I'm very much looking forward to seeing it up close, although I have to admit that I'll kind of miss the mystery. When I was young (back in the 60's) I was fascinated by Pluto precisely because it was so mysterious. As to the mission cost, the figure I've seen is $700 million, which is a drop in the bucket compared to what would be needed for many important social programs. Besides, space exploration gives people jobs. We don't bundle the money into the spacecraft and send it out into space. We use it to pay the people who design, build, and operate the spacecraft. Cut the space program and people are put out of work, where they then end up without medical insurance, etc. Space exploration is good for the economy and technological progress as well as for the soul.
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SCJDM
Feb. 28, 2007, 12:18 p.m.Were we to defund the war, which I agree was ill planned & ill timed, there is no expectation the money would be spent on the programs we are discussing here. The system doesn't work like that. $300 billion dollars, for the sake of argument, spent on the war didn't exist in the budget until George chose to spend it. This is a deficit oriented budget. If it weren't for the war, we would just be over budget less. Geoge wouldn't suddenly say, "Oh, here's $300 billion dollars, let's insure people!"
Consider too that life is more than just subsisting. Many moments we treasure were made by those who dreamt grand dreams. Science and art that makes us more human as well. For all those who decry these expenses, would you abandon their sports whose money goes to over paid, over hyped atheletes? Will you pass up your "must do" Disney vacation?
Will you actually serve lunch at the local soup kitchen?
It a sad sad situation and it's getting more and more absurd.
Jeff
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Twistoflex
Feb. 28, 2007, 1:38 p.m.It's remarkable how they can calculate the planetary orbits and the velocity and trajectories of the craft and effects of planetary gravity on it so it meets up with Pluto a few years hence.
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chickinlickin
Feb. 28, 2007, 6:28 p.m.If a society does not explore and add value to humankind, it is only existing. If you look at history those positive endevours remembered are the exploration of life, land (Now Space) and expanding the limits of human abilities. There is of course negatives like war and repression usually based on religious dogma or economic issues. The communist and totalitarian repression are usually derived from an initial attempt to help those in need. Only when we look out beyond our know limits do we achieve lasting benefit. Both to those in need and to our children.
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loquaciousrana
Feb. 28, 2007, 7:45 p.m.It is amazing that the more investigate about our solar system the more questions were encounter. I can remember still remember the pictures one of the viking probes brought back of Jupiter before it slingshotted out of our solar system. I forget the exact number of the probe, but the pictures and information it relayed at the time were outstanding.
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Rodkev
Feb. 28, 2007, 8:40 p.m.Maybe we could put all the able-bodied people on welfare who refuse to work or take care of their children and send them to Jupiter
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CJMAC
Feb. 28, 2007, 8:53 p.m.Status, space exploration, war, a very shallow thing to argue about! We are all called to be a servant to our brothers and sisters in whatever capacity that comes in. Do your part while you can and feel good about it.WWJD. Yes yes its all confusing, why this and why that. Its only going to get worse. Don't be alarmed. And how do I know this. The BIBLE tells me so.
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pismo
Feb. 28, 2007, 9:38 p.m.The fact that NASA spends the money they do which is really quite small adds vaslue to society. If it wasn't for them, we would not have many of the current technologies we use everyday.I only wish they were funded more. Eventually the things they work on today will benefit the rest of us.
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TreeHugginCommunist
Feb. 28, 2007, 10:47 p.m.Jupiter is practically an energy storm, at the surface atleast. Huge bands of air moving moving along side of eachother but flowng opposite directions creating a massive electrical storm. I always found it funny how unhospitable our world is, how little care, or thought is given to ALL lives, and forms of LIFE.
Our reality that we create, and the reality, the REAL reality of how special, feeble, and, frankly, god damn lucky we are to be alive on the third rock from the sun.
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rickcb
March 1, 2007, 5:40 a.m.It truly amazes me how many irrelevant comments were posted, and how war and politics seem to corrupt everything on these boards lately.
I for one feel that the money spent by NASA is perfectly justified. So many people ask what we are doing out in space, what are we looking for, how will it help us...
The answer is "We don't really know what we'll find, or what we may learn." We must allow for the unexpected discovery. We could find chemical reactions that would advance science by decades. We might even find life on another planet.
We just don't know, but it is worth looking.
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redwriter
March 1, 2007, 7:07 a.m.I do not know the name of that incredible item below my scope that I roll while the world goes by as I stare into it hour after hour.
The one thing I do know is that Pluto is just Goofy making me roll and tilt, which is normal if did not shake my martini.
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sotiris-k
March 1, 2007, 8:52 a.m.For all things the US ever did , great, irrelevant even horrible it would be sufficient to know they put a man on the moon for all mankind to say yes it was all worth it...
Think big never dare criticize investements in science unless only in relative terms and even then remember this ; all mankind ever did in history through religion or war is dwarfed by the child of 400 years of persistent analytical thinking you call science. Science is enabler of technology and prosperity and in the end the foundation of rational ethics. If there was only one thing to do as a society only one purpose to serve it would be just that and it would be enough to save it all . It would be enough to focus all investements in science and end up with a world of far less problems if you gave it a solid 100 years . It is that powerful and all that imbecile ignorant politicians and uneducated masses can do is delay the inevitable for it is the scientific revolution that will always dictate the future.
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