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How big is 25 LM????

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How big is 25 LM????
Post by danpcman   » Wed Jul 02, 2014 5:59 pm

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As of today, the New Horizons Probe that is headed to Pluto is 3 AU away. That's what... 25 Light Minutes.

And to think we only have to wait another whole year for it to get there.

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/index.php

Ah my kingdom for Impeller drive.

Dan.

(First post. I registered just to bring this info to you.)
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Re: How big is 25 LM????
Post by WLBjork   » Thu Jul 03, 2014 2:02 am

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What's worse is that the probe cannot communicate FTL.

25 minutes to get information? That's too long a time...
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Re: How big is 25 LM????
Post by spacerguy   » Thu Jul 03, 2014 7:11 am

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Could be worse. The newly reactivated probe ISEE-3 is providing data at a blazing rate of 512 bytes per second. Even a dial-up modem is about two orders of magnitude faster.
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Re: How big is 25 LM????
Post by SWM   » Thu Jul 03, 2014 9:03 am

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danpcman wrote:As of today, the New Horizons Probe that is headed to Pluto is 3 AU away. That's what... 25 Light Minutes.

And to think we only have to wait another whole year for it to get there.

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/index.php

Ah my kingdom for Impeller drive.

Dan.

(First post. I registered just to bring this info to you.)

You misread it. Pluto is not 3 AU away--it is over 30 AU away.
[edit]Oops--just realized you are talking about how far away the Far Horizons probe is right now, not how far away Pluto is. :oops: ][/edit]
The mean orbital radius for Pluto is actually 39.2 AU, but it is a rather eccentric orbit. The perihelion is 29.6 AU, and it only passed perihelion fifteen years or so ago (the orbital period is almost 250 years!)

Pluto is currently 32 AU from the sun, or almost 270 light-minutes!

25 light-minutes (a bit more than the hyper-limit of a G-type star in the Honorverse) will only get you to the outer edge of the asteroid belt.

It's been said before--Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is.
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Re: How big is 25 LM????
Post by danpcman   » Thu Jul 03, 2014 11:49 am

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As I tried to explain to my children the other day..

At a scale of an inch to a million miles...

The Sun is about an inch across.
The Earth orbits almost 8 feet away and is spec of dust 1/128 of an inch across.
Moon is even smaller spec that circles at a distance of a quarter inch.

There's a Monty Python song here somewhere...
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Re: How big is 25 LM????
Post by munroburton   » Thu Jul 03, 2014 12:39 pm

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danpcman wrote:As I tried to explain to my children the other day..

At a scale of an inch to a million miles...

The Sun is about an inch across.
The Earth orbits almost 8 feet away and is spec of dust 1/128 of an inch across.
Moon is even smaller spec that circles at a distance of a quarter inch.

There's a Monty Python song here somewhere...


http://scaleofuniverse.com/

Try showing them that. It's fascinating to go back and forth a few times!
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Re: How big is 25 LM????
Post by aairfccha   » Thu Jul 03, 2014 1:25 pm

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munroburton wrote:http://scaleofuniverse.com/

Try showing them that. It's fascinating to go back and forth a few times!

Next Tab: Powers of Ten, also quite impressive.
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Time Will Tell. The Future Is Ours To See
Post by HB of CJ   » Thu Jul 03, 2014 3:07 pm

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It will take us quite some time, but eventually mankind will figure out what it takes to get quickly to the stars. What is so exciting about it all is that it all might happen much sooner than any of us can imagine. "Warp One, Mr. Sulu!" No ... wait .... wrong universe. Opps.

HB of CJ (old coot) Cm.
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Re: How big is 25 LM????
Post by Lord Skimper   » Thu Jul 03, 2014 5:24 pm

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Location: Calgary, Nova, Gryphon.

1 LS = 300,000 km

1 LM = 18,000,000 km

25 LM = 450,000,000 km
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Re: How big is 25 LM????
Post by Kizarvexis   » Thu Jul 03, 2014 6:35 pm

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danpcman wrote:As I tried to explain to my children the other day..

At a scale of an inch to a million miles...

The Sun is about an inch across.
The Earth orbits almost 8 feet away and is spec of dust 1/128 of an inch across.
Moon is even smaller spec that circles at a distance of a quarter inch.

There's a Monty Python song here somewhere...


I have done the planet walk three times with my children and even adults are in awe when you walk out a scale model of the solar system in both size of the planets and the distances.

http://www.noao.edu/education/peppercorn/pcmain.html

Easy to do and we used a playground ball and play-doh to make the planets. With a little bit of extra prep you can lay out the asteroid belts as well. At this scale the asteroids are too small to see, but are on average 2 ft apart.
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