Pioneer 11

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Pioneer 11

Launch of Pioneer 11
NSSDC ID 1973-019A
Mission goal Investigation of the planets Jupiter and Saturn .
Client National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA NASA
Launcher Atlas - Centaur
construction
Takeoff mass 259 kg
Course of the mission
Start date April 6, 1973, 02:11 UTC
launch pad CC , LC-36
End date November 24, 1995
 
04/06/1973 begin
 
December 3, 1974 Passage Jupiter
 
09/01/1979 Passage Saturn
 
11/24/1995 Last contact with the probe
 
The probe will leave the solar system
Saturn and its moon Titan, recorded by Pioneer 11
The trajectories of Pioneer 10 and 11. The side view below shows the flight of Pioneer 11 across the ecliptic from Jupiter to Saturn.

Pioneer 11 was a US -American space probe of Pioneer series, on April 6, 1973 by Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral aboard a launch vehicle of the type Atlas - Centaur was started. The 259 kg probe had the task of exploring the planets Jupiter and Saturn . The last contact was made in November 1995.

mission

Exactly one year after the launch of the sister probe Pioneer 10 , Pioneer 11 should also dare to venture into the outer solar system . The start of the mission was delayed by a launch window to Jupiter compared to Pioneer 10 because it was feared that the asteroid belt could be so dense that it would be impassable for a space probe. Since this was not the case, Pioneer 11 was able to launch as hoped. If the probe would still be functional after the flyby of Jupiter, it should head for the second giant planet Saturn.

As with Pioneer 10, there is a Pioneer badge on board Pioneer 11 , which contains a message from humanity to any extraterrestrial creatures.

Technology and scientific instruments

The technical and scientific equipment was identical to the Pioneer 10 (for a detailed description, see there).

course

Pioneer 11 launched on April 6, 1973 with an Atlas Centaur rocket from Launch Complex 36 on Cape Canaveral .

The flyby of Jupiter took place on December 3, 1974 at a distance of 43,000 km from the surface. The probe gained around 500 images and numerous data.

The Saturn flyby took place on September 1, 1979 at a distance of 21,000 km. About 400 pictures were taken. The probe discovered details of Saturn's rings and a new Saturn moon. Pioneer 11 was the first probe to pass the planet Saturn.

Due to lack of fuel, the mission was suspended on September 30, 1995. NASA received a final telemetry from Pioneer 11 on November 24, 1995.

Important stages of the mission and theoretically the future flight history of the probe ( italics = no verification possible due to the lack of communication)

Results

The Pioneer 11 probe successfully mastered the first flyby of Saturn. However, the scientific results of the mission were soon expanded and exceeded by those of the two Voyager probes, because Pioneer 11, like Pioneer 10, only partially aimed at scientific exploration of the outer solar system. Their main task was to even reach Jupiter and Saturn so that the next generation of Voyager probes could explore these planets more closely.

Pioneer 11 is the probe that leaves the solar system at the lowest speed, as its flight path after swing-by at Jupiter had to have a relatively large deviation from its direction of movement. Since it was therefore overtaken by the Voyager probes (which, like Pioneer 10, were or are still active for much longer), the measurement results obtained between 1990 and 1995 in interplanetary space played only a minor role.

As part of the investigations into the Pioneer anomaly , more interest was shown again in the measurement data from the probe. They show a systematic deviation from the expected trajectory and thus confirm the anomaly previously identified with Pioneer 10.

Current status

At the beginning of September 2018, Pioneer 11 was approx. 98.7  AU (corresponds to about 14.8 billion kilometers or 13 light hours and 41 light minutes) from Earth and moved away from the sun at 11.3 km / s, which is per year corresponds to around 2.4 AU.

See also

Web links

Commons : Pioneer 11  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Commons : The Pioneer Program  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Estimation of the current position based on calculations by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory [1]