Pluto, here we come!

The Pluto Orbiter Project

The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) appears to have taken off on the right foot and the mission controllers appear to have got the manoeuvres right in putting the MOM into the second leg of the Mangal yaan yatra.

The progress of the mission so far has boosted the confidence of our space scientists. From the journey to Earth’s nearest planet they are now planning an even more audacious trip, this time to the farthest planet (albeit a dwarf planet) in our Solar System. Pluto, no less.

Pluto was discovered in 1930 and since then was considered the 9^th planet in the Solar System. However, in 2006, it was “demoted” from a planet to a “dwarf” planet since astronomers have discovered other bodies in the Solar System which may be as big as or even bigger than Pluto.

In 2006, NASA sent out a spacecraft named New Horizons to Pluto without even informing India. The craft is expected to reach Pluto in 2015 and will be able to take pictures of the dwarf planet’s surface. This NASA adventure caught the Indian space scientists unawares and left them fuming. They did not take very kindly to NASA stealing their thunder and immediately set about planning their own counter offensive.  

After tasting success with the launch of the MOM, the space mission programmers are believed to have recommended in an internal meeting that we should launch our own Pluto mission. On a parallel path, a 5-member private team consisting of a travel booking agent, a retired cricketer, a wandering musician, a water diviner and a gym instructor, has drawn up a programme to send a space craft to the Pluto. This project has been named Pluto Orbiter Project or POP.

POP will be our second major planetary mission after MOM.

The new POP mission will be launched soon after MOM reaches its Mars orbit. A spacecraft is being built at a secret underwater base for this purpose. According to an anonymous but reliable source, this spacecraft will be called Nayi Disha.

Our source further revealed that the project team has discovered a short-cut route from Earth to Pluto not known to anyone else. This short-cut will enable our own Nayi Disha to overtake New Horizons in the last lap and will also save us some 2347 litres of unadulterated subsidised aviation fuel.

Right now, no one is talking about this hush-hush mission. All our source would say is “Wait till MOM reaches the home stretch to Mars. POP will then take off.”

Watch this space. Do not blink.