Why Is It So Difficult To Get To Pluto?
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Pluto is the furthest celestial body a spacecraft has reached, this dwarf planet is more than 6 billion kilometers from Earth, and the only spacecraft that has managed to observe it directly was New Horizons on July 14, 2015. However, this ship did not enter orbit around Pluto; he observed it once and continued on his way to the far reaches of the solar system, but why spend so many resources just for a straightforward approach to Pluto?
The furthest of all
For many years Pluto was considered the ninth planet in the solar system and the farthest of all. Located at the far reaches of the realm of the Sun, it seemed that it would take centuries for humanity to reach this small world. However, the first opportunity to visit Pluto came much earlier than most scientists imagined.
It was the year 1964 when the scientist of the JPL laboratory of NASA called Gary Flandro realized that between 1976 and 1978, there would be a gap of approach between the gaseous planets, so if a space exploration probe was launched on those dates, it could visit most of the outer planets using a series of successive gravitational assists taking advantage of the unusual planetary alignment that occurs almost every two centuries.
Shortly after, NASA launched an ambitious project called Grand Tour, which would be starring two twin TOPS probes . One of the probes would be launched in 1976 or 1977 to explore Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto, while the second would visit Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune.
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Credits: Ron Miller, Mark A. Garlick / MarkGarlick.com
Credits: Nasa/Shutterstock/Storyblocks/Elon Musk/SpaceX/ESA/ESO/ Flickr
00:00 Intro
00:48 the furthest of all
2:40 A challenge for the technology of the time
5:13 Sparked the spark of curiosity
5:50 Pluto's moon Charon
7:48 Missions that never saw the light of day
9:50 New Horizons probe-Pluto
#insanecuriosity #pluto #thesolarsystem