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Why Didn't Voyager Visit Pluto?

Posted by timothy on from the personal-spat dept.

Flash Modin writes: NASA built the twin Voyager spacecraft for a rare planetary alignment that put Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune within reach at once. Originally, Voyager 1 was programmed to see Pluto in 1986, but managers targeted Saturn's planet-like moon Titan instead. That choice made Pluto impossible by vaulting Voyager 1 from the orbital plane. Interestingly, Voyager 2, which couldn't reach Pluto, made the case for New Horizons by revealing Neptune's moon Triton as a kidnapped Pluto. "I'm very glad that they chose not to go to Pluto in 1986," says New Horizons head Alan Stern. "We'll do a better job at Pluto with modern instruments than they would have, and they did a much better job at Saturn..."

4 of 98 comments (clear)

  1. Because titan has ice, pluto isn't even a planet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Titan has the possibility of extraterrestrial life, the finding of which would mark one of the biggest discoveries in the history of the human race and end all doubts that we are alone in the universe.
    Pluto is a cold rock on the outskirts of the solar system.
    Which one would you rather investigate?

  2. Re:No proof. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    So do you if you don't see the obvious humor.

  3. Carl Sagan thought Titan was more important by mbone · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Carl Sagan thought it was more important to get close to Titan, which made a gravity assist for Pluto impossible. I think he hoped that there would be good pictures of the hypothesized Methane seas, but in the event the Titan haze made the surface just a blur.

    What the close Titan approach did provide was a radio occultation of the Titan atmosphere, showing how deep it was and something of its structure.

    In space flight, as in life, you have to chose, and they chose Titan.

    1. Re:Carl Sagan thought Titan was more important by mbone · · Score: 3, Insightful

      There was one other thing that cinched it (IIRC) - the original mission goal for Voyager was to explore the Jupiter and Saturn systems (NOT to do the "grand tour"). For the planning for Voyager I, the mission goals hadn't been completed (as neither Voyager had gotten to Saturn at that point), and Sagan made a strong case that the mission goal should include Titan, and that the mission goals should be completed to the extent possible with Voyager I. When Voyager II came to Saturn, the mission goals had been met (by Voyager I), so they could take the gravity assist to go on to Uranus and Neptune on an extended mission.