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The Pioneer program is a series of United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 unmanned space missions that was designed for planetary exploration.






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Pioneer 10 Construction
Pioneer10 Plaque
The Pioneer program is a series of United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 unmanned space missions that was designed for planetary exploration. There were a number of such missions in the program, but the most notable were Pioneer 10
Pioneer 10

was the first spacecraft to travel through the asteroid belt, which it entered on July 15, 1972, and to make direct observations of Jupiter , which it passed by on December 3, 1973....
 and Pioneer 11
Pioneer 11

Pioneer 11 was the second mission of the Pioneer program to investigate Jupiter and the outer solar system and the first to explore Saturn and its main rings....
, which explored the outer planets and left the solar system
Solar System

The Solar System consists of the Sun and those Astronomical object bound to it by gravity: the eight planets and five dwarf planets, their 173 known Natural satellite, and billions of Small Solar System body....
. Both carry a golden plaque
Pioneer plaque

The Pioneer plaques are a pair of gold anodized aluminum commemorative plaque which were placed on board the 1972 Pioneer 10 and 1973 Pioneer 11 spacecraft, featuring a pictogram, in case either Pioneer 10 or 11 are intercepted by extraterrestrial beings....
, depicting a man and a woman and information about the origin and the creators of the probes, should any extraterrestrials
Extraterrestrial life

Extraterrestrial life is defined as life which does not originate from Earth. It is the subject of astrobiology and its existence remains hypothetical, because there is no credible evidence of extraterrestrial life which has been generally accepted by the mainstream scientific community....
 find them someday.

Credit for naming the first probe has been attributed to Stephen A. Saliga, who had been assigned to the Air Force Orientation Group, Wright-Patterson AFB, as chief designer of Air Force exhibits. While he was at a briefing, the spacecraft was described to him as a "lunar-orbiting vehicle with an infrared scanning device." Saliga thought the title too long and lacked theme for an exhibit design. He suggested "Pioneer" as the name of the probe since "the Army had already launched and orbited the Explorer satellite and their Public Information Office was identifying the Army as 'Pioneers in Space,'" and by adopting the name the Air Force would "make a 'quantum jump' as to who really [were] the 'Pioneers in space.'"

Early Pioneer missions

The earliest missions were attempts to achieve Earth's escape velocity
Escape velocity

In physics, escape velocity is the speed where the kinetic energy of an object is equal to the magnitude of its gravitational potential energy, as calculated by the equation,...
, simply to show it was feasible and study the Moon
Moon

The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite and the List of natural satellites by diameter satellite in the Solar System. The average centre-to-centre distance from the Earth to the Moon is km, about thirty times the diameter of the Earth....
. This included the first launch by NASA
NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an agency of the Federal government of the United States, responsible for the nation's public list of space agencies....
 which was formed from the old NACA
National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics

The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics was a United States federal agency founded on March 3, 1915 to undertake, promote, and institutionalize aeronautical research....
. These missions were carried out by the US Air Force
United States Air Force

The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare branch of the Military of the United States and one of the uniformed services of the United States....
 and Army
United States Army

The United States Army is the branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for Army operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S....
.

Able space probes (1958-1960)

Pioneer Able
Most missions here are listed with their most recognised name, and alternate names after in brackets.


  • Pioneer 0
    Pioneer 0

    Pioneer 0 was a failed United States space probe that was designed to go into orbit around the Moon, carrying a television camera, a micrometeoroid detector and a magnetometer, as part of the first International Geophysical Year science payload....
     (Thor-Able 1, Pioneer) - Lunar
    Moon

    The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite and the List of natural satellites by diameter satellite in the Solar System. The average centre-to-centre distance from the Earth to the Moon is km, about thirty times the diameter of the Earth....
     orbiter, destroyed (Thor failure 77 seconds after launch) August 17, 1958
  • Pioneer 1
    Pioneer 1

    On October 11, 1958, Pioneer 1 became the first spacecraft launched by NASA, the newly formed space agency of the United States. The flight was the second and most successful of the three Thor -Able space probes....
     (Thor-Able 2, Pioneer I) - Lunar orbiter, missed Moon (third stage partial failure) October 11, 1958
  • Pioneer 2
    Pioneer 2

    Pioneer 2 was the last of the three project Pioneer program designed to probe Moon and Wiktionary:cislunar space. Shortly after launch at 07:30:00 UTC on November 8, 1958, the third stage of the launch vehicle separated but failed to ignite, and Pioneer 2 did not achieve its intended lunar orbit....
     (Thor-Able 3, Pioneer II) - Lunar orbiter, reentry (third stage failure) November 8, 1958
  • Pioneer P-1
    Pioneer P-1

    Pioneer P-1 was a failed mission in the Pioneer program. The spacecraft was a 1 meter diameter sphere, with a propulsion module. It was launched on September 24, 1959 on an Atlas rocket launcher....
     (Atlas-Able 4A, Pioneer W), probe lost September 1959
  • Pioneer P-3
    Pioneer P-3

    Pioneer P-3 was intended to be a lunar orbiter probe, but the mission failed shortly after launch. The objectives were to place a highly instrumented probe in lunar orbit, to investigate the environment between the Earth and Moon, and to develop technology for controlling and maneuvering spacecraft from Earth....
     (Atlas-Able 4, Atlas-Able 4B, Pioneer X) - Lunar probe, lost in launcher failure November 26, 1959
  • Pioneer 5
    Pioneer 5

    Pioneer 5 was a spin-stabilisation space probe in the NASA Pioneer program used to investigate interplanetary space between the orbits of Earth and Venus....
     (Pioneer P-2, Thor-Able 4, Pioneer V) - interplanetary space between Earth and Venus
    Venus

    Venus is the second-closest planet to the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus , the Roman mythology goddess of love....
    , launched March 11, 1960
  • Pioneer P-30
    Pioneer P-30

    Pioneer P-30 was intended to be a lunar orbiter probe, but the mission failed shortly after launch. The objectives were to place a highly instrumented probe in lunar orbit, to investigate the environment between the Earth and Moon, and to develop technology for controlling and maneuvering spacecraft from Earth....
     (Atlas-Able 5A, Pioneer Y) - Lunar probe, failed to achieve lunar orbit September 1960
  • Pioneer P-31
    Pioneer P-31

    Pioneer P-31 was intended to be a lunar orbiter probe, but the mission failed shortly after launch. The objectives were to place a highly instrumented probe in lunar orbit, to investigate the environment between the Earth and Moon, and to develop technology for controlling and maneuvering spacecraft from Earth....
     (Atlas-Able 5B, Pioneer Z) - Lunar probe, lost in upper stage failure December 1960


Juno II lunar probes (1958-1959)

  • Pioneer 3
    Pioneer 3

    Pioneer 3 was a spin stabilized spacecraft launched at 05:45:12 UTC on 6 December 1958 by the U.S. Army Ballistic Missile agency in conjunction with NASA....
     - Lunar flyby, missed Moon due to launcher failure December 1958
  • Pioneer 4
    Pioneer 4

    Pioneer 4 was a spin-stabilisation spacecraft launched as part of the Pioneer program on a lunar flyby trajectory and into a heliocentric orbit making it the first U.S....
     - Lunar flyby, achieved Earth escape velocity
    Escape velocity

    In physics, escape velocity is the speed where the kinetic energy of an object is equal to the magnitude of its gravitational potential energy, as calculated by the equation,...
    , launched March 1959
Pioneer34

Later Pioneer missions (1965-1978)


Five years after the early Able space probe missions ended, NASA Ames Research Center
NASA Ames Research Center

NASA Ames Research Center is a NASA facility located at Moffett Federal Airfield, which covers at the borders of the cities of Mountain View, California and Sunnyvale, California in California....
 used the Pioneer name for a new series of missions, initially aimed at the inner solar system, before the bold flyby missions to Jupiter
Jupiter

Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the Solar system by size planet within the Solar System. It is two and a half times as massive as all of the other planets in our Solar System combined....
 and Saturn
Saturn

Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in the Solar System, after Jupiter. Saturn, along with Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune, is classified as a gas giant....
. While successful, the missions returned much poorer images than the Voyagers
Voyager program

The Voyager program is a series of U.S. unmanned space missions that consists of a pair of unmanned scientific Space probes, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2....
 five years later. In 1978, the end of the program saw a return to the inner solar system, with the Pioneer Venus Orbiter and Multiprobe, this time using orbital insertion rather than flyby missions.

The new missions were numbered from Pioneer 6 (Alternate names in brackets).

Pioneer 6, 7, 8, and 9 - interplanetary space "weather network"

Pioneer 6 9
* Pioneer 6 (Pioneer A) - launched December 1965
  • Pioneer 7 (Pioneer B) - launched August 1966
  • Pioneer 8 (Pioneer C) - launched December 1967
  • Pioneer 9 (Pioneer D) - launched November 1968 (defunct. since 1983)
  • Pioneer E - lost in launcher failure August 1969
Pioneer 6 and Pioneer 9 are in solar orbits with 0.8 AU
Astronomical unit

An astronomical unit is a unit of length based on the mean distance from the Earth to the Sun. The precise value of the AU is currently accepted as 149,597,870,691 Plus-minus sign 6 metres ....
's distance to the Sun. Their orbital periods are therefore slightly shorter than Earth's.
Pioneer 7 and Pioneer 8 are in solar orbits with 1.1 AU's distance to the Sun. Their orbital periods are therefore slightly longer than Earth's.
Because they orbit the Sun on either side of the Earth's orbital path, some of them are, from time to time, 180° away from Earth. They can sense parts of the Sun several days before the Sun's rotation reveals it to ground based/earth orbiting observatories. If a powerful solar magnetic storm is born, they can warn Earth in advance.

Outer solar system missions

  • Pioneer 10
    Pioneer 10

    was the first spacecraft to travel through the asteroid belt, which it entered on July 15, 1972, and to make direct observations of Jupiter , which it passed by on December 3, 1973....
     (Pioneer F) - Jupiter
    Jupiter

    Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the Solar system by size planet within the Solar System. It is two and a half times as massive as all of the other planets in our Solar System combined....
    , interstellar space
    Interstellar space

    Interstellar space may mean:* In astronomy: all the space within a galaxy not occupied by star or their planetary systems. The interstellar medium resides ? by definition ? in interstellar space....
    , launched March 1972
  • Pioneer 11
    Pioneer 11

    Pioneer 11 was the second mission of the Pioneer program to investigate Jupiter and the outer solar system and the first to explore Saturn and its main rings....
     (Pioneer G) - Jupiter
    Jupiter

    Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the Solar system by size planet within the Solar System. It is two and a half times as massive as all of the other planets in our Solar System combined....
    , Saturn
    Saturn

    Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in the Solar System, after Jupiter. Saturn, along with Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune, is classified as a gas giant....
    , interstellar space
    Interstellar space

    Interstellar space may mean:* In astronomy: all the space within a galaxy not occupied by star or their planetary systems. The interstellar medium resides ? by definition ? in interstellar space....
    , launched April 1973
  • Pioneer H
    Pioneer H

    Pioneer H is an unlaunched unmanned space mission that was part of the United States Pioneer program for a planned 1974 launch. Had this mission and spacecraft been launched, it would have been designated Pioneer 12; that designation was later applied to the Pioneer Venus project....
     - identical to Pioneers 10 and 11, but never launched


Pioneer Venus project
Pioneer Venus project

The Pioneer mission to Venus consisted of two components, launched separately. Pioneer Venus 1 or Pioneer Venus Orbiter was launched in 1978 and studied the planet for more than a decade after orbital insertion in 1978....
 

Pioneer Venus Orbiter
* Pioneer Venus Orbiter
Pioneer Venus project

The Pioneer mission to Venus consisted of two components, launched separately. Pioneer Venus 1 or Pioneer Venus Orbiter was launched in 1978 and studied the planet for more than a decade after orbital insertion in 1978....
 (Pioneer Venus 1, Pioneer 12) - launched December 1978
  • Pioneer Venus Multiprobe
    Pioneer Venus project

    The Pioneer mission to Venus consisted of two components, launched separately. Pioneer Venus 1 or Pioneer Venus Orbiter was launched in 1978 and studied the planet for more than a decade after orbital insertion in 1978....
     (Pioneer Venus 2, Pioneer 13) - launched August 1978
    • Pioneer Venus Probe Bus - transport vehicle and upper atmosphere probe
    • Pioneer Venus Large Probe - 300 kg parachuted probe
    • Pioneer Venus North Probe - 75 kg parachuted probe
    • Pioneer Venus Night Probe - 75 kg parachuted probe
    • Pioneer Venus Day Probe - 75 kg parachuted probe


See also

  • Pioneer anomaly
    Pioneer anomaly

    The Pioneer anomaly or Pioneer effect is the observed deviation from predicted trajectory and velocity of various unmanned spacecraft visiting the outer solar system, most notably Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11....
  • Timeline of Planetary Exploration


External links

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