An image of Pluto taken by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft during a flyby of Pluto in July 2015 revealed the plains of artificial satellites (heart-shaped regions) and the smooth nitrogen plains of vast water ice mountains. (Scale: 35 miles = 56 kilometers). *NASA, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Southwestern Research Institute.
Cosmos Today examines the potential to send humans to Jupiter's icy moons Europa, Venus, and Saturn's largest moon, Titan, despite their respective harsh environments and distances. These conversations with experts in planetary science determined that, despite the harsh conditions and tight travel timelines, it is possible for humans to travel to these worlds in the foreseeable future, specifically to Titan.
But what if we sent humans farther into the solar system, farther than Titan?Here, we will continue the conversation with planetary science experts to determine whether the dwarf planet Pluto can become a viable destination for humanity in the near or distant future. Pluto lacks the harsh environment of Europa and Venus, but like Titan, the extreme distance could pose a potential concern for humanity to be sent to this far-flung world. So, should we send humans to Pluto?
I think eventually we should send humans anywhere in the solar system," Dr. Alan Stern, principal investigator of NASA's New Horizons mission, told Universe Today. "But today it is too early to send humans to most parts of the solar system, including Pluto, because we don't know enough about Earth to design such a mission. This is also far beyond our technical capabilities, and there is no need to spend so much money at the moment. But, you know, a hundred, 200 or 500 years from now could be completely different.
NASA's New Horizons spacecraft was launched in January 2006, becoming the fastest man-made object ever launched from Earth, as it won a staggering 1626 km/h (10.)10 miles per second) ejection away from our Earth. Although this incredible speed allowed New Horizons to reach Jupiter in just over a year, it still took eight years and five months to reach Pluto, fly past the dwarf planet on July 14, 2015, and reach within 12,472 kilometers (7,750 miles) of Pluto's surface.
This long trip is due to Pluto's great distance in the outer solar system. The average distance between Titan and the Sun is about 1.4 billion kilometers (8.).8.6 billion miles), while Pluto is at an average distance of 5.9 billion kilometers (3.7 billion miles) from the Sun and orbits in an area of icy objects in the outer solar system, known as the Kuiper Belt.
Dr. Mike Brown, Caltech's Richard and Barbara Rosenberg Professor of Astronomy and known for his social handling of @plutokiller, told Universe Today, "It seems clear that we are unlikely to send humans to Pluto, any other object in the Kuiper Belt, or possibly anywhere in the outer solar system." I'm assuming that no rational group has really considered this issue at the moment (and never will). Not that it's not a fun thing to do, but, just in a way that something will never happen.
Even with a direct flight trajectory to Pluto, our current technology would still take many years to reach its destination;Even an unmanned Pluto orbiter is estimated to take 20+ years to get from Earth to Pluto with today's technology due to the need for braking into orbit. But will things be different in a few hundred years, with more advanced technology?
Dr. Stern told Universe Today how Columbus couldn't have imagined the world today when he came to the New World, where people traveled across borders in just a few hours at a fraction of their annual salary.
But in the distant future, it could be much easier," Dr. Stern told Universe Today. "And because it's going to be easier, it's going to be cheaper. So if something like Star Trek happens, going to Pluto is like walking in a park compared to interstellar travel, and I think there's a lot of science to be gained from it.
During New Horizons' brief flyby of Pluto, the spacecraft acquired stunning images of the dwarf planet's surface, revealing a wide range of diversity, including smooth nitrogen plains and vast water-ice mountains. In addition to the data obtained about most of Pluto's nitrogen atmosphere, scientists have hypothesized that Pluto may have an internal ocean of water ice. While these findings help shape a completely different picture of Pluto than previous models, if we can send humans to Pluto, what additional scientific research can be done on a human mission compared to a robotic mission?
Anne Verbiscer, Ph.D., a research professor in the Department of Astronomy at the University of Virginia and an associate project scientist and co-investigator at New Horizons, told Universe Today, "The upside is that humans are more efficient explorers than robots, and there are countless drawbacks due to the technical complexity of Pluto's vast heliocentric and geocentric distances."
On the additional scientific side, Dr. Verbiscer told Universe Today, "Humans can perform some in-situ experiments that robots can't. However, there is so much that can be done and learned from robotic tasks, and (some of them) need to be done before humans can be dispatched.
This discussion comes as human space exploration from countries around the world** and the commercial space industry is expected to increase for the foreseeable future. Over the next few years, NASA's Artemis program aims to land the first woman and people of color on the surface of the moon, Axiom Space hopes to build the world's first commercial space station in Earth orbit, the China National Space Administration hopes to send astronauts to the moon by 2030, and as part of its Chinese lunar exploration program, SpaceX is slowly developing its Starship Heavy launch vehicle, with the goal of one day sending humans to Mars.