Sorry for the pasted quotes, but they were of interest to me.

"After flying as close as 6,200 mi. to Pluto and within 16,800 mi. of the large moon Charon, New Horizons will be retargeted to 1-2 additional Kuiper Belt objects, each about 50 mi. wide. The initial Kuiper flyby will not occur until 1-2 years beyond the Pluto encounter."

--- If it makes it that far and long.... so be it. :) The Kuiper Belt must be an amazing place to say the least.

"The New Horizons sensor suite is designed to provide "Landsat-quality" imaging and extremely detailed surface composition data on what scientists have newly designated as an "ice dwarf" planet. Pluto, with a 1,470-mi. diameter, is also considered a binary planet with its 745-mi.-dia. moon Charon that orbits only about 12,000 mi. away.

IT IS HOPED the instruments will be able to provide detailed imagery and composition even on geologic strata on the sides of impact craters, Stern said. The -380F surface has nitrogen, methane and carbon monoxide ices in addition to rock of an unknown character.

Understanding Pluto, Charon, two newly discovered smaller moons and Kuiper Belt objects is viewed by the National Academy of Sciences as a key to understanding the earliest building blocks of the Solar System. But the mission also has the potential to be a gateway for information about the discs of material increasingly seen by Hubble and other telescopes around stars in the midst of planet formation."

"Data acquisition at Jupiter will include Jovian atmospheric motion imagery the earlier Galileo Jupiter orbiter could not obtain because of its stuck high-gain antenna. New Horizons also will fly directly down Jupiter's magnetotail for solar wind and particles, and field data never obtained near any planet beyond Earth.

During the long haul to Pluto, the spacecraft will communicate its health status to Earth about once per month using a new "beacon mode" of reporting."

My two peeves:

"Because of the greater bandwidth from Jupiter, about 500 million mi. from Earth compared with 3 billion mi. at Pluto, New Horizons will be able to send back more science data from Jupiter than Pluto. This is because the 64-gigabit tape recorders can be filled, dumped and refilled several times when passing Jupiter, unlike the single load and playback at Pluto."

- Regardless, I hope it will all go well regarding playback. I'm remembering what happened during the Titan descent.

"By 2015, when New Horizons arrives at Pluto, much will have changed back on Earth. Children born around the time of launch will be well into grade school, and two U.S. presidents will have been elected by the time the mission fulfills its Kuiper Belt objectives."

We have a new addition to the family (1/7/06). Science topics should be interesting.