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New Horizons probe is ready for wake-up call as it approaches Pluto
For eight years, a Pluto-bound spacecraft has been snoozing through space as it drifts nearly three billion miles (4.8 billion km) from Earth.
But it will soon be time to wake up the New Horizons probe from its long slumber, as scientists prepare it for a six-month encounter with the dwarf planet.
On December 6th, the piano-sized craft will come out of its hibernation to take historic images and data from Pluto – a dwarf planet whose appearance remains a mystery to astronomers.
There remain many unanswered questions about Pluto. The New Horizons probe (artist's impression pictured) hopes to provide some answers when it flies by the dwarf planet on July 15, 2015
Since launching in January 2006, New Horizons has spent 1,873 days in hibernation – about two-thirds of its flight time.
It has had around 18 separate 'nap' periods spread from mid-2007 to late 2014 that ranged from 36 days to 202 days long.
In hibernation mode, much of the spacecraft is unpowered; the onboard flight computer monitors system health and broadcasts a weekly beacon-status tone back to Earth.
'New Horizons is healthy and cruising quietly through deep space – nearly three billion miles from home – but its rest is nearly over,' says Alice Bowman, New Horizons mission operations manager at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.
The artist's impression shows the Pluto system from the surface of one of the smaller moons. Pluto is the large dwarf planet at centre, right. Charon, the system's largest moon, is the smaller body to the right of Pluto
'It's time for New Horizons to wake up, get to work, and start making history.'
On average, operators woke New Horizons just over twice each year to check out critical systems, calibrate instruments, gather science data, rehearse Pluto-encounter activities and perform course corrections when necessary.
Next month's wake-up call was pre-programmed into New Horizons' on-board computer in August, commanding it come out of hibernation at 8pm GMT (3pm EST) on December 6.
About 90 minutes later New Horizons will transmit word to Earth that it's in 'active' mode; those signals, even travelling at light speed, will need four hours and 25 minutes to reach home.
Confirmation should reach the mission operations team at in Maryland around 2.30am GMT on December 7th.
At the time New Horizons will be more than 2.9 billion miles from Earth, and just 162 million miles – less than twice the distance between Earth and the sun – from Pluto.
Top on the mission's science list is characterising the global geology and topography of Pluto and its large moon Charon, mapping their surface compositions and temperatures.
They also hope to examine Pluto's atmospheric composition and structure, studying the dwarf planet's smaller moons and searching for new moons and rings.
New Horizons' seven-instruments includes advanced imaging infrared and ultraviolet spectrometers, a compact multicolour camera, a high-resolution telescopic camera, two powerful particle spectrometers, a space-dust detector and two radio science experiments.
The entire spacecraft, drawing electricity from a single radioisotope thermoelectric generator, operates on less power than a pair of 100-watt light bulbs.
Distant observations of the Pluto system begin January and will continue until late July next year, with the closest approach to Pluto on the 14th of July. 'We've worked years to prepare for this moment,' said Mark Holdridge, New Horizons encounter mission manager at APL.
'Our team has done anything but, conducting a flawless flight past Jupiter just a year after launch, putting the spacecraft through annual workouts, plotting out each step of the Pluto flyby and even practicing the entire Pluto encounter on the spacecraft. We are ready to go.'
Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2834535/Almost-New-Horizons-probe-ready-wake-call-approaches-Pluto-historic-encounter-dwarf-planet.html
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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