There is no other way to explain this. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is guilty of gross planetary discrimination. Just wait ’til the Pluto lobby hears about this latest outrage.
Isn’t it enough that Pluto was nearly kicked out of the solar system by the International Astronomical Union less than two years ago for not really being a planet at all? Eventually the IAU came to its senses and bowed to the power of the Pluto lobby, but it was touch and go there for awhile.
Now, NASA has scrubbed the Pluto-Kuiper Express, which would have launched in 2004 and arrived at the distant planet around 2012. Only eight years from wheels up to baggage at the gate–an on-time arrival that would have rivaled the performance of some long-lost United Airlines flights from this past summer.
Apparently that’s not enough for NASA. The space agency insists it canceled this mission because of the cost, which has already risen to $800 million–from $500 million. But dig deeper and you will find NASA wants to spend that money by replacing the two Mars landing craft it lost and by launching a trip to one of Jupiter’s moons.
Mars and Jupiter. Mars and Jupiter. Don’t they get enough attention? This would have been the first mission to Pluto. Stuck as it is way out there in the starry, starry sky, it doesn’t get a whole lot of visitors. One measly little mission. Is that asking for so much?
So maybe it isn’t really a planet. It does bear more resemblance to the nearly 100 Trans-Neptunian Objects whose orbits cross Neptune’s (now there’s a real planet), something scientists have privately acknowledged for years. Pluto is the only “planet” admitted to the solar system in the 20th Century–okay, back when standards were lower. But it has been accepted as a peer now for 70 years. Doesn’t longevity count for something? And shouldn’t we go take a look-see?
Pluto just gets no respect. Maybe it has something to do with that dog with the big floppy ears who hangs with the mouse. Don’t know, but enough is enough.
