New Horizon spacecraft has been traveling for 3 years now, inching closer to Pluto each year. New Horizon was launched three years ago (almost today) on January 19th, 2006.

The New Horizons spacecraft blasted off aboard an Atlas 5 rocket in a spectacular start to the $700 million mission. Though it is the fastest spacecraft ever launched, reaching a maximum velocity of 36,256 mph (58,010 kilometers per hour), it will take 9½ years to reach Pluto and the frozen, sunless reaches of the solar system.

The probe, powered by 24 pounds (11 kilograms) of plutonium, will not land on Pluto but will photograph it, analyze its atmosphere and send data back across the solar system to Earth.
The 1,054-pound (480-kilogram) spacecraft was loaded with seven instruments that will photograph the surfaces of Pluto and its large moon, Charon, as well as analyze Pluto’s atmosphere. Two of the cameras, Alice and Ralph, are named for the bickering couple from TV’s “The Honeymooners.”


The probe will rely on the natural decay of the plutonium to generate electricity for its instruments. NASA and the Energy Department had put the chances of a launch accident that could release radiation at 1 in 350. As a precaution, the agencies brought in 16 mobile field teams that can detect radiation and 33 air samplers and monitors.


Taken from: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10927034/

I think Pluto is such an exciting PLANET, and its all worth the money, risks, and WAIT.

All space exploration is interesting.

Is it a planet? I thought it was voted that it is not a planet anymore?

Regardless if it is a planet or not this is really interesting.


I hope we will discover something interesting about Pluto when the world's fastest traveler reaches it.

Knowing more about Pluto will help teach us more about how planets are created. As NASA puts it, there are so many planet "embryos" out there. It hasn't been disproven, but I consider it a planet...I mean having its own gravity & moon. But its lack of simular atmosphere of other planets does make it an oddball.

Go baby go!


PS. the new definitions of what is and is not a planet IMNSHO are idiotic.

One of the criteria of what makes a planet in the new definition is if it has cleared its "neighborhood" of debris, and objects such as meteors and asteroids.

The problem with this is that some "planets" have orbits that take them out past the asteroid belt and back, which would mean that part of there revolution around the sun would take them out of the planet status, and part would have them back in the planet status, this whole new definition thing is being reviewed apparently it was a single meeting that decided to go forward with it, and not all members of the group of astrophysics and astronomy community where given proper notice, so there is quite a bit of controversy still going around.


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This is totally off the cuff I am not an astronomy buff, or specialist this is what I read some time ago, anyone with some clarifications fee free to chime in.