re satellite around pluto mission in article apr aurora alaska edu nsmca aurora alaska edu writes is there a plan to put a satellite around each planet in the solar system to keep watch i help it better to ask questions before i spout an opinion we ve been progressing towards that goal for years now we precede any orbiting mission with flyby missions of course it gets harder to do as we work our way farther away from earth we re just starting to work out to the outer planets galileo will orbit jupiter and cassini around saturn how about a mission unmanned to pluto to stay in orbit and record things around and near and on pluto well first things first we ll do a flyby mission first since it is much easier and faster to do if the fast pluto flyby mission is approved then we ll launch a pluto mission before the end of the decade a pluto orbiter however requires a larger spacecraft and a longer cruise period orbit insertion requires more fuel has to be carried along and restricts the trajectory to a slower approach velocity to pluto i d imagine though that we would be doing a neptune orbiting mission before a pluto orbiting mission unless the pluto flyby turns up something really interesting ron baalke baalke kelvin jpl nasa gov jet propulsion lab m s telos the aweto from new zealand pasadena ca is part caterpillar and part vegetable
