Alan Stern, principal investigator for the New Horizon mission, reveals his biggest surprise so far as the probe closes in on Pluto. (Recorded 12 July 2015.)
One of 10 studies sponsored by NASA to explore possible planetary missions includes one for a Pluto orbiter that also would venture into the Kuiper Belt.
There is no sign of an undiscovered moon lurking around Pluto in data streaming back to Earth from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, and that is surprising to Alan Stern, the scientist in charge of the probe.
New Horizons science team members give personal accounts of their work during the Voyager Neptune encounter and their new assignments on the Pluto mission.