Will the New Horizons mission bring Pluto back to planet status?

[Jer95]

Could NASA just abort the mission or just skip pluto and go to the Kuiper belt?

 

[tl8]

Could NASA just abort the mission or just skip pluto and go to the Kuiper belt?

Why would they want to do that?

Just because Pluto isn't a planet any more doesn't mean we know any more about it. There is still loads of good science to be had.

 

[Quick_Nick]

Could NASA just abort the mission or just skip pluto and go to the Kuiper belt?

Where do you think Pluto is?

 

[ijuin]

Not to mention that New Horizons is pretty much committed to its flight trajectory, since it lacks sufficient propulsion/fuel to alter it much.

 

[RisingFury]

Could NASA just abort the mission or just skip pluto and go to the Kuiper belt?

Yay! Let's design a spacecraft bound for Pluto and then skip Pluto


Pluto flyby will happen. Even though it's not a planet, it's still by far the most interesting body in the Kuiper belt. Besides, the sling around Pluto will enable the mission planners to put it onto a trajectory for at least one more Kupier belt object - if a proper target it selected in time. All the other big ones are out of reach right now.

 

[pattersoncr]

I remember reading an article back when the dwarf planet decision came out. It advanced the position that it doesn't matter if we arbitrarily say that Pluto is a planet while similar bodies (Ceres, KBO's, etc.) are not. The article made the comparison to continents on Earth. After all it is impossible to write a definition for continent that will yield the list of seven continents we all learned in school and no others. (i.e. Europe & Asia as separate continents, Australia is a continent but Madagascar isn't, etc.) I'm pretty ambivalent as to Pluto's status, but I thought the article made an interesting point.

 

[Ark]

I wouldn't criticize the Greeks' approach.

They may not take it kindly.

"IT'S...A...PLANET!"

 

[n122vu]

Pluto is not a planet. It's just a rock that Jack Bauer hit with a baseball bat in is back yard when he was a kid.