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joedrew | 10 years ago

Pluto in particular would be a problem, though, because it is a) very small, and b) very far away. In order to get there in a realistic time, your probe has to be going _very quickly_; in order to stay in Pluto orbit, the probe has to be going _very slowly_.

So, unfortunately, to stay in Pluto orbit, either you carry a lot of fuel with you to slow down (which makes launch incredibly difficult, because you need more fuel to accelerate the fuel you need to slow down, and then you need more fuel to accelerate _that_ fuel, and so on), or you wait a long time to get there.

The bigger, closer planets and planetoids, though, will see a lot more exploration as the cost of launch decreases.

discuss

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blacksmythe|10 years ago

>> to stay in Pluto orbit, either you carry a lot of fuel with you to slow down

Gravity assist can be used often used to speed up a spacecraft, but can also be used to slow it down.

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_assist
In addition, atmospheric drag can also be used to slow down a spacecraft passing a planet.

eastbayjake|10 years ago

While both of those statements are true, Pluto is too small and its atmosphere is too thin for either of those approaches to slow down a probe enough.

venomsnake|10 years ago

Or you send some self replicating stuff on the moon, build some factories and solar panels, and build and launch robots from there. We have the technology to do this right now if we are willing to put the money. And if we polish the moon we could beam excess energy to earth.

justinpombrio|10 years ago

> Or you send some self replicating stuff on the moon [...] > We have the technology to do this right now

Do we? Self-replicating robots would be very exciting, even on Earth, but I thought we weren't close to being able to make them. Do you have a citation/link?

japhyr|10 years ago

What do you mean by "polish the moon"?