Pluto and Kuiper Belt Exploration Group

Welcome to the future Kuiper belt missions community group!

The purpose of this group is to advocate as planetary scientists for NASA consideration of future missions to explore objects in the Kuiper belt, including as one possibility a potential return to Pluto.

Sincerely,

Jason Hofgartner, Renu Malhotra, Bill McKinnon, Cathy Olkin, Silvia Protopapa, Kelsi Singer, Alan Stern, Mark Sykes

To join the interest group e-mail list please send a request to Kelsi Singer [kelsi.singer (at) gmail.com] or Jason Hoffgartner [jdh346 (at) cornell.edu].

News items:

• [3-27-2018] A second workshop on future Pluto and Kuiper Belt missions was held at the Transneptunian Solar System meeting in Coimbra, Portgual. Thanks to all of the attendees for their input and the presentations (including ways to get involved) are available on the workshops page.
• [3-14-2018] A new white paper titled "Pluto Follow On Missions: Background, Rationale, and New Mission Recommendations" is available on the resources page.
• [11-6-2017] The first in-person PKEG workshop was held at the Division for Planetary Sciences 49th Meeting in Provo, Utah on Sunday, Oct. 15, 2017. Thanks to all those who attended and contributed to the engaging discussion about future missions. The slides are available for viewing on the workshops page.
• [9-20-2017] The first advocacy activity of PKEG (Pluto and Kuiper Belt Exploration Group) was a letter writing campaign that resulted in 34 letters from a broad group of planetary science disciplines. These letters highlighted the many reasons a return to the Kuiper belt would be scientifically valuable, and expressed that funding is needed for mission studies to develop architectures for a return to the Kuiper belt. The letters were delivered by e-mail to Dr. Jim Green (NASA Planetary Science Division Director) and also the OPAG and SBAG chairs, Dr. Alfred McEwen and Dr. Tim Swindle.