New Horizons prepares for distant encounter beyond Pluto (Daily Kos)

By DarkSyde
Sunday Nov 20, 2016 · 8:50 PM CST

When we last visited with Alan Stern, principal investigator for NASA’s New Horizons, it was 2009, and the little probe was barely halfway to its planned encounter with Pluto. I asked him then, in the context of a terrible recession and assuming we got any images back at all, what taxpayers were getting for their money.

Paraphrasing, he replied rather presciently, ”Jobs for starters—and good, high tech ones at that. But more importantly: we are expanding human knowledge to the edge of our solar system. This is what great nations do, they make great history ... [Y]ears from now, when today’s politicians are forgotten ... a student or teacher who opens a textbook and sees Pluto will be looking at images and data from New Horizons. I think that’s worth a lot, because it is a legacy for our nation and our civilization.”

Since then, New Horizons delivered on every one of those predictions. The encounter was breathtaking, the incredible high resolution images of Pluto and its moons are exquisite, and the data will fuel several fields of study for a generation or more. So we caught up with a very busy Alan Stern, who took the time to get us caught up on where New Horizons is now, and more importantly, what it will do next.

Come below for some space exploration Q & A, and a free-ranging discussion in the comments.



MU69 is barely visible to Hubble under extreme zoom, shown in circles as it moves over time. The background “snow” is random noise, the two brighter objects are faint stars.


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more: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/11/20/1591092/-New-Horizons-prepares-for-distant-encounter-beyond-Pluto