There is no fabled final resting place like the elephants graveyard yet.
Curiosity landing site on Mars. |
I personally hope that it continues for many years, but the truth is that we're lucky New Horizons didn't get struck already by space debris - and given the prevalence of random stuff in the Kuiper Belt, the odds are stacked against it.
Image taken from here: |
Powered by Plutonium (ho-ho, almost funny), New Horizons is currently set to rendezvous either PT1 or PT3, (PT2 was eliminated).
The difference is that PT1 is smaller, but closer, therefore requiring less fuel, whereas PT3 is bigger but further away.
If the latter is chosen then the flyby is scheduled for 2019, at which point the fuel onboard should expire, and New Horizons will be freefloating.
Sadly for New Horizons, unlike the explorer Cassini, it will not be given a final blast of glory .
Cassini is currently tasked with photographing the moons of Saturn.
Cassini , should it last , will be repeatedly thrust through Saturns rings before plummeting down into its atmosphere at an incredible speed.,
A fiery send off in a blaze of glory, then.
Philae, the much beleagured lander on comet 67P may similarly go out in a blaze as the comet reaches its perihelion with our sun in August, erupting in a halo of ice and flame.
But New Horizons will just become smaller and smaller on the cosmic horizon, until, like Voyagers 1 and 2 before it, it's gone.
At this point, I should say that it qualifies as the first ever craft to approach Pluto system on a flypast, and its discoveries have been unrivalled.
And oh yes, I almost forgot - oops
There's also Curiosity, the Mars lander.
.
Still trundling around the hostile dust-bowl of the Martian surface, dutifully identifying different geological phenomena.
No spectacular ice flows or suchlike for Curiosity, no.
Just strata of quartz and such.
Curiositys progress. |
Perhaps Curiosity is harbouring a robot dream of becoming a museum piece, when Mars is colonised.
And people will come to visit,
With their bored children in tow.
There it will be, Curiosity, shiny and proud, if a little battered and worn.
Part of an exhibit showing the earliest unmanned pioneers of Mars.
Alongside Spirit, Opportunity, Sojourner and the wreckage of Beagle 2.
Mars Rovers to scale...image from ExtremeTech.com |
In fairness, quite a lot of wreckage, as Mars proved almost unassailable for many years.
But I digress.
Beneath that terraformed dome with its buzzing lights and hushed crowd,
I wonder whether anyone will wonder how things are,
back on Earth.
Earth from Mars. |