![]() The last successful data acquisitions from Pioneer 10 by NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN) occurred in 2002 on March 3 (30 years after launch) and again on April 27. ![]() However, occasional tracking of Pioneer 10 continued beyond that date. Budgetary constraints forced NASA to terminate routine tracking and project data-processing operations for Pioneer 10 on March 31, 1997. The robot spacecraft is more than 68 light-years away from Aldebaran, and the journey will require about 2 million years to complete. The Pioneer 10 spacecraft is heading generally toward the red star, Aldebaran. Along with its sister ship (Pioneer 11), the Pioneer 10 spacecraft helped scientists investigate the deep space environment. Once across this solar system boundary, Pioneer 10 continued to measure the extent of the heliosphere as the spacecraft started its travels into interstellar space. The historic date marked the first passage of a humanmade object beyond the major planet boundary of the solar system. Then, on June 13, 1983, Pioneer 10 crossed the orbit of Neptune, the major planet farthest out from the Sun. When Pioneer 10 flew past Jupiter, it acquired sufficient kinetic energy to carry it completely out of the solar system.ĭeparting Jupiter, Pioneer 10 continued to map the heliosphere (the Sun's giant magnetic bubble, or field, drawn out from it by the action of the solar wind). Pioneer 10 also explored the giant Jovian magnetosphere, made close-up pictures of the intriguing Red Spot, and observed at relatively close range the Galilean satellites Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. Sweeping past Jupiter on Decem(its closest approach to the giant planet), it discovered no solid surface under the thick layer of clouds enveloping the giant planet-an indication that Jupiter is a liquid hydrogen planet. (NASA)īecame the first spacecraft to cross the main asteroid belt and the first to make close-range observations of the Jovian system. Each spacecraft's electric power was provided by a long-lived radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG). The Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft with their complement of scientific instruments. Paths of the Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft, as well as the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft, through the heliosphere and into the interstellar medium. The Pioneer 10 spacecraft was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, by an Atlas-Centaur rocket on March 2, 1972. These spacecraft also investigated magnetic fields, cosmic rays, the solar wind, and the interplanetary dust concentrations as they flew through interplanetary space. The Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft, as their names imply, are true deep-space explorers-the first humanmade objects to navigate the main asteroid belt, the first spacecraft to encounter Jupiter and its fierce radiation belts, the first to encounter Saturn, and the first spacecraft to leave the solar system.
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