I really do not see this as an end to classical exploration. We are opening a new door. It never ends...
Craig
Craig
I concur, this is only the later part of a first survey of some of the major stops in the solar system, but not all.
Though all big stops have been covered with a first peek, we cant say we have visited a place after seeing it trough a window of a high speed train. And NH can be compared to that to one amazing degree. =)
Even by a simple flyby we still got Pallas, the Trojans of Jupiter, Chiron, Haumea, Ixion, Makemake, Orcus, Sedna, Quaoar and Varuna before we even will see the end of the first survey.
When all these worlds have had a visit by a lander or one atmospheric probe, then I will agree we've come to the end of 'classical exploration' and start to think about what kind of rovers that would be suitable for Varuna or Io. =)
And thank you for the 2 images fredk, yes I did show those to a friend and we could see the slight difference in size from only 4½ minute, that really put some perspective on how fast NH is travelling. =)