Will mankind ever be able to send anything to Pluto?
459073
We are NOW sending a probe to Pluto, but it won't get there for about a decade.
588448
Mankind will probably be able to go there, but it is quite far in the future - I'd say at least 20 to 25 years away.  Whether or not interest in doing so continues will depend on what is going on right here on earth, and whether we have the will to spend the money on the project.
122870
Go to the following website to get the latest news on the Pluto - Kuiper Belt mission:\n\nhttp://pluto.jhuapl.edu/
566008
yes.there is entirely a newly discovered solar system.there are 3 planets,all revolving around the star upilisone androemedae,and all of them are bigger than jupiter!and NASA has sent satellites which will go to pluto and beyond.hope we find the answers then!
774555
Pluto has been officially demoted from its status as a planet.\n\nhttp://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/headline_universe/solar_system/stories_2006/pluto_nonplanet_aug_2006.html\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluto\n\nExperts say Pluto is NOT a planet\n\nhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_5280000/newsid_5282400/5282434.stm\n\nhttp://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/news/story/0,6260,1333579,00.html\n\nhttp://hurricanes.nasa.gov/solar_system/science/pluto.html\n\nGood luck.\n\nKevin, Liverpool, England.
68752
what a lovely question! for sure the robot should be very resistant to the low temprature we have on pluto & the electronic parts should be able to work in such a cold weather.we should also consider the low gravity of that planet.maybe we have to use something different form the stuff we have today.i doubt if they worked on pluto!
1175485
Yes. Pluto has an eliptic orbit (not perfectly circular) which means that sometimes it will be closer to the sun than Uranus and therefore the 8th.
23405
There are still 9 according to the latests NASA reports. Although it has been found that there are several other small objects orbiting past Neptune that are similar in make up and size to Pluto- that pluto's categorization of planet will not be changed. That instead a number system is being talked about to go into effect that will number the bundles of pluto-like objects. Though again, pluto would not be changed. (First Source)\n\nIf it weren't for the stubborn desire to keep tradition- Pluto WOULD NOT be considered a planet, it just does not have the characteristics to make it one. But because tradition is very important in this society- Pluto remains a planet for now.
638314
The bassic thing we need for fire is oxygen which is not available on pluto, secondly the atmosphere over there is so cold that fire would lit off immediately.\nHence it wont explode.
474329
Pluto is far too cold to ever support life.  It is so cold, that when it reaces the more distant parts of it's orbit, it's atmosphere changes from a gas to a liquid and "rains" on the surface.\n\nAlso, there is not enough light to support plant life, the content of the atmosphere (even when it is a gas) is not right for animals to breathe and it's surface (and probably the entire planet) is permamently frozen.\n\nSo humans, in order to live on pluto, would have to use an incredible amout of energy to grow food, maintain a breathable atmosphere (in a biosphere type enviromnet) and provide enough heat in order to survive.\n\nPluto has no known sources of energy, and solar power is out of the question, so nuclear power would be the only viable solution.\n\nIt would be very expensive, and quite difficult to keep a sufficient supply of nutrients and water (although the water could maybe be made on-site) to support human life.
51284
You would almost certaintly need batteries warmed by nuclear decay. The rest of the structure would also need to be warmed, again by a nuclear core of some sort.  Solar panels would be a waste of time.  You would need to give it an extremely powerful, yet low energy computer and sensors able to take readings and perform calculations quickly.  Even the most sophisticated technology would freeze and become unusable very quickly on Pluto.  There are also violent wind and ice storms that would damage the equipment, but that also brings up the point that you may want to have a relay satellite in orbit around the planet so that messages from the surface (which would be distorted by the storms) can be reprocessed and amplified before being directed to Earth.
1173014
It could happen someday, but it's more likely that Neptune, since it's so much bigger, would just cause Pluto to alter it's path. Gravity bounce, or something like that. Paths can cross without an intersection.
822336
read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluto\n\ni don't know what you mean by "special", but pluto does orbit the sun, is ball-shaped, does not have an isolated orbit (a bunch of other similar bodies have similar orbits.), and is not a satellite so it is not a planet.\n\ni have been waiting for this since i was about ten.  i knew that pluto didn't fit the pattern set by the major bodies in the solar system so it was an anomaly.  it just felt "out of place".  now that astronomers have found hundreds of other bodies with similar orbits, classifying "134340 pluto" as a planet is even more irrational.  i feel somewhat satisfied, but i don't know how long this will drag on tho.  this was the right thing to do, believe me.  this does not change anything about pluto or the solar system.  this just corrects the mistake of classifying pluto as a planet initially.\n\nmany astronomers consider pluto and charon to be a binary system, but two small bodies orbit that system.  they are called nix and hydra.\n\nincidentally, "134340 pluto" was never a moon of neptune.  neptune did capture triton. this is why triton has a retrograde orbit.
231742
Non have as of this date, NASA either did launch a probe or is about too that will visit Pluto because it is the closest to the Earth that it will be for another 300 years.\n\nfound this link after I answered.
761604
all i can say is that NOTHING HAS CHANGED. pluto is still a PLANET. a full blown, fully acceptable PLANET. it has its own moon (Charon) and therefore its own gravitational pull stong enough to attract and HOLD ON TO an object over half its own size and mass. show me any other "asteroid","stationary comet" or even another "planet" capable of such a feat. however, just because ASTRONOMERS deem pluto lesser than it is, has no effect what so ever on ASTROLOGERS exept to piss us off.
399520
In order to get out to Pluto in the time frame it is going to do it in (10 years?), the New Horizons probe needs to be traveling very fast....Pluto is a LONG way out there.\nPluto is also a pretty small planet, and thus doesnt have tha strong of a gravitational pull.\n\nSo you have the combination of a very fast moving probe going by a small planet.  I would be pretty hard to get tha thing into an orbit....it would take alot of energy to due to (slow it down, put it into an orbit trajectory).\nThat energy needs to be supplies somehow, by means of some fuel.  That fuel has mass which you need to carry all the way out to Pluto to use, all that extra mass costs more fuel in order to lauch and accelerate out to Pluto.\n\nIt is probably a money problem, it would probably be too expensive and complicated I am guessing, but it could be done.\nAlso, NASA really likes sending thins outside of our solar system as we dont really know much about what it is out there on the edge.  If your going to go all the way to Pluto, why not go farther?
145121
no. The majority of scientists define the main requirement of a planet to be it's gravatational domination of it's surroundings; something pluto and 2003 UB313 do not do; in fact, both Pluto and 2003 UB313 aren't even the size of earth's moon. The main reason there is even controversy on this topic is because Americans were the ones who discovered Puto and the other icy rock and wanted to have some kind of historical placement in the field of Astronomy.