US group proposes Neptune mission

[FLO]

Neptune and its largest moon, Triton, could be the targets of a major space mission in the decades ahead, if a group of US researchers gets its way.

The team has put together a concept for a "mothership" and probes that would investigate the ice giant which orbits some 4.5bn km from the Sun.

(So far, only one spacecraft, Voyager 2, has visited Neptune - a flyby in 1989)

The nuclear powered spacecraft would be so big, it might have to be launched in two parts

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