PLUTO-KUIPER EXPRESS

    The Pluto-Kuiper Express, a.k.a. Pluto Express a.k.a. Pluto Fast 
Flyby, is a small, relatively cheap project using sciencecraft. The two 
spacecrafts, highly miniaturized descendents of the present class of 
outer solar system probes, would break the recent trend of increasingly 
more complex and expensive probes such as Galileo and Cassini. Each of 
the probes, weighing less than 100 kilograms and using Titan IV/Centaur 
or Proton rockets, could be launched as soon as 2001. If launched on 
time, the probes would be set to reach Pluto around 2006-2008 depending 
on their trajectories. The flybys would be between 12 to 18 kilometers 
per second. Data would be recorded onboard and sent back to Earth. Due 
to the low power, small antenna size, and large distance, it could take 
a year for all the data to reach Earth. The probes could possibly 
include a CCD imaging camera, an IR mapping spectrometer, an UV 
spectrometer, and radio science occultation experiments.

Extended mission to Kuiper Belt

The goals for the Kuiper Belt extended mission are (word for word):

-The opportunity to explore a wholly new region of the planetary system;
-the mounting evidence that the Kuiper Belt is a region where 
 planet-building processes were arrested in mid-stride;
-the possibility that short-period comets originate from this belt;
-the emerging evidence that Pluto is in fact itself a Kuiper Belt object.

    Currently, the Kuiper Belt extended mission is not a primary mission 
goal. However, scientists believe that a visit to the objects of the Belt
would result in a great increase in knowledge. The Pluto Express mission 
is well suited for additional flybys and capable of returning data from 
distances of 45-50 A.U so the extended mission is technically feasible. 
In fact, the IA payload already specified for Pluto exploration is also 
suited to for the Kuiper Belt flyby. With its high-resolution imager, its
IR spectral mapper, and its UV spectrometer, highly valuable data could 
be obtained.

    The SDT believes that the Kuiper Belt mission extension would be 
scientifically compelling and publicly exciting. If the mission were to 
be extended, it would most likely be the only mission expected to reach 
this distant region of the Solar System in the next 15 years. Scientists 
are strongly recommending that NASA include the possibility of the Kuiper
Belt mission extension and to elevated to a primary mission goal.