Small-scale robotic
reconaissance mission that was to perform the first
flybys of
Pluto,
Charon, and the
Kuiper Belt objects. Little is known about these distant
icy worlds, and Pluto spends very little of its 250 year orbit in areas reachable by
spacecraft launched from Earth. The current
window ends around 2020. Unfortunately, costs on the small project have escalated, and the mission was effectively
cancelled in September, 2000. It was essentially beat out for the funding by the more exciting
Europa Orbiter project.
Presdient Bush's proposed 2002 budget for NASA gives no funding to the doomed project, but revives hope for a different Pluto mission. It appropriates funds for development of more advanced propulsion technologies, and hints at possibly accepting a new propsoal to send a craft to Pluto before 2020, provided a cost-effective plan is submitted.