Science Art: Pioneer F/G Jupiter Missions, 1970.
A gorgeous vintage diagram of NASA’s deep space probe’s trajectory.
The NASA image archive page says:
This image, drawn in 1970, is an artist’s rendering of the Pioneer 10 spacecraft trajectory, with the planets labeled and a list of the instruments that were intended to be flown. Before the use of computer animation, artists were hired by JPL and NASA to depict a spacecraft in flight, for use as a visual aid to promote the project during development.
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At Jupiter, the experiments of Pioneer were used to examine the environmental and atmospheric characteristics of the giant planet. Pioneer was also the vital precursor to all future flights to the outer solar system. It determined that a spacecraft could safely fly through the asteroid belt. It also measured the intensity of Jupiter’s radiation belt so that NASA could design future Jupiter (and other outer planets) orbiters.
Pioneer left the solar system in 1983, and was still sending signals home as late as 2001.
Tags: space exploration
