Artist's impression of the Pluto Kuiper Express spacecraft as it encounters the Pluto-Charon system.
Names
Pluto Fast Flyby (1992–95) Pluto Express (c.1995)
Mission type
Pluto flyby
Operator
NASA
Mission duration
Primary mission: 9.5 years
Spacecraft properties
Launch mass
478 kilograms (1,054 lb)
Power
228 watts
Pluto Kuiper Express was an interplanetary space probe that was proposed by Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) scientists and engineers and under development by NASA. The spacecraft was intended to be launched to study Pluto and its moon Charon, along with one or more other Kuiper belt objects (KBOs). The proposal was the third of its kind, after the Pluto 350 and a proposal to send a Mariner Mark II spacecraft to Pluto.
Originally conceived as Pluto Fast Flyby, and later briefly named Pluto Express, the mission was inspired by a 1991 United States Postal Service stamp that branded Pluto as "Not Yet Explored". The project brought on JPL engineers and students from the California Institute of Technology and, later, Alan Stern and other scientists from the Pluto 350 project. While the project was initiated in 1992, the project's development phase was lengthy, spending nearly a decade in the proposal and funding stage. During planning, the mission was changed to include a Kuiper belt object flyby and re-christened the Pluto Kuiper Express, after the discovery of numerous such objects beyond Neptune in the mid-to-late 1990s. NASA ultimately decided to cancel the mission in 2000, however, citing the project's expanding budget as the ultimate reason for the cancellation.[1]
After the mission's cancellation, most of the Pluto Fast Flyby team, including Stern, went on to develop New Horizons, a mission nearly identical to Pluto Kuiper Express, for NASA's New Frontiers program. The spacecraft was successfully launched in January 2006, after a financial standoff with NASA and additional delays, and went on to perform the first ever flyby of the Pluto-Charon system in July 2015.
^Kenneth Chang (February 13, 2001). "It May Be Now or Never for a Mission to Pluto". New York Times. Retrieved July 18, 2015.
and 26 Related for: Pluto Kuiper Express information
PlutoKuiperExpress was an interplanetary space probe that was proposed by Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) scientists and engineers and under development...
also a Kuiper belt object (KBO) flyby. The mission was thus re-branded as the PlutoKuiperExpress, after briefly being billed as PlutoExpress prior to...
of the Pluto mission". New Horizons was based largely on Stern's work since Pluto 350 and involved most of the team from PlutoKuiperExpress. The New...
orbiter cancelled PlutoPluto Fast Flyby NASA 2010 flyby cancelled Re-proposed as PlutoKuiperExpressPlutoPlutoKuiperExpress NASA 2012 flyby cancelled...
by Time Magazine. It was at the Lowell Observatory that the dwarf planet Pluto was discovered in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh. The observatory was founded by...
program were planned to be: the Solar Orbiter, the Pluto and Kuiper belt reconnaissance PlutoKuiperExpress mission, and the Europa Orbiter astrobiology mission...
Space Interferometry Mission (SIM) Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) PlutoKuiperExpress (PLUTOKE) – replaced by New Horizons Mars Scout program Aerial Regional-scale...
the PlutoKuiperExpress reconnaissance mission, and the Solar Orbiter heliophysics mission. To reduce the growing costs of the OPSP, the PlutoKuiper Express...
advanced, miniaturized HIPPS Pluto breadboard camera/IR spectrometer/UV spectrometer payload for the NASA/Pluto-KuiperExpress mission, and he is the PI...
Arizona, and formed the beginning of the effort that led to the discovery of Pluto 14 years after his death. Percival Lowell was born on March 13, 1855, in...
as Pluto (now known as the Kuiper belt), and some even farther away. Many of these shared several of Pluto's key orbital characteristics, and Pluto started...
(later Rosetta, without the sample return); Pluto Fast Flyby, a flyby of Pluto (later PlutoKuiperExpress, eventually realized as New Horizons); and a...
other objects at least as far away as Pluto, known as Kuiper Belt objects, or KBOs. Many of these shared some of Pluto's key orbital characteristics and are...
large, roughly circular mountain and likely cryovolcano on the dwarf planet Pluto. Discovered by the New Horizons spacecraft in 2015, it is located southwest...
spacecraft. A total of 18 minor planets (asteroids, dwarf planets, and Kuiper belt objects) have been visited by space probes. Moons (not directly orbiting...
of the asteroid belt; and Pluto, later found to be the largest member of the collection of icy bodies known as the Kuiper belt. The discovery of other...
announcement of opportunity that solicited experiments for Europa Orbiter, PlutoKuiperExpress, and Parker Solar Probe. The results of the studies on the Europa...
(minor-planet designation: 50000 Quaoar) is a large, ringed dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a region of icy planetesimals beyond Neptune. It has an elongated...
magnitude of 17.3, Haumea is the third-brightest object in the Kuiper belt after Pluto and Makemake, and easily observable with a large amateur telescope...
Neptune–Triton a double planet, since Triton was a Kuiper belt body the same size and of similar composition to Pluto, later captured by Neptune. 2006 definition...
explorers of the Underworld. Scientists and engineers associated with Pluto and the Kuiper Belt. Pioneering space missions and spacecraft. Historic pioneers...
Hotbird 6". NextSpaceFlight.com. Retrieved 12 November 2022. "New Horizons PlutoKuiper Belt Flyby". solarviews.com. Retrieved 12 November 2022. Ray, Justin...
as plutinos because the largest of the known Kuiper belt objects, Pluto, is among them. Although Pluto crosses Neptune's orbit regularly, the 2:3 resonance...
known as the Kuiper belt; an icy analogue to the asteroid belt of which such objects as Pluto and Charon were deemed a part, the Kuiper belt objects (KBO)...
planet's huge gravity. Similarly, Pluto may cross the orbit of Neptune, but Neptune long ago locked Pluto and its attendant Kuiper belt objects, called plutinos...
Percival Lowell's theoretical "Planet X"—which led to the discovery of Pluto in 1930. Roger Lowell Putnam was born on December 19, 1893, in Boston. He...
Global Information