What would it be like to perform a landing on Pluto? NASA has the answer thanks to the New Horizons spacecraft.
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Pluto Landing Simulation
The New Horizons spacecraft did not land on Pluto, but the pictures it took enabled NASA to put together a simulation of a landing on Pluto.
Two Minute YouTube Video From NASA
New Horizons Spacecraft
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Payload Description from NASA's Page on the New Horizons Spacecraft
The spacecraft launched on 19 January 2006 from Cape Canaveral in Florida to begin its mission to Pluto.
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Pluto
After 9.5 years the New Horizons spacecraft had Pluto within sight. The spacecraft had traveled over 3 billion miles to Pluto. On 14 July 2015 it passed by Pluto and its moons. The spacecraft got within 7,800 miles of Pluto sending back hundreds of images. With its cameras showing features smaller than a football field the spacecraft revealed the surface of Pluto.
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The New Horizons spacecraft made multiple discoveries of mountains and moons and flowing ices on Pluto.
On to the Kuiper Belt Objects
The Kuiper Belt was speculated to exist by the Dutch-American astronomer Gerard Kuiper in the 1950's.
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The next mission for the New Horizons spacecraft is objects in the Kuiper Belt. The Kuiper Belt is a region of space beyond the orbit of Neptune extending 30 to 55 astronomical units (AU) away from the sun. The Kuiper Belt is thought to contain trillions of objects with some larger than 62 miles across. And some of the objects in the Kuiper Belt could be a comet or become a comet.
Sources and Full Articles
This Is the Closest You’ll Get to Pluto For Now, MOTHERBOARD, 24 January 2017
New Horizons, NASA
What We Know: The Kuiper Belt, New Horizons