Astronomers want to send a space ship to study Pluto
NASA astronomers have the desire of sending a space probe to the furthest planet in the solar system, namely PLUTO. Scientists have been working hard for years preparing their journey to Pluto. Pluto is today the only planet, which has not been visited with a space probe. The couple of last years, NASA has been preparing the program called New Horizons, which is basically the trip to Pluto. According to their arrangements, a little probe will be sent to Pluto 2006, and will arrive 2015 at Pluto after a journey of nine years. Astronomers say that they are now in a rush, because Pluto is moving away from the sun all the time, and the temperature is going to decrease that much that the thin atmosphere of nitrogen and methane, is going to frees into ice. Because of that astronomers want to study Pluto's atmosphere, it is a hurry to reach there. Astronomers have calculated and have noticed that Pluto's atmosphere would be frozen around 2020.
A idea of NASA's Pluto-Kuiper Express
Because of a lack of money, NASA scientists have proposed a low-cost investigation
mission to Pluto called "Pluto-Kuiper Express". The purpose of the
mission will be to gather atmospheric and surface data for both Pluto and Charon.
This would be done with two high-speed spacecraft that would fly by the Pluto-Charon
system. The mission goal is to reach Pluto around 2010 - 2015 before Pluto's
atmosphere freezes. A date for the Pluto/Charon mission is still under planning..
Spacecraft has never explored Pluto. The Pluto/Charon Flyby mission would give
humans the first ever close-up views of Pluto and Charon. If the Pluto/Charon
part of the mission is successful, it may be extended to explore an asteroid
sized object(s) in the Kuiper Disk.
