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Scientists, including New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern, met in Houston on April 24th to discuss the possibility of a Pluto orbiter mission. The mission would likely cost $1-2 billion, compared to around $700 million for New Horizons and $467 million for the Dawn mission to Vesta and Ceres. A launch date in the late 2020s is possible, with a 2030 launch coinciding with the 100th anniversary of Pluto's discovery:
[A] Pluto orbiter mission is a long way from becoming reality, Stern stressed. He said he and his fellow researchers aim to mature the concept in time for it to be considered during the next Planetary Science Decadal Survey, a U.S. National Research Council effort that sets exploration priorities for NASA every 10 years. The next decadal survey will start in 2020, finish in 2022 and be published in 2023, Stern said.
Using the Space Launch System (SLS) could reduce travel time compared to the nine-and-half-year journey of New Horizons, but braking would be required to orbit the Pluto-Charon system, increasing the total travel time back to around seven to nine years. Other missions being considered include flybys of more distant Kuiper Belt dwarf planets (Eris, Sedna, etc.) and exploration of Neptune's moons Triton and Nereid, which are likely captured Kuiper Belt Objects. Triton has about a 14% larger radius and 64% more mass than Pluto. Voyager 2 observed 40% of Triton's surface in 1989.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 18 2017, @08:18PM (10 children)
It just seems such a terribly high price when we have to spend $TRILLIONS on national defense to shoot at noobs in pickup trucks in far away countries to protect $OUR_WAY_OF_LIFE. Namely, that the Lord Jesus is the One True Savior.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday May 18 2017, @08:23PM (2 children)
If we could put maneuvering thrusters on the SLS's first stage to allow it to drop and destroy a target in the Middle East, we could afford missions to all of the known dwarf planets.
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(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday May 18 2017, @08:35PM
While such thinking sometimes seems superficially appealing, it is ultimately counterproductive. Whatever means we would use to kill all those people might also affect OUR oil which is under THEIR sand*. If war is the means of US Policy to get OUR oil from THEIR land, then US policy planners should consider that war may be counterproductive to the policy goal of getting OUR oil from THEIR land. So I wonder if there are other ways to get them to give us OUR oil?
Or maybe we could become less dependent on oil. And coal. But this seems more like something for the Germany 85% renewables topic.
If we were ever to become largely energy independent, it would have global consequences.
* Someone here must see the problem with this assertion about ownership of the oil
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 18 2017, @08:36PM
Boy, now that sound expensive. Reckon we could cut some taxes and free up gun laws instead. How's them apples, boy?
(Score: 4, Interesting) by tangomargarine on Thursday May 18 2017, @08:48PM (6 children)
I mean, I'm a huge space nerd and all, but this mission sounds pretty marginal for the price. Don't we at least get a flyby of Jupiter or Saturn? Asteroids are interesting I guess but not $2b interesting.
Does a Pluto flyby realistically get us anything over just swinging by Ceres, or Neptune/Uranus? It's just a small, frigid ball of rock, and it's way the hell out there.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Thursday May 18 2017, @09:26PM (4 children)
Plus, since the summary doesn't outright state it, New Horizons already did a flyby and mapped all of Pluto's surface (plus whatever other instruments they threw at it) in 2015.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday May 18 2017, @10:42PM (3 children)
Not all of its surface:
http://www.space.com/32756-pluto-global-map-most-comprehensive-yet.html [space.com]
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 18 2017, @11:51PM
OMG U MEAN THERES MORE ICE??? SEND ROCKETS ASAP
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Friday May 19 2017, @02:47PM (1 child)
What part of this article is supposed to support your claim?
-1 Not In Given Reference
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday May 19 2017, @10:55PM
https://img.purch.com/h/1400/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5zcGFjZS5jb20vaW1hZ2VzL2kvMDAwLzA1NS8xNTkvb3JpZ2luYWwvcGx1dG8tY29tcGxldGUtbWFwLWFwcmlsMjkuanBn [purch.com]
There's the map from the article. As you can see, some parts in the southern hemisphere have not been mapped, and the features facing the spacecraft as it approached were mapped in greater detail.
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(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday May 19 2017, @03:43AM
New Horizons also got you [wikipedia.org] a grainy image of Asteroid 132524 APL, and imagery and data from Jupiter and the Galilean moons, including a volcanic plume over Io. Now that the Pluto data is in, New Horizons will fly by (486958) 2014 MU69 [wikipedia.org], becoming the first spacecraft in history to fly by an object that was discovered after the spacecraft was launched. That will take place on Jan. 1, 2019. It will also "conduct more distant observations on an additional two dozen objects".
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