FAST MISSIONS TO PLUTO USING JUPITER GRAVITY-ASSIST AND SMALL LAUNCH VEHICLES

This paper gives a quantitative comparison of short trip time, direct transfer Earth-Pluto trajectories having launch windows in 1999, 2000, and 2001 that require Titan IV/Centaur launch vehicles with gravity-assist Earth-Jupiter-Plato trajectories having launch windows in 2002, 2003, and 2004 for the exploration of Pluto. It is shown that by utilizing fast, gravity-assist Earth-Jupiter-Pluto trajectories rather than fast, direct transfer Earth-Pluto trajectories, missions to Pluto can be accomplished with much larger spacecraft using much smaller launch vehicles. This will result in a major cost reduction and, at the same time, provide a major increase in scientific return.