176
3 A Brief History of Space Flight
belt between Mars and Jupiter, and further explore the Jupiter. Its main tasks were
to study the asteroid belt and the surrounding environment of the Jupiter, as well
as the solar wind, cosmic rays, and heliosphere’s farthest position. The probe had
a hexahedral ring structure, with a total length of 2.9 m and a weight of 258 kg,
equipped with a high-gain antenna with a diameter of 2.74 m, and carried more
than ten kinds of scientific exploration instruments. The specific flight paths and key
events of the Pioneer-10 were as follows:
(1) At 1:49:00 UTC on March 3, 1972, using an Atlas-Centaur rocket, the Pioneer10 was successfully launched from the Launch Complex 36A at the Cape
Canaveral, Florida. At 17 min after launching, the Pioneer-10 reached a
velocity of 14.3 km/s; 11 h later, it flew by the Moon; 77 days later, it reached
near the Mars.
(2) On July 15, 1972, the Pioneer-10 entered into the asteroid belt between the
Mars and the Jupiter.
(3) On December 4, 1973, the Pioneer-10 arrived at the orbital position of
132,252 km away from the Jupiter. When the Pioneer-10 flew over the Jupiter,
many pictures were taken and sent back to the Earth. By analyzing and
processing the data sent back by the Pioneer-10, the radiation belt of the Jupiter
was discovered, and it was clearly demonstrated that the Jupiter is a gaseous
planet without solid surface and the density of gaseous matter increases with
the increase of depth. The mass of the Jupiter is about 1/1000 of the Sun,
but it is 2.5 times the sum of mass of the other seven major planets in the
solar system. As a result, under the huge acceleration of Jupiter’s gravity, the
Pioneer-10 flew straight to the outside of the solar system.
(4) On June 13, 1983, the Pioneer-10 flew across through the Neptune’s orbit,
becoming the first man-made vehicle to fly out of eight planetary ranges.
(5) On May 24, 1989, the Pioneer-10 flew across through the Pluto’s orbit and to
interstellar space.
(6) On March 31, 1997, the Pioneer-10 officially ended its exploration mission
in outer space of the solar system. With the Ground Deep Space Network, the
Pioneer-10 was tracked by the NASA, to train flight operators how to capture
and track extremely-weak radio signals from deep space.
(7) On February 17, 1998, the Pioneer-10 was 69.419 AU away from the Sun, the
same distance as the Voyager-1 launched in 1977. Prior of that, the Pioneer-10
had been the farthest man-made spacecraft away from the Earth.
(8) On January 23, 2003, when the Pioneer-10 is 1.22 × 10
10 km (about 80 AU)
away from the Earth, its weak signal was received for the last time. With
the increase of flight distance, the weak signal sent by the Pioneer-10 is not
enough to be detected. Perhaps, the radioisotope thermoelectric generator
onboard had decayed, so that the Pioneer-10 might not have enough power
to send additional transmissions to the Earth.
(9) On September 9, 2012, using the orbital propagation method, the Pioneer-10
was predicted to be 106.676 AU away from the Sun.
3 A Brief History of Space Flight
belt between Mars and Jupiter, and further explore the Jupiter. Its main tasks were
to study the asteroid belt and the surrounding environment of the Jupiter, as well
as the solar wind, cosmic rays, and heliosphere’s farthest position. The probe had
a hexahedral ring structure, with a total length of 2.9 m and a weight of 258 kg,
equipped with a high-gain antenna with a diameter of 2.74 m, and carried more
than ten kinds of scientific exploration instruments. The specific flight paths and key
events of the Pioneer-10 were as follows:
(1) At 1:49:00 UTC on March 3, 1972, using an Atlas-Centaur rocket, the Pioneer10 was successfully launched from the Launch Complex 36A at the Cape
Canaveral, Florida. At 17 min after launching, the Pioneer-10 reached a
velocity of 14.3 km/s; 11 h later, it flew by the Moon; 77 days later, it reached
near the Mars.
(2) On July 15, 1972, the Pioneer-10 entered into the asteroid belt between the
Mars and the Jupiter.
(3) On December 4, 1973, the Pioneer-10 arrived at the orbital position of
132,252 km away from the Jupiter. When the Pioneer-10 flew over the Jupiter,
many pictures were taken and sent back to the Earth. By analyzing and
processing the data sent back by the Pioneer-10, the radiation belt of the Jupiter
was discovered, and it was clearly demonstrated that the Jupiter is a gaseous
planet without solid surface and the density of gaseous matter increases with
the increase of depth. The mass of the Jupiter is about 1/1000 of the Sun,
but it is 2.5 times the sum of mass of the other seven major planets in the
solar system. As a result, under the huge acceleration of Jupiter’s gravity, the
Pioneer-10 flew straight to the outside of the solar system.
(4) On June 13, 1983, the Pioneer-10 flew across through the Neptune’s orbit,
becoming the first man-made vehicle to fly out of eight planetary ranges.
(5) On May 24, 1989, the Pioneer-10 flew across through the Pluto’s orbit and to
interstellar space.
(6) On March 31, 1997, the Pioneer-10 officially ended its exploration mission
in outer space of the solar system. With the Ground Deep Space Network, the
Pioneer-10 was tracked by the NASA, to train flight operators how to capture
and track extremely-weak radio signals from deep space.
(7) On February 17, 1998, the Pioneer-10 was 69.419 AU away from the Sun, the
same distance as the Voyager-1 launched in 1977. Prior of that, the Pioneer-10
had been the farthest man-made spacecraft away from the Earth.
(8) On January 23, 2003, when the Pioneer-10 is 1.22 × 10
10 km (about 80 AU)
away from the Earth, its weak signal was received for the last time. With
the increase of flight distance, the weak signal sent by the Pioneer-10 is not
enough to be detected. Perhaps, the radioisotope thermoelectric generator
onboard had decayed, so that the Pioneer-10 might not have enough power
to send additional transmissions to the Earth.
(9) On September 9, 2012, using the orbital propagation method, the Pioneer-10
was predicted to be 106.676 AU away from the Sun.