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Save New Horizons, the Pluto flyby and Kuiper Belt exploration mission (sopuli.xyz)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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To my fellow lemmonades,

As your not-so-humble moderator of [email protected] , I ask you to help save the New Horizons project which is threatened with shit-canning from NASA.

New Horizons is the probe that flew by Pluto a few years ago, that took the famous picture of Pluto's heart. It's also the only probe we have out there by Pluto and the Kuiper Belt, and the only one slated to be sent out for 20-30 years. For us millennials, we'll be in our 60's or 70's by the time they choose to send another if they're allowed to shut down New Horizons. Meaning we might never get to see new Pluto pics again.

Pluto's heart cries out for your love. For New Horizons's love.

Our cell phones the world over cry out for new Kuiper Belt wallpapers.

Our hearts cry out for more space content!!

Please sign the petition to save our probe so we can keep getting sweet, sweet Pluto and Kuiper Belt object pics.

Thank you for your time.

SIGN HERE FOR FREEDOM. SIGN HERE FOR JUSTICE. SIGN HERE TO MAKE SURE NASA GIVES US MORE SWEET SWEET SPACE PORN!

P.S. Pluto is still a planet; I don't give a flying fuck what NGT says

P.P.S. Here are some news articles talking about it. I might have already linked one but here it is again just in case:

Universe Today article on the problem

Phys.org article

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You implied that if we kept New Horizons going, that we would get more Pluto pics. I would love for that to happen however it is physically impossible for New Horizons to turn around to see Pluto. It simply doesn't have enough fuel to negate its over 10,000 mph (16,000 kph for you metric folks) speed relative to the sun and then accelerate to that same speed in the opposite direction.

The only place New Horizons is ever going is beyond our solar system which has tons of cool science involved by studying solar winds near the heliopause but unfortunately no cool pictures. Also, I am not a scientist but I am not sure what data gained from solar winds study would be new compared to what was already provided by Voyager 1 and 2.

If shutting down New Horizons means costs savings that allow a new probe to be sent to orbit either Uranus or Neptune, which haven't been visited in decades, I am all for shutting down New Horizons.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What? I thought it did. :( That actually sucks.

We would be able to get pics of other Kuiper Belt objects though, wouldn't we?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

If a target could be found along New Horizons' trajectory then it could be diverted to do a flyby and get pictures, but there currently aren't any known KBOs that NH could reach. That doesn't mean there aren't any, we just haven't discovered any that are close enough yet.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If Pluto is still a planet, do you also count the other dwarf planets as full planets? If you count Pluto as one you kinda have to count Eris as the 10th, but do you also consider Haumea, Makemake, and Gonggong to be full-blown planets?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I believe we have at least 13 planets in our solar system, counting Ceres, Vesta, and the other three big Kuiper Belt objects like Eris, Haumea and Makemake. If it's big enough to deserve its own damn name, and orbits the sun, and is at least roughly spherical in shape, it's big enough to be its own goddamn planet.

I am tired of being quiet about this.