Pioneer (Spacecraft Series) - (Important Facts) {Part-24}

THE PIONEER program began in 1958 and finished in 1978, launching a series of missions that investigated the planets of our Solar System.

Pioneer

The most notable of these were Pioneer 10 and 11, twin spacecraft that were the first to explore the outer planets.

Pioneer Series

Pioneer 10 launched in March 1972, arriving at Jupiter in November 1973. It transmitted to the Earth over 500 photos, including the first near-space images of Jupiter and its moons Europa and Ganymede.

Structure of Pioneer 10

After passing through the Jovian System, Pioneer continued to a trajectory that will see it eventually leave the Solar System.
Contact was lost with it in April 2002, probably because power levels from the Radioisotope-Thermoelectric Generators had fallen too for it to continue operation.

Pioneer 11 launched in April 1972 and arrived at Jupiter in 1974. Like its twin, it sent back photos of Jupiter,including shots of another moon, Callisto.
While passing through the Planetary System 11 made use of Jupiter's intensive gravity to alter its heading and set course for Saturn. Otherwise known as a "Gravitational Slingshot" this technique would also be used by Voyager 1 and 2.
It arrived in the Saturian System in October 1979 producing the first near-space images of the gas-giant.
Pioneer 11's trajectory took it through Saturn rings in a calculated risk to determine if there was a danger of collision with ring material posed to the Voyager Probes which were following. It survived its encounter with this planet and like Pioneer 10, headed towards deep space.
Contact was lost with the spacecraft in September 1995, after 30 continuous years of operation, probably due to power shortages.
The Pioneer probes were the first spacecraft to reach the outer Solar System, and the first set on a course to the Stars, but they are not designed to be the first to leave the Solar System. The Voyager Twins, launched with a higher velocity a few years after Pioneer 10 and 11, have overtaken their predecessors and will be the first Human built spacecraft to make the transition into interstellar space.
Should Pioneer 10 and 11 encounter an extra-terrestrial intelligence on their journey,each carries a gold plaque with pictorial information about Humans and the location of our Home World.

Zond 3 (Spacecraft Series) - (Important Facts) {Part-23}

Note:- Hello everybody, Welcome to the Series of Spacecraft. In this series,Spacecrafts are going to be covered.

THE ZOND (meaning 'probe') program was series of unmanned spacecraft launched between 1964 and 1970 by the Soviet Union.

Zond 3

It was the third Zond probe to begin the journey to Mars, Zond 1 and 2 were both lost after only a few weeks.

Zond 3

Although Zond 3 launched successfully, and is depicted here near Mars, it could not complete its mission because it missed the launched window.

Soviet Space Camera

Instead it was directed to perform a flyby of the Moon and took 25 pictures of the Far Side, Following this, it was subsequently sent on a trajectory that took it through the orbit of Mars, it was still transmitting when it passed Mars orbit, proving that the Soviets were capable of building and launching an interplanetary mission.

The vehicle was based on the 3MV design, which stood for '3rd generation Mars-Venus' intended for interplanetary exploration.

It consist of three sections, at the centre of which was a pressurised bay called Orbital Compartment. This simulated Earth surface pressure and temperature, protecting the electronic housed within from the extreme conditions of space.

A high-gain communications antenna and a pair of Solar Panels were mounted either side of the Orbital Compartment. Attached to the solar panel were two large, hemispherical radiators, designed to dump waste heat from the Orbital Compartment.

A second pressurised bay was attached to the base of the Orbital Compartment, called the Planetary Compartment. The equipment housed in this section could be changed to suit mission objectives, including detaching for a planetary landing.

Finally, propulsion was provided by an engine mounted at the top of the Orbital Compartment. This section also featured cold gas rockets for attitude control.

One of the interesting features of this, and other Soviet spacecraft of the time, was that some had cameras that used photographic film. To be able to send the pictures back to Earth, they had on-board film-processing equipment. Once the negatives were developed, they were electronically, scanned and converted into a form that could be transmitted back to Earth.

Zond 3 is depicted near Mars, the destination it could not achieve.

Asteroids, Comets, and Meteoroides (Important Facts) {Part-22}

ASTEROIDS, COMETS AND METEOROIDS are all debris remaining from the Nebula from which the Solar System formed 4.6 billion years ago. Asteroids are rocky bodies up to about 1,000 kilometres in diameter, although most are much smaller. Most of them orbit the Sun in the asteroid belt, which lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

Asteroids

Asteroid Belt

Cometary nuclei exist in huge cloud (called the Oort Cloud)

Oort Cloud

that surrounds the planetary part of the Solar System. They are made of frozen water and dust, and are a few kilometres in diameter. Occasionally, a comet is deflected from the Oort Cloud on to a long, elliptical path that brings it much closer to the Sun. As the comet approaches the Sun, the cometary nucleus starts to vaporise in the heat, producing both a brightly shining Coma (a huge sphere of gas and dust around the nucleus), and a gas tail, and a dust tail.

Meteoroid

Meteoroids are small chunks of stone or stone or iron, which are fragments of asteroids or comets. Meteoroids range in size from tiny dust particles to objects tens of metres across. If a meteoroid enters the Earth's atmosphere, it is heated by friction and appears as a glowing streak of light called a Meteor (also known as a shooting star). Meteor showers occur when the Earth passes through the trail of dust particles left by a comet. Most meteoroids burn up in the atmosphere. The remnants of the few that are large enough to reach the Earth's surface are termed as meteoroids.

Structure of Comet