Ring of probes to get better photos

[Grimlock]

When i look at pictures from Pluto they are EXTREMELY blurry and not nearly as sharp as those from Mars, though when thinking on how long the signal with the pictures have to travel a little blurriness is to be expected.

My question is when sending a probe to the outer solar system why only make it one? Why not several they go to each planet then stop, then send the signal back to one another constantly boosting it so that the pictures are more sharp and in focus.

Is that something that can be done or is my idea of why the pictures are blurry way of and it doesn,´t have anything to do with the signal?

 

[Logic-Nanaki]

This is my understanding of why Pluto is so blurry. it's not because of signal-strength but because the dwarf planet is so small, and so far away from a lightsource that it's difficult to get a good picture of it. that's why we have New Horizon on the way there to hopefully get a better view of it.

the best picture we have is only a few pixles big and taken from Hubble, so signal has little to do with it as of now.
http://www.universetoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/hst_pluto_surface1.jpg
it's as of yet the only one i know of that has some sort of surface features

 

[nasher168]

A ring of probes could use interferometry to get a better picture, I think. If I'm honest, I haven't the slightest idea how it works, but I think interferometry is what the Very Large Array makes use of in order to get higher resolution images. So maybe a ring of visible light space telescopes could do the same?
Would be insanely expensive, though. I wouldn't envy whoever put forward the proposal to NASA or ESA's budget people.

 

[Master_Ghost_Knight]

A ring of probes could use interferometry to get a better picture, I think. If I'm honest, I haven't the slightest idea how it works, but I think interferometry is what the Very Large Array makes use of in order to get higher resolution images. So maybe a ring of visible light space telescopes could do the same?
Would be insanely expensive, though. I wouldn't envy whoever put forward the proposal to NASA or ESA's budget people.

If it is to be done with several probes it is not possible to be done with the same method as the Very Large Array. The interferometry is very good to resolve a particular signal from the background noise (with great directivty) and not necessarily good to tell which signal comes from where. In other words, it would be good to get the correct color for a single pixel but not necessarily any good to get more pixels. Hope that explains it.

 

[nasher168]

Ah that makes sense... thanks

 

[Loru]

My question is when sending a probe to the outer solar system why only make it one? Why not several they go to each planet then stop...

Because stopping at Pluto would need the same amount of fuel to send probe from Earth's orbit to Pluto. That's very expensive.

Rocket scientists are using term deltaV (change of velocity) to determine performance of rocket and dV needed to go to Pluto is around 20km/s. Additional 20km/s to stop at Pluto would need a rocket compared in size to empire state building with current technology.

(for comparison Earth orbit to Moon orbit transfer requires around 3 km/s of dV and look at size of Saturn V rocket)

Ps. Those a estimated numbers. I'll come up with more accurate calculations later this day.

 

[Master_Ghost_Knight]

Because stopping at Pluto would need the same amount of fuel to send probe from Earth's orbit to Pluto. That's very expensive.

Rocket scientists are using term deltaV (change of velocity) to determine performance of rocket and dV needed to go to Pluto is around 20km/s. Additional 20km/s to stop at Pluto would need a rocket compared in size to empire state building with current technology.

(for comparison Earth orbit to Moon orbit transfer requires around 3 km/s of dV and look at size of Saturn V rocket)

Ps. Those a estimated numbers. I'll come up with more accurate calculations later this day.

Well not necessarily with a slingshot manuver (to varying degrees depending of the conditions), that is what with did we the voyager.
But yeah, the problem of making missions like that is the proibitive cost. No sane person is going to give you that ammount of money unless the project comes with huge benefits.
Engineering is not limited to the function and performance of the devices you make, but also includes things like being able to justify the money you have to spend (and generaly that money is not your money).

 

[Loru]

Well not necessarily with a slingshot manuver (to varying degrees depending of the conditions), that is what with did we the voyager.

Data from New Horizon currently on route to the Pluto

It left earth at relative velocity 16.26 km/s.
After slingsot around Jupiter probe gained ~4 km/s

It will arrive at Pluto with relative speed of 13.78 km/s

Escape velocity of Pluto is 1.229 km/s so let's assume that 1 km/s is averge orbital speed in Pluto's orbit

So we have 16.26 + 13.78 - 1 = 29,04 km/s of delta V to reach stable Pluto orbit (it has to thin atmosphere to perform aerobraking)

New Horizons was launched on January 19, 2006, directly into an Earth-and-solar-escape trajectory with an Earth-relative velocity of about 16.26 km/s (58,536 km/h; 36,373 mph) after its last engine shut down. Thus, the spacecraft left Earth at the greatest ever launch speed for a man-made object.

To launch something to 29 km/s would require new quantum leap in technology aro to make rocket 3 times bigger than Saturn V just to send around 2 ton probe (with 20 ton of fuel for braking at Pluto).

That is why we have no probes around all the outer planets.