Pioneer 10: first visit to Jupiter and crossing of the asteroid belt
Pioneer 10: primera visita a Júpiter y cruce del cinturón de asteroides
- Date
- 3 de diciembre de 1973 · confidence high
- Place
- Ames Research Center, Mountain View, California, United States
- Credited to
- NASA Ames (Charles Hall) and TRW
- Field
- Movement
What was discovered
Launched in 1972, it was the first craft to cross the asteroid belt and to fly by Jupiter (at about 130,000 km). It measured Jupiter's intense radiation, which allowed later probes to be protected.
Pioneer 10 transmitted until January 2003. Its trajectory, along with Pioneer 11's, revealed the 'Pioneer anomaly', explained in 2012 by heat radiated by the craft.
What it led to
- Pioneer 11, which used Jupiter to reach Saturn (1979)
- Voyager and Galileo designs for radiation
- proof that the asteroid belt could be crossed