Amy’s Humble Musings » Mission to Pluto and other important things

Mission to Pluto and other important things

Tuesday, Jan 17, 2006

Update: Launch scrubbed due to the wind.

First-time visitors to this site often use the Contact Form to ask me two things. The first is, Can you add me to your link list? (The answer is usually affirmative.) The second question is even more profound, Is your husband really a rocket scientist or is that just a joke?

Well, yes and no. He is a “rocket scientist,” but it is a tongue-in-cheek joke. Greg works on the Atlas V program, designing and programming the buttons that launch the vehicle. (Actually, I think it’s all software; hardware, gadgets, and blinking buttons are just in the movies.) While most of us think rocket scientists are white-coated guys with thick glasses who mix potions all day in a lab, my husband doesn’t wear a white coat, and he had Lasik surgery a couple years ago.

He also thinks that processing returns at Wal-Mart SuperCenter the day after Christmas might be a somewhat more challenging feat. Rocket science is not always, well… rocket science.

Those of us rusty on our calculus might tend to disagree. However, when I told my husband that I was teaching our son about Fact Families last week in math, he replied with puzzlement. It’s all in what you’re used to.

Today the Atlas V vehicle will launch the New Horizon’s spacecraft on a nine-year mission to Pluto. The launch window opens at 1:24 p.m. At the time of this writing (10:35 a.m.), all is on schedule. It will take the spacecraft nine years to reach Pluto. So, when you hear a passing news brief about the fly-by in 2015, remember the rocket scientist who helped get it there, and then, be extra nice to lady at Wal-Mart customer service. It matters.

New Horizons

9 Comments

Amy, I stood in line so long at WalMart to make an after-Christmas return that I made a new friend! I’ve been visiting your blog for some time and enjoy your witty take on everything from A to Z. Your contact form offer prompted me to come out of hiding as I’ve begun my own blog and could use the publicity! Congratulations to your dh and to you as well for successfully maintaining such a brilliant blog while fulfilling your Proverbs 31 aspirations. God bless…..Emily

Comment by Emily (January 17, 2006 @ 3:35 pm )

I saw the news that the launch is delayed =( Do you know when it will be rescheduled?

I also really enjoy your blog! I don’t remember if I’ve commented yet, but I arrived via Jamie.

Comment by Elizabeth (January 17, 2006 @ 4:33 pm )

Amy,

I just now realized we both have scientist hubbies. My guy is a microbiologist. He does wear a white coat and is occassionally allowed to do the potion thingy. Most of his job is pushing paper and supervising though. He would much rather play with auger than deal with people though. It’s much less complex. I look at that picture you posted and wonder what it would look like minus all the rockets and plus a few cows, chickens and guineas. Sorry, it is just a hang up I have. Hey, I know how about a compromise. Rockets fashioned in the shape of cows, chickens and guenias. I better go rest before I hurt myself.

Comment by KS Milkmaid (January 17, 2006 @ 5:33 pm )

I heard the news on the radio just now, coming back from picking up kids at school. I’ve never ever heard news on the radio about a launch being called off to wind and had reason to think of anyone in particular until now. Happy Launching!

Comment by Kelsey (January 17, 2006 @ 6:21 pm )

I saw the news that the launch is delayed =( Do you know when it will be rescheduled?

Tomorrow at 1 - something p.m.

Maybe you should see if your hubby can bring home some little object that will be traveling to Pluto and have a fingerprint ceremony of your own!

The plutonium might prevent such a thing. Oh, and that it’s about 250 feet in the air. :tonguerolleye_ee: We’ll remember that for the next launch though.

Comment by Amy (January 17, 2006 @ 9:08 pm )

Nice to hear exactly what a rocket scientist does all day!

The last time I heard one referred to was when my pediatrician friend encouraged me to use the stethoscope I’d been given after my little guy was hospitalized with pneumonia and listen to his lungs myself: “It’s not rocket science,” she said. (Sure enough, I learned what a wheeze sounds like, and congestion, and clear!)

You’re right, it’s all about what you get used to!

BTW, I’d love to be added to your list of links. As I mentioned before, I’ve been reading, on and off, since your nomination for Best New Evangelical Blog was announced on MOMYS!

Blessings to your family and on the launch.

Comment by At A Hen's Pace (January 18, 2006 @ 2:24 pm )

Hi Amy - I saw the rocket on the news last night and told my husband a little about it - and that your husband worked on it - now he says ” why do we need a rocket to go to Pluto anyway?” - I said I wasn’t sure so I’d ask you - Melissa

Comment by Melissa (January 18, 2006 @ 5:25 pm )

now he says ” why do we need a rocket to go to Pluto anyway?”

Because it’s a very long walk?

FWIW, my dh doesn’t work for NASA; he’s contracted to Lockhead, which built Atlas V. Atlas V is the vehicle that will launch the New Horizons spacecraft on its journey. The Atlas V has launched spy satellites, communication satellites, and other things; it’s America’s heaviest launch vehicle. Private and government entities “hire” the Atlas V to launch their spacecrafts and satellites.

Here’s a quote from Space Flight Now regarding the Pluto mission. Keep in mind that my husband works on the Atlas V, and that the New Horizons spacecraft is the “thing” in the news, not the Atlas V.

“Why are we doing this? Science is the driver. Science is the reason new Horizons is making this journey to the outskirts of the solar system. We think the study of Pluto, Charon and the Kuiper Belt objects are key to understanding the origin and evolution of the solar system.”

It is remarkable to remember that astronomer Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto in 1930 and that in a single generation - 76 years - technology has progressed from propeller-driven aircraft and steamships to spacecraft capable of reaching that distant world.

“Pluto was discovered in 1930,” Weaver said. “In 1978, its moon, Charon, was discovered. It has only been in the past 10 years that we’ve known about this third zone, a torus-shaped region surrounding the sun that we now call the Kuiper Belt. It’s only been in really the last 10 years that we’ve recognized that Pluto and Charon actually are more similar to these small icy worlds in the Kuiper Belt than they are to the other planets.

“All of those objects - Pluto, Charon and the Kuiper Belt objects - have been kept in a deep freeze on the outskirts of the solar system since the time of its formation 4.6 billion years ago,” Weaver said. “And for that reason, it’s preserved that original material from which the solar system formed and that’s one of the important reasons for going there. It’s really the frontier of planetary science, it’s a region we have never been before.”

Comment by Amy Scott (January 18, 2006 @ 7:36 pm )

why was it so important for clyde tombaugh to study or go to pluto in 1930

Comment by Anonymous (May 9, 2006 @ 8:43 pm )

Mission to Pluto and other important things

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