pluto_reprieve_010724 A probe droid might visit the remote ice world of Pluto after all.
The Senate Appropriations Committee recently recommended that the Pluto-Kuiper Express (PKE) mission receive $25 million that had been earmarked for an alternative Pluto project.
It remains unclear what this could mean for a beleaguered plan to
send a spacecraft to Pluto before its atmosphere freezes solid for the next 200 years. The committee hasn't decided to fully fund PKE, but this $25 million breather could keep it alive until further funding is found.The money is being taken from the Pluto "quick sprint" plan, which was to develop some revolutionary propulsion technology to reach Pluto by 2020.
Plans to cancel PKE have met with considerable resistance in the scientific community. Pluto's unique orbit carries it further from the Sun than any other world. During the planet's 200-year-long winter, the planet becomes so cold its atmosphere freezes solid on the ground. In that state Pluto's atmosphere would be nearly impossible to study, some scientists say.
The deadline for getting a craft to Pluto before its long winter sets in is fast approaching. PKE was originally set to launch in December of 2004.
Pluto remains the last of the nine planets that has not been visited by a probe from Earth.
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