Mapped out

Only 40 per cent of Pluto has been mapped, but it shows some distinctive regions

“It is actually possible to orbit the planet, use gravity assists from its largest satellite Charon, skate the system and then go

back to the Kuiper belt”

Alan Stern

for the price of 1.2, and it gives a comprehensive study of Pluto, the Kuiper belt and additional dwarf planets.”

This makes the proposals doubly exciting, though, since the new mission would bridge many knowledge gaps. New Horizons was only able to get good resolution shots of 40 per cent of Pluto’s geology and surface composition since it was flying by at speed. “Less than half of Charon was mapped and we barely touched the small satellites,” Stern says. “The same goes for surface composition and atmospheric studies, so what we will do is bring the three main cameras and spectrometers over from New Horizons to do a more through job of mapping every object and watching for variability. We know Pluto’s atmosphere is changing, and we’ll be able to gather accurate data.”

He also says New Horizons discovered that Sputnik Planitia, a high-albedo ice-covered basin on Pluto, is convecting, and that there are avalanches and cryo volcanoes. “We want to add new types of instrumentation including ice-penetrating radar called lidar to measure the depth of glaciers and other ice deposits,” he continues.