WASHINGTON -- The starting gun hasbeen fired. Teams of scientists, aerospace firms, as well as governmentlabs have revved up to compete in what should be called the Pluto 500 sweepstakes.

The race is on to reach the most distantknown planet in our solar system -- and do it by 2015 at a capped costof $500 million.

Plutois the only planet in our family of planets not yet visited by a spaceprobe.

NASA announced last month it was seekingproposals to develop the first mission to Pluto. That call was spurredby unacceptably large cost increases in piecing together the Pluto-KuiperExpress project at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena,California. The project had skyrocketed in cost to $650 million and wasstill growing. A stop work order on the effort was issued by NASA to JPLlast September.

While the cost of postage hasgone up since this stamp was issued, not so for a Pluto mission.

"We have heard the calls from manyin the scientific community in favor of open competition in our outer planetprogram," said Ed Weiler, associate administrator for space science.

But what really helped kick start thecosmic contest were private briefings to NASA by both Lockheed Martin Astronauticsand the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL). Thosepresentations underscored that Pluto could be reached less expensivelythan what JPL was advertising.

The upshot is that NASA now envisionsitself no longer at the mercy of one supplier of deep-space probes.

"Im very glad NASA has opened thedoor for competition," said Ted Nichols II, who manages the Savethe Pluto-Kuiper Express Campaign. "The fresh perspective could allowfor some neat new science to make its way on the mission. With competition,well see major differences in the price of each proposal," he said.

Science bang for the buck

It seems that rivalry is in for theouter planet.

Numbers of teams are reportedly mullingover various get-to-Pluto schemes, including JPL and NASAs Goddard SpaceFlight Center, Applied Physics Laboratory, Lockheed Martin Astronautics,The Aerospace Corporation, TRW, Boeing and Orbital Sciences Corporation.

Proposals are due at NASA Headquartershere on March 21.

"If we get viable Pluto mission optionsthat have robust technologies and come in under the cost cap of $500 million,well be extremely happy," said Colleen Hartman, NASAs newly appointedOuter Planets Program Director.

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Hartman told SPACE.com thatall proposals received will be scrutinized thoroughly and put through areality-check ringer. One scenario is that the teams of the two best conceptswould be provided additional monies to hone down their respective proposals.A final selection of one spacecraft project is targeted for August.

"Its an iterative process. But obviouslythe key is the science bang for the buck. What kind of science will beobtained for those taxpayer dollars spent?," Hartman said. "Science returnfor the dollar is critical for us. That is firm in our minds and wontwaver," she said.

Richness of nature

The Pluto-Kuiper Belt Mission, as NASAnow deems it, will explore Pluto and its moon Charon. Then the flyby probesays goodbye to Pluto. It keeps on trucking, going on to study smallericy bodies lurking in the Kuiper Belt, a vast region of space encirclingthe sun beyond Pluto.

"Pluto and the Kuiper Belt is absolutelyjust rockem-sockem exploration," said Alan Stern, director of the Departmentof Space Studies for Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado."Much of the evidence of the early formation days of the deep outer solarsystem is gone. Pluto and Kuiper Belt objects are frozen samples from thattime," he said.

Stern said that the lesson of planetaryscience is that every time we send a spacecraft to a new place, the richnessof nature surprises us.

"Its just going to be a humbling experience.I can say with confidence that when we get close to Pluto, its going toblow our doors off," Stern said.

The nuclear-energized Pluto missioncould be headed outward in 2004. Using a gravity-assist from giant Jupiter,the probe would then streak at high speeds through deep space for years,perhaps arriving on target by 2012.

This Hubble Space Telescope imageof distant Pluto shows little detail.

The buzz among proposal teams is thatnew propulsion methods for the Pluto-Kuiper Belt Mission might be advocated.A variety of advanced sensors to carry out science duties are under discussion.There is chat about dropping a probe onto Pluto as the spacecraft racesby the planet. Also non-nuclear power sources for the Pluto-bound craftare being eyed.

Noel Hinners, vice president for FlightSystems at Lockheed Martin Astronautics in Denver, Colorado, said castinga net widely to snag new ideas is a good thing to do. "Im always encouragedby competition as a stimulant to being creative and getting out of yourruts of the past," he said.

However, stuffing a Pluto spacecraftwith a lot of new technology can spell trouble.

Care has to be taken, Hinners said,about proposing new technology. "Finding that balance of using new technologyto get more bang for the buck, versus adding risk, is a good one," he said.

That balance appears to have been struckwith the companys building of the JPL-managed Stardust spacecraft mission.It is now en route for a comet rendezvous in 2004, snagging samples ofcomet material and interstellar dust, then hauling the goods back to Earthin 2006.

This is a test

"Our assessment is that we dont thinkthat going to Pluto is an exceptionally challenging mission," said StamatiosKrimigis, space department head at the Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel,Maryland. "In our view, this mission is quite doable."

APL has blossomed into a NASA spaceprobe factory of late. Its Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous spacecraft completesa one-year mission circuiting Asteroid Eros next month. The lab is nowbuilding the Messenger spacecraft that will orbit Mercury, as well as Contour,a craft to study multiple comets.

"The key thing is that you test, andtest again, and test once more," Krimigis said. "That is how you get longlifetime out of things. You also design with a lot of redundancy."

Competition for winning the Pluto missionis welcome news, he said.