I don't think it was NASA per se. I'm sure the folks at NASA really want to send something up there as soon as possible. The problem seems to be more the bean-counters who won't allocate enough to fund a decent mission on time.

That and the current debate seems to stem on which is more important, Pluto or Europa. Everyone seems so keen on the idea that there might be LIFE up there that they don't really stop and analyze the situation carefully. I mean, we can get a mission to Jupiter quite easily. Mission after mission has been heading there for years. But it's quite difficult to get anything out far enough to visit Pluto. What, it's something like 8 years travel time?

Europa ain't going anywhere. I say we should focus on getting some data on all the major planetary objects before going back to explore more carefully what we have already visited. I'm also thinking about Mercury, which has had only one fly-by visit and is only half mapped. We may be missing something incredible simply because we aren't taking the opportunity to look.

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...And that, my liege, is how we know the Earth to be banana-shaped. --Sir Bedevere