pio11_v_bw_o_n (AC71-8745)
“In this picture the Pioneer 11 spacecraft is entering the thermal-vacuum chamber at TRW Space Systems Division in Redondo Beach, Ca.
The dish antenna focuses the 8-watt radio on the Earth almost one billion miles away. The spacecraft weighed at launch 570 lbs. This included 65 lbs. of scientific instruments. Pioneer 11 carries 11 onboard scientific instruments.
The Pioneer 11 spacecraft will make its closest approach to Saturn on September 1, and one of its moons, Titan on September 2.
The Pioneer Saturn project is managed by NASA’s Ames Research Center, Mountain View, Ca. The spacecraft was built by TRW.”
Awkwardly written, oddly only referencing the Saturn approach, with no mention of the year for that. But by golly it’ll be in ‘some’ September.
At least it indirectly brought attention to the puny power of the radio, the mind-boggling distance it had to transmit with that power, and the remarkably light weight of the spacecraft.
pio11_v_bw_o_n (AC71-8745)
“In this picture the Pioneer 11 spacecraft is entering the thermal-vacuum chamber at TRW Space Systems Division in Redondo Beach, Ca.
The dish antenna focuses the 8-watt radio on the Earth almost one billion miles away. The spacecraft weighed at launch 570 lbs. This included 65 lbs. of scientific instruments. Pioneer 11 carries 11 onboard scientific instruments.
The Pioneer 11 spacecraft will make its closest approach to Saturn on September 1, and one of its moons, Titan on September 2.
The Pioneer Saturn project is managed by NASA’s Ames Research Center, Mountain View, Ca. The spacecraft was built by TRW.”
Awkwardly written, oddly only referencing the Saturn approach, with no mention of the year for that. But by golly it’ll be in ‘some’ September.
At least it indirectly brought attention to the puny power of the radio, the mind-boggling distance it had to transmit with that power, and the remarkably light weight of the spacecraft.