New Horizons

[Rubberduckbandit]

You are all idiots this is CLEARLY the trailer for the new fantastic 4 movie, all that's missing is a star's core collapsing into a black hole.

[Procne]

tbh I don't see what the big deal is. It's not like we will learn anything groundbreaking and there are already 2 other probes which have taveled further away from the Earth

We might learn something groundbreaking. You never know. That's a big part of why things like this are being done.

There's also the fact that Kupier belt objects formed from whatever was there as the Sun was forming and haven't changed much since. Spectroscopy, measurements of the color and brightness of Pluto and Charon's surfaces, their geology or lack thereof, and the upcoming test of Pluto's atmosphere will all provide clues to the exact nature of Kuiper objects. Maybe that information isn't directly useful right now, but it might be in the future, and who knows what impact some future theory might have on us?

Mercury's strange and inexplicable orbit baffled people for 200 years after Newton's Laws failed to completely explain its precession. Then along comes Einstein's theory of Relativity and suddenly the oddness is completely explained, lending immediate credence to a new theory that changed a whole list of things in our daily lives. Gravitational lensing, also an astronomical phenomenon, was another thing used to test the theory. Einstein's theories weren't immediately accepted as genius, you know, many scientists thought they were a load of crap.

Ok, and?

I understand Americans have a certain weakness for their own space missions built up after moon race and all those sci-fi movies. But from my point of view there is nothing exciting about it. I doubt we will learn anything useful about Pluto's "Spectroscopy, measurements of the color and brightness of Pluto and Charon's surfaces, their geology or lack thereof, and exact nature of Kuiper objects" just from pictures. And even if we do there's no point in me following the subject until something important is discovered.

I'm not against space missions, NASA funding etc. I just don't think it's worth any bigger attention

[Dallane]

Poland cannot into space

[KruskDaMangled]

You can learn a lot from spectroscopy, and visual analysis, actually.

And yeah, we were supremely excited by that era of exploration, and hark back to it fondly and with nostalgia. It's one of the big things people talk about in terms of a new era we might aspire to, although we haven't had a president who made us believe it since Kennedy, mostly because they had other priorities. We would also like to seemingly be doing so well as to not find the expense of it such a big thing. (We have racial and social issues too, but Kennedy seemed like he was addressing those too, or would have. Also handled diplomacy and foreign relations really well, and against a "tough" Russian. And some people in the other party say Kennedy like it's a dirty word, or a shame! Sure, none of the ones alive NOW are as good as he was.. but still. It's like saying All Roosevelts are assholes after Teddie, and never giving FDR a chance.)

[HolyLight]

tbh I don't see what the big deal is. It's not like we will learn anything groundbreaking and there are already 2 other probes which have taveled further away from the Earth

We might learn something groundbreaking. You never know. That's a big part of why things like this are being done.

There's also the fact that Kupier belt objects formed from whatever was there as the Sun was forming and haven't changed much since. Spectroscopy, measurements of the color and brightness of Pluto and Charon's surfaces, their geology or lack thereof, and the upcoming test of Pluto's atmosphere will all provide clues to the exact nature of Kuiper objects. Maybe that information isn't directly useful right now, but it might be in the future, and who knows what impact some future theory might have on us?

Mercury's strange and inexplicable orbit baffled people for 200 years after Newton's Laws failed to completely explain its precession. Then along comes Einstein's theory of Relativity and suddenly the oddness is completely explained, lending immediate credence to a new theory that changed a whole list of things in our daily lives. Gravitational lensing, also an astronomical phenomenon, was another thing used to test the theory. Einstein's theories weren't immediately accepted as genius, you know, many scientists thought they were a load of crap.

There is a fine line between madness and genius. Most All theroys are considered mad at first.

[CottonMather]

Poland cannot into space

[TotalyMeow]

I doubt we will learn anything useful about Pluto's "Spectroscopy, measurements of the color and brightness of Pluto and Charon's surfaces, their geology or lack thereof, and exact nature of Kuiper objects" just from pictures.

http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/pluto-and-charon-shine-in-false-color

Hydrocarbons and Tholins is pretty exciting, if you're someone like me. And this is just a blurb aimed at the general public, it's not going to tell everything.

[vilkin]

[Rubberduckbandit]

Why do they bother going to uninhabited planets when they still haven't even been to the deepest end of our planets oceans? Its not that hard to attach cameras to whales.

[Heffernan]

Why do they bother going to uninhabited planets when they still haven't even been to the deepest end of our planets oceans? Its not that hard to attach cameras to whales.

or made world peace, or feed every children, or bring free clean water to everyone, or cure cancer or... etc...