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They couldn't put an HD camera on this thing. Actually, I'm sure they could have, but a larger camera would have required a larger telescope in front, not to m
by hga 11y ago
They couldn't put an HD camera on this thing.
Actually, I'm sure they could have, but a larger camera would have required a larger telescope in front, not to mention the bandwidth issue. Elsewhere in this discussion it's mentioned that the flyby data will be stored in two mirrored 8 GB units and slowly streamed back home through November 2016 (we'll get some lossily compressed images earlier, although nothing until the fly-by is finished and the main radio antenna again points at earth).
So an 8.2 inch mirror, largest ever sent to the outer solar system, with a 1024x1024 bits CCD, which isn't bad at all, weighing in at 19.4 pounds and an average power of 5.8 watts (http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Mission/Spacecraft/Payload.php http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Mission/Spacecraft/Payload.php)
- Roboprog 11y agoSo, they essentially put in hardened versions of these: http://www.telescope.com/Telescopes/Cassegrain-Telescopes/Celestron-EdgeHD-800-Schmidt-Cassegrain-Optical-Tube/pc/-1/c/1/sc/14/p/9553.uts http://www.telescope.com/Telescopes/Cassegrain-Telescopes/Ce... http://www.telescope.com/Astrophotography/Astrophotography-Cameras/Orion-StarShoot-G3-Deep-Space-Monochrome-Imaging-Camera/pc/-1/c/4/sc/58/p/101473.uts http://www.telescope.com/Astrophotography/Astrophotography-C... (not quite enough pixels, but close) Well, something like those, anyway :-)