# NASA Gives Green Light to Begin Building Pluto Probe **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 10, 2003, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-gives-green-light-to-begin-building-pluto-probe/167917 "2003-04-10T23:12:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2003, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-gives-green-light-to-begin-building-pluto-probe/167917/1 "2003-04-10T23:12:35Z")
The [planet](http://www.space.com/astronotes/astronotes.html), **not** the dog! > [@](#): > > Launch is slated for January of 2006. The 930-pound (415 kg) craft would arrive at Pluto as early as the summer of 2015. It will map the popular planet’s surface composition and temperature, as well as that of its moon Charon. The probe might then perform a flyby of a Kuiper Belt Object, one of many frozen comet-like objects in the general vicinity of Pluto’s orbit and beyond. A target for that flyby has yet to be discovered. Just 12 more years before we find out what the place _really_ looks like. (Be hysterical if _after_ the probe was launched, NASA found a faster and cheaper means of propulsion, and it turns out that we could send a probe to Pluto that’d only take six months to get there!) ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2003, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-gives-green-light-to-begin-building-pluto-probe/167917/2 "2003-04-10T23:18:25Z")
Micky and Donald are glad the heats off them for a while. * * * She told me she loved me like a brother. She was from Arkansas, hence the Joy! ---
**Author:** ![drewbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drewbert/32/15890_2.png) [@drewbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewbert)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2003, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-gives-green-light-to-begin-building-pluto-probe/167917/3 "2003-04-10T23:34:03Z")
'Bout damn time, too. Excellent news. ---
**Author:** ![DreadCthulhu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/db5fbb/32.png) [@DreadCthulhu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DreadCthulhu)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-gives-green-light-to-begin-building-pluto-probe/167917/4 "2003-04-11T01:26:00Z")
Now, I hope the Fungus there don’t regard this as an intrusion into their space. ---
**Author:** ![AzRaek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/azraek/32/16739_2.png) [@AzRaek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AzRaek)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-gives-green-light-to-begin-building-pluto-probe/167917/5 "2003-04-11T06:06:18Z")
…cannot…resist…any…longer… What about the probes for Uranus? ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-gives-green-light-to-begin-building-pluto-probe/167917/6 "2003-04-11T12:23:34Z")
NASA should have called it a probe for Uranus just for hilarity value. They’d probably get better funding, too, and the probe could still go on to Pluto after it was finished probing Uranus. Haha! See? This Uranus-probe joke would _never_ get old! ---
**Author:** ![Arden\_Ranger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b487fb/32.png) [@Arden\_Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arden_Ranger)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-gives-green-light-to-begin-building-pluto-probe/167917/7 "2003-04-11T12:26:55Z")
It would be pretty funny to see some stuffy politician making the announcement about probing Uranus. ---
**Author:** ![carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de0a6/32.png) [@carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrot)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-gives-green-light-to-begin-building-pluto-probe/167917/8 "2003-04-11T12:45:28Z")
[GWB]We need to probe Uranus. We must make sure that Uranus is not planning on attacking us with chemical, biological, or other weapons of mass destruction. The probing of Uranus is necessary to preserve our homeland’s security.[/GWB] ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-gives-green-light-to-begin-building-pluto-probe/167917/9 "2003-04-11T12:57:54Z")
Right… It never **gets** old. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-gives-green-light-to-begin-building-pluto-probe/167917/10 "2003-04-11T13:28:13Z")
> [@](#): > > The money allows Stern and his colleagues to proceed with final design of the spacecraft. Construction is slated to begin in the summer of 2004. That’s an awfully tight schedule - one year to fix the design and two years to build and test it? I’m glad I’m not on that team! ---
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-gives-green-light-to-begin-building-pluto-probe/167917/11 "2003-04-11T16:01:53Z")
This stinks. My husband is working the tail end of a NASA project that has been in the works for some 30 years and is supposed to launch in October. He just heard they might pull funding & scrap the whole thing and he’ll be out of work. What gives?!?! ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-gives-green-light-to-begin-building-pluto-probe/167917/12 "2003-04-11T16:13:52Z")
Well, pretty much everything stinks after it’s done probing Uranus. Okay I’ll stop! ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-gives-green-light-to-begin-building-pluto-probe/167917/13 "2003-04-11T17:13:28Z")
Maybe he can transfer to the tail end of the Uranus probing.