Onwards to Uranus and Neptune! Options

[SFJCody]

As soon as MESSENGER gets to Mercury, the most poorly explored planets in the solar system will be Uranus and Neptune. Could this lead to a revival of interest in the ice giants and their retinue, in the same way that the existence of New Horizons is perhaps partly due to the Pluto stamp*?







*via Pluto Fast Flyby and later Pluto Kuiper Express

[vjkane]

There is the opportunity, brought up in another thread, for a Jupiter > Saturn > Neptune tour with launch opportunities 2016-1018. It could then go on to visit one or more KBOs. A presentation on this opportunity as a New Frontiers candidate was made to a group reviewing the program in November, I think.

An ideal mission would drop a probe into the Saturn atmosphere as well as Neptune. It would also do a close fly-by of Triton. Don't know if the orbital mechanics will allow this and still do the probe relay.