Pluto plus tard

摘要

America's National Aeronautics and Space Administration, nasa, often does things that make even its strongest partisans weep. On September 22nd, it produced a masterpiece. Just as it was finalising arrangements for the launch of the first permanent crew for the "International" Space Station, it slipped out an announcement postponing indefinitely a project called Pluto Express. The excuse was that it could not afford a mission to the only planet not yet visited by a space probe. It sounds like just good husbandry—except for the fact that Pluto Express would cost about half a billion dollars, and the space station will cost 200 times as much.