BOULDER, Colo., May 21 (UPI) -- Scientists fleshing out plans to send a robotic probe to the last unexplored planet in the solar system wrapped up a two-day workshop Tuesday, confident Congress will defy the Bush administration's cancellation of a mission to Pluto.
"We're proceeding full-bore," said Alan Stern project scientist of the NASA-funded New Horizons mission.
The program, which plans to dispatch a spacecraft in January 2006 for a nine-year journey to Pluto, was selected late last year and awarded $30 million of the estimated $430 million needed for the mission. This year, however, the president's spending bill for NASA for fiscal year 2003, beginning October 1, eliminates funds for the Pluto mission.
Managers are counting on supporters in Congress, particularly Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., who chairs a key NASA funding committee, to wrangle the $120 million to $165 million needed to keep the program on track.
Not funding the mission is a mistake, Mikulski told UPI through her press secretary on Tuesday. (It is "one that I hope to correct this year ... Pluto is a bargain at less than $500 million and given the scientific value and the unique timing (of the mission) we would be missing a historic opportunity."
Scientists want the probe to reach Pluto before the planet moves farther away from the sun and its atmosphere freezes.
NASA claims it can reach Pluto in time by developing nuclear propulsion to power a spacecraft. Scientists, however, are skeptical a new propulsion system can be designed, tested and flown on a probe before 2015, when the New Horizons mission would reach the ninth planet.
Pluto, which is about 3 billion miles from Earth, is the only planet in the solar system that has not been directly observed by a robotic probe.
"This is a fascinating region of space," said Andrew Cheng, with John Hopkins' Applied Physics Laboratory in Baltimore. "It's full of small, icy, dirty and rocky objects that started to build into planets but, for some mysterious reason, stopped in mid-stride."
Pluto supporters' efforts may be buoyed by an upcoming National Academy of Sciences report to rank space science initiatives.
"This year very likely will be pivotal for the mission," said Stern. "By mid-summer, it should all be settled."
With funding continuing through Sept. 30 at least, NASA has been holding key systems and design reviews and even replaced the old plutonium in a generator earmarked for the New Horizons mission.
"We can't approach this mission as tentative," said Stern.
(Reported by Irene Brown at Cape Canaveral, Fla.)
