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

[mchan]

Unfortunately, any mission with Uranus as primary objective will be cheap joke fodder on the late night TV shows and elsewhere in the US. It would be difficult to garner support for such a mission if it is being so ridiculed.

[tedstryk]

Neptune also has the advantage of being the most distant official major planet (This was also true in the Voyager days, since Pluto was inside Neptune's orbit at the time). To the bean counters and to the novice "only the second visit to the most distant planet" has a ring to it that Uranus would have difficulty competing with.

[JRehling]

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