One of the main arguments for New Horizons 2 is that it could fly by a really big second known KBO with a large moon (as well as flying by Uranus and its moons fairly near their equinox). This wasn't quite strong enough an argument for me to push it in print as I did NH 1 -- although, if the manned program hadn't been eating up NASA's budget like popcorn, I WOULD have pushed it. But it's a safe bet that virtually every probe launched to solar escape velocity from now on will take advantage of the opportunity to fly by at least one already-known KBO, given the extreme importance of observing a fair-sized sampling of them (which the seminal 2002 Decadal Survey report actually described as more important than flying by Pluto specifically).

In particular, there's a good chance that at least one or two of the future New Frontiers missions in the next decade or two will fly by one of the giant planets and drop off one or more atmospheric entry probes -- and it would be insane not to then use that craft to visit a KBO as well. (Plus a Centaur object or one of Jupiter's Trojan asteroids, should the opportunity for either present itself.)

Is it feasible that during the last 2 or 3 years of the trek to Pluto the NH cameras could be used to image the KBO near the exit cone of the NH flight path?

If the cameras can be set for long exposures, relatively dim objects might be seen. We would be interested in the brighter (larger) objects anyhow, for possible flybys.

Also, the rapid motion of the craft will result in long baselines for blink comparing images (shades of Mr. Tombaugh!) (or just let the computers do it) to discern the possible encounter objects.

My understanding is the exit cone for post Pluto is not all that large, so there should not be large numbers of pictures to take, anyhow, if this is feasible.

That discussion re: using NH to search for KBO's has been had I think, Alan confirming that given the apeture of LORRI, compared to the apeture of ground based observatories, even given the proximity of NH to the target, the maths just doesnt add up and ground based obs are a much much better way to do it.

Doug

Is it too early to ask what stars New Horizons will be passing relatively nearby in the coming millennia?

I've heard Ross 248 being mentioned but a lot depends on the final trajectory. The closest it can come is around 2 LY in around 30,000 to 40,000 years from now. That may sound close, but when you consider that Voyager 1 has only travelled 0.002 LY so far it puts it in perspective.

The window is between 30,000 and 40,000 years due to the rapid motion of Ross 248. In 40,000 years, NH will have travelled about 1.5 LY, so it may be closer to Ross 248 than the Sun at some stage. At that stage, Ross 248 will probably be the closest star to the Sun.

Would they please send a Rover, like MSL to Pluto?

Preferably within my lifetime.