Funding Approved for Pluto/Kuiper Probe

azpenguin writes "While we discuss the acheivements of the now-silent Pioneer 10, Congress has apporved funding for the "New Horizons" mission to send a probe to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt. Space.com has the story here. NASA had actually fought the idea, but Congress approved the money anyway. Wonder if in 12 years (when the probe is supposed to reach Pluto) the public will be as fascinated with the pictures coming back as much as with the Pioneer and Voyager spacecraft." In related news, dalewj writes "Seems the team at JPL will discontinue operations on the Galileo Space probe to Jupiter after extended the mission three times. Galileo has been in space since 1989 and has some amazing findings and pictures available on the JPL website. Truly NASA and JPL's best effort to date."

Comments

Re:We dont' need a CHERYNOBL in space!

[spike hay]

VX [ilpi.com] vs. Plutonium.
Yeah, VX wins, but it doesn't hang around for 26,000 years. now if you excuse me, I just did a google search for "plutonium" so I have to go wait for a knock on my door. I'll send you all a postcard from cuba.

Hmm. I was under the impression that chemically stable compounds lasted forever. I thought that plutonium was pretty good just because it decayed. In 26000 years, the VX will still be there.