CANADA: its nitrogen-dominated atmosphere and water-rich icy surface, Pluto seems much more hospitable than even the most sanguine planetary scientists would have wagered a decade ago. But could it ever play host to an Antarctic-styled research station?
That is, as a base to routinely house researcher/astronauts out to give humans a foothold in the outer reaches of our solar system?
“The notion of a Pluto base figures prominently in the anime ‘Star Blazers’ from my childhood, so it’d be wonderful if there were a good reason for it,” said Gerard van Belle, a research astronomer at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Az., where Clyde Tombaugh discovered the diminutive dwarf planet some 85 years ago.
A month after the publication of the first detailed science analysis of NASA ’s Pluto flyby, however, seems as good a time as any to look many decades hence. That is, at a time when humanity might actually mount an effort to send astronaut researchers to Pluto’s frozen surface.
“The biggest obstacle is going to be how far you are from the Sun,” Will Grundy, head of New Horizons’ surface composition team and a planetary scientist at Lowell Observatory, told me.
In really rough numbers, says Grundy, we get a thousand watts per square meter from the Sun and it’s only one watt per sq. meter at Pluto, so you have to make up the extra 999 watts to keep the temperature comfortable.
