re: #11 The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge

I like “Somebody asks why New Horizons isn’t going into orbit”. You know somebody will!

Assuming standard storeable liquid propellants: New Horizons masses 478 kg. To kill its velocity ~472 of that would have to be propellant.

I actually wondered that myself in a different website. I’d thought the point of the mission was to try to put a craft in orbit around Pluto. Turns out there just wasn’t room for any additional braking fuel at all. They basically used every drop they had just to offer the fly-by. Then someone asked, “Why didn’t they just design in more fuel?” To which the answer apparently is, “they designed using every single drop of fuel they could feasibly get into the system.”