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Looks like a great proposal, but I don't see the point of preparing such a mission before we get all the data back from New Horizons. Once we have the latest data, then we'll have a much better idea about the kinds of questions that we would like an orbiter probe to answer. Already even with just about 2% of the NH data back, it turns out Pluto is radically different than most planetary scientists predicted. On the basis of the full data set, we'll have a much better idea of the types of instruments we'd need an orbiter to have in order to help solve these mysteries. So while the linked paper is a very useful proof of concept for an orbiter mission, and was in no way a waste of effort, actually building and committing to it and a launch in 2016 would have been a mistake.


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