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Fast-Moving Spacecraft Could be Sent to Study a Kuiper Belt Object
A mission to send a spacecraft covering a distance of 20 astronomical units per year [space.com] could be used to explore interesting targets in the Kuiper belt [wikipedia.org]:
The proposed interstellar probe itself is a suggestion that's been kicking around for a while now. The idea is that the team could use existing and near-term technology, and rely on speed boosted by a sequence of gravity assists, to send a spacecraft racing across the solar system faster than any vessel to date.
[...] Once instruments are set, it's a matter of picking a dream destination — or several. [Kathleen Mandt, a planetary scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory,] and other team members have studied how potential targets will align, assuming the probe could launch by 2030 as desired. That means looking at a whole host of Kuiper Belt objects found beyond Neptune's orbit.
Take, for example, Quaoar [space.com], a Kuiper Belt object that's about half as wide as Pluto. Scientists have spotted the signature of methane on this object's surface [space.com], which could mean it still clings to a thin atmosphere. But scientists aren't sure how much Quaoar resembles its larger, more famous cousin.
And Quaoar is just one potential large target. "I would love to do a flyby of Eris [space.com], because it's similar in size to Pluto but farther out in the solar system," Mandt said. In particular, she would want to pursue planetology, investigating how Eris matches or differs from Pluto. She'd want to be able to answer questions like whether Eris has an atmosphere and what volatile elements are still at its surface, if any, she said.
Other possible destinations from this class of objects include Makemake [space.com], which has its own moon and is outshined in the Kuiper Belt only by Pluto, and Haumea [space.com], a football-shaped dwarf planet. For all of these worlds, a zippy flyby could tell scientists about the object's surface composition and geology, as well as whether the surfaces hides oceans.
