NASA’s last Pluto mission called the New Horizons mission taught us a lot about Pluto, the ice dwarf planet. But the spacecraft went past Pluto so quickly, that it got only images of one side of the planet, the so-called “encounter side.” New Horizons was good but we need something better to understand Pluto. The next step is clearly an orbiter, that can move around Pluto and stay there for a while. NASA has given the Southwest Research Institute funding to start developing the idea and is one of 10 approved by NASA in advance of the next Planetary Science Decadal Survey.
William Henry Gates III is an American business magnate, investor, author, philanthropist, and humanitarian. He is best known as the principal founder of Microsoft Corporation.
