New Horizon flies by Pluto (Picture)
- Thread starter GK4Herd
- Start date
The most high resolution pictures will take about 16 months to get. I've been reading a little about this and what we have to remember is that this picture is being transmitted with ten year old technology at a distance of over 3 billion miles. That's more than 32 times the distance of the sun to the earth. The data is transferred at between 600 to 1200 bits per second. That's about 50 to 100 times slower than today's cable modem.
It's hard to believe that we can't even visit objects in our own solar system and arrive with our best technology. It's mind boggling to imagine how far away we are technologically from even visiting another (non sun) star. Our last technology into space, the space shuttle, could reach speed of a little over 17,000 mph. At that rate it would take us 165,000 years to get to the next nearest star system.
We have a long way to go.
It's hard to believe that we can't even visit objects in our own solar system and arrive with our best technology. It's mind boggling to imagine how far away we are technologically from even visiting another (non sun) star. Our last technology into space, the space shuttle, could reach speed of a little over 17,000 mph. At that rate it would take us 165,000 years to get to the next nearest star system.
We have a long way to go.
Well, when we launched it was the most modern technology. We've just advanced so far in the last 10 years.
It's like the theory that the first colonists we send to another planet will arrive to find an already established and thriving colony waiting on them.
It's like the theory that the first colonists we send to another planet will arrive to find an already established and thriving colony waiting on them.
I'd like to think they'd pick up the first guys on the way, or at least send them a "later losers" message as they sped past.
