It would be an absolutely great move!

[The most exciting candidate trajectory we have identified so far for New Horizons II takes it to the Kuiper Belt via a fast trajectory that involves both Jupiter and Uranus flybys on the way.

This exciting trajectory initiates its KBO flybys with a mammoth (400-to-500 km sized) Kuiper Belt binary called 1999 TC36. "TC36" is almost 10 times bigger than any KBO NH I can possibly reach after Pluto-Charon; even TC36’s satellite is more than twice as large as any KBOs NH I can target! After TC36, NH II would go on to explore one or two additional, smaller KBOs.

This trajectory would flyby a total of three or four KBOs, far more than the zero to one KBOs that can be reconnoitered by New Horizons I alone, owing to the well known power supply fueling problems New Horizons I has been saddled with.

The Senate specifically recognized this point and noted that New Horizons II is needed to satisfy the key goal of the Planetary Decadal Survey with regard to Kuiper Belt exploration—to sample the diversity of bodies in the Belt (e.g., big and small, with and without satellites, etc.).

New Horizons II’s Uranus 2014 flyby follow up to Voyager’s Uranus system explorations 30 years previously will be a stunning exploration accomplishment its own right—and again something only the United States can do.

Beyond bringing far more sophisticated remote sensing instruments and a dust detector to the Uranian system, New Horizons II can arrive near the time of Uranus’s equinox, a geometry that allows all of the Uranian system to be explored—something Voyager’s solstice arrival geometry of 1986 was denied.

The Uranian equinox opportunity that NH II can achieve in 2014 will not reoccur until almost 2050. It is no exaggeration to say that the timing of the NH II Uranus-KBO exploration combination is literally once in a lifetime.]

Holy cow.

It would be a great payoff after all the wrangling that Horizons I had to go through.

Thanks, Mark!