The Next Pluto Mission—An Orbiter And Lander?
Thu, 04/27/2017 - 2:03pm
by Nancy Atkinson, Universe Today

For decades, we could only imagine what the view of Pluto's surface might be. Now, we have the real thing.

The images and data from the New Horizons' mission flyby of Pluto in July 2015 showed us an unexpectedly stunning and geologically active world. Scientists have used words like 'magical,' 'breathtaking' and 'scientific wonderland' to describe the long-awaited close-up views of distant Pluto.

Even though scientists are still analyzing the data from New Horizons, ideas are starting to formulate about sending another spacecraft to Pluto, but with a long-term orbiter mission instead of a quick flyby.

"The next appropriate mission to Pluto is an orbiter, maybe equipped with a lander if we had enough funding to do both," New Horizons' principal investigator Alan Stern told Universe Today in March.

This week, Stern has shared on social media that the New Horizons' science team is meeting. But, separately, another group is starting to talk about a possible next mission to Pluto.

But getting a spacecraft to the outer regions of our solar system as fast as possible provides challenges, particularly in being able to slow down enough to enable going into orbit around Pluto. For the speedy and lightweight New Horizons, an orbital mission was