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> New Horizons was the closest attempt at what you are suggesting in that they were able to aim for another body after the Pluto fly-by, but that was just luck

> New Horizons was the closest attempt at what you are suggesting in that they were able to aim for another body after the Pluto fly-by, but that was just luck in the alignments. An orbital mission to Pluto would be amazing. Maybe we can get its planetary status back. It is interesting and important to note that New Horizon's computers crashed for a bit as the probe was nearing Pluto. During the time the computers were down Horizon was scheduled to be scanning for as yet undiscovered moons of Pluto. If it had found a bunch more, perhaps Pluto would have already regained its rightful planetary status.

dylan604 2y ago
Compare how long New Horizons took to get to Pluto in a fly-by against how long it would take to get there at a slow enough speed to actually park in orbit. I don't know what those numbers are for the comparison, but my gut says it'd be a really long time. Maybe they could use some gravity assists to speed up the journey out to Saturn/Neptune, and then use aerobraking to slow down again for the rest of the journey??? I find the trajectories that they use for these kinds of missions very interesting. Even the Parker solar probe has a seemingly very complicated trajectory.
- tivert 2y ago
  > Maybe they could use some gravity assists to speed up the journey out to Saturn/Neptune, and then use aerobraking to slow down again for the rest of the journey??? Or an gravity assist at Neptune to slow down? Given their orbits cross it maybe it would be practical and relatively fast someday, but maybe not for a long time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_assist https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_assist https://www.theplanetstoday.com/the_planets.html https://www.theplanetstoday.com/the_planets.html
- dredmorbius 2y ago
  Outer solar system distances are large. Pluto occasionally orbits within Neptune's orbit, but can be up to about 1.5 times more distant (49 AU vs. 30 AU at aphelion). Which means you'd be braking with 40% of the voyage to complete, worst case. Your larger problem is that there aren't very many outer-solar-system planets, and their orbits don't align in ways useful to gravitational slingshots (for acceleration or deceleration) or aerobraking very often, as in on the order of many decades or centuries. The Voyager "Grand Tour" missions (launched in 1977, primary encounters from 1979 through 1989, both missions ongoing presently in the Heliopause) relied on one such rare alignment. Those occur at roughly 175 year intervals: "When is the next Outer Planet lineup (Voyager)" <https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/5075/when-is-the-next-outer-planet-lineup-voyager https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/5075/when-is-the-n...> Getting to Pluto is hard. Stopping at or orbiting it is harder. That said, there are at least three proposals for such a mission. One is a fusion-enabled pluto orbiter and lander (the propulsion system envisioned is still theoretical). Another a "hop, skip, and jump" mission utilising Pluto's own highly tenuous atmosphere for aerobraking. A third is called "Persephone" of which I have no further details on propulsion, though Wikipedia links several very vague descriptive articles. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploration_of_Pluto#Future_mission_concepts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploration_of_Pluto#Future_mi...>

dylan604 2y ago

Compare how long New Horizons took to get to Pluto in a fly-by against how long it would take to get there at a slow enough speed to actually park in orbit. I don't know what those numbers are for the comparison, but my gut says it'd be a really long time. Maybe they could use some gravity assists to speed up the journey out to Saturn/Neptune, and then use aerobraking to slow down again for the rest of the journey??? I find the trajectories that they use for these kinds of missions very interesting. Even the Parker solar probe has a seemingly very complicated trajectory.

tivert 2y ago
> Maybe they could use some gravity assists to speed up the journey out to Saturn/Neptune, and then use aerobraking to slow down again for the rest of the journey??? Or an gravity assist at Neptune to slow down? Given their orbits cross it maybe it would be practical and relatively fast someday, but maybe not for a long time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_assist https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_assist https://www.theplanetstoday.com/the_planets.html https://www.theplanetstoday.com/the_planets.html
dredmorbius 2y ago
Outer solar system distances are large. Pluto occasionally orbits within Neptune's orbit, but can be up to about 1.5 times more distant (49 AU vs. 30 AU at aphelion). Which means you'd be braking with 40% of the voyage to complete, worst case. Your larger problem is that there aren't very many outer-solar-system planets, and their orbits don't align in ways useful to gravitational slingshots (for acceleration or deceleration) or aerobraking very often, as in on the order of many decades or centuries. The Voyager "Grand Tour" missions (launched in 1977, primary encounters from 1979 through 1989, both missions ongoing presently in the Heliopause) relied on one such rare alignment. Those occur at roughly 175 year intervals: "When is the next Outer Planet lineup (Voyager)" <https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/5075/when-is-the-next-outer-planet-lineup-voyager https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/5075/when-is-the-n...> Getting to Pluto is hard. Stopping at or orbiting it is harder. That said, there are at least three proposals for such a mission. One is a fusion-enabled pluto orbiter and lander (the propulsion system envisioned is still theoretical). Another a "hop, skip, and jump" mission utilising Pluto's own highly tenuous atmosphere for aerobraking. A third is called "Persephone" of which I have no further details on propulsion, though Wikipedia links several very vague descriptive articles. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploration_of_Pluto#Future_mission_concepts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploration_of_Pluto#Future_mi...>