Celestia Forums

We have many 2k Pluto textures alternatives,but I didn?t see any Charon 2k texture.Why?It?s strange to see Pluto with 2k and Charon with only 1k.Didn?t you have data from Charon to a texture be based?

Daniel,

Sorry, I'm having the same problem. If I find a good medres texture, I'll let you know. Thus far, however, no luck.

Take care, Bob

Daniel,

Have been unable to find good Charon texture. It seems that even the Hubble telescope can get only poor quality pictures of the moon. Cheer up though... I read somewhere on one of NASA's sites that they intend to send an imaging probe to Pluto somewhere around the year 2012.

Good news, yes?

Take care, Bob

Actually the US congress recently cut New Horizons' budget by 50%... I don't think it'll ever actually get off the ground. Then agin, NASA are investing a lot in the JIMO and project prometheus, which will probably be more useful in the long run...

what is the "prometheus project"?
and JIMO is the project of sending a prove to Europa?

JackHiggins wrote:Actually the US congress recently cut New Horizons' budget by 50%... I don't think it'll ever actually get off the ground.

Okay, so I'll just have to wait until 2024 then...
That's okay, I *might* still be alive, and I'll certainly still have an interest in seeing the moon.

Thanks for the info Jack.

Take care, Bob

ElPelado wrote:what is the "prometheus project"?
and JIMO is the project of sending a prove to Europa?

Project Prometheus is a project that NASA launched last year (I think) to develop nuclear power systems for interplanetary spacecraft. Proper nuclear fission too, not just RTG's like we have on Cassini/Galileo etc.

JIMO is the Jupiter Icy Moons orbiter, which is supposed to launch in 2011. It will take 5 years to spiral out to jupiter's orbit, using Ion propulsion powered by a nuclear fission reactor. When it gets there, it'll orbit Callisto, Ganymede & then europa, before it's eventually killed by Jupiter's radiation belts (How ironic...) While it's working, it'll radar map all of the 3 moons, and send back ultra hi-res surface images. It might also carry a probe to land on europa, but i'm not sure about that...

Pretty cool mission all in all though!