Celestia Forums

Anyone else excited about this project? I think it sh'all be a good one.

You mean the Pluto/Kuiper mission?

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/

Oh yeah. Definitely looking forward to that.

Yep. I can't wait to see what kind of data it brings back.

HellAwaitsYou wrote:Yep. I can't wait to see what kind of data it brings back.

Unfortunately you will have to wait for another 10 -15 years for Pluto/Charon and the Kuiper belt, respectively

Bye Fridger

I sure hope it gets presidential approval. I'd hate to have to hate bush even more, you know....

PlutonianEmpire wrote:I sure hope it gets presidential approval. I'd hate to have to hate bush even more, you know....

It doesn't already? I thought it had got beyond the planning stages and was being built...

If not... well, it's likely screwed. With Bush's damnable insane and badly planned push for manned missions, this'd be just the sort of thing to get the chpo in favour of that. (of course, most planetary scientists are more in favour of a pluto mission than manned missions to mars or the moon, so it'd be the politicians and bureaucrats doing the axeing).

Evil Dr Ganymede wrote:

PlutonianEmpire wrote:I sure hope it gets presidential approval. I'd hate to have to hate bush even more, you know....

It doesn't already? I thought it had got beyond the planning stages and was being built...

If not... well, it's likely screwed. With Bush's damnable insane and badly planned push for manned missions, this'd be just the sort of thing to get the chpo in favour of that. (of course, most planetary scientists are more in favour of a pluto mission than manned missions to mars or the moon, so it'd be the politicians and bureaucrats doing the axeing).

Well that really just sticks in my--

The last that I had heard was that they were having problems getting the radioactive material for the mission. There were some issues about production not being able to meet the demand. That was quite some time ago, but it does give the impression that the mission is approved and moving forward.

mmarable wrote:The last that I had heard was that they were having problems getting the radioactive material for the mission. There were some issues about production not being able to meet the demand. That was quite some time ago, but it does give the impression that the mission is approved and moving forward.

Yes, the problem was the closure of parts of Los Alamos National Laboratory, where plutonium needed for the mission was enriched. But fortunately New Horizons got enough plutonium for its Pluto flyby, although possible additional KBO flyby was jeopardized.

You can read latest developments here.