Probes to the Outer Planets
Jupiter
Uranus
Saturn
Neptune
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are the gas giants of our solar system.
Jupiter
- Pioneer 10 ( Pioneer-F) (USA) 3 March 1972.
Passed 132,250 km from Jupiter on 3 December 1973, collected and returned data. Has now
left the solar system. The last successful data acquisition on 27 April 2002. The
spacecraft signal was last detected on 23 January 2003.
(click to enlarge)
- Galileo (USA) 18 October 1989. Atmospheric
probe to Jupiter. Passed Venus, passed Earth twice, and encountered three asteroids
getting to Jupiter. It arrived at Jupiter in December 1995 and discovered a possible
underground ocean on Europa. It was crashed into Jupiter on September 21, 2003, to avoid
any possibility of a collision with a Jovian moon.
- Ulysses(International Solar Polar Mission, Solar Polar)
(ESA) 6 October 1990. Went by Jupiter (February 1992) so that it could swing around
and go into a polar solar orbit. First craft to pass over the poles of the sun (south pole
in mid-1994, north pole in mid-1995).
- Juno (USA) 5 August 2011.
This probe will go in to a polar orbit of Jupiter to do atmospheric research.
After an orbit of the sun,it returned to Earth on 9 October 2013.
It is now outward bound again for insertion into an orbit around Jupiter.
- JUICE (Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer) (ESA) 14 April 2023.
This probe will go in to orbit around Jupiter to do close flybys of the three largest
moons, Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa. It will examine each of their icy crusts. Later
in its eight year mission it will go into orbit of one of these moons..
Saturn
- Cassini (USA) 15 October 1997. Passed Titan 12 September 2013 and entered orbit around Saturn.
It ultimately crashed into the atmosphere of Saturn on 15 September 2017. Carried the Huygens probe to research the atmosphere of Saturn.
Jupiter/Saturn
- Pioneer 11 ( Pioneer-G) (USA) 6 April 1973.
Passed 42,900 km from Jupiter on 4 December 1974, and 20,930 from Saturn on 1 September
1979. It collected and returned data. Science operations and daily telemetry ceased on 30
September 1995. It has now left the solar system.
- Voyager 1 ( Mariner Jupiter/Saturn A) (USA) 5
September 1977. Flew by both Jupiter (5 March 1979) and Saturn( 12 November 1980). Some
18,000 images of Jupiter and its satellites were taken by Voyager 1. In addition, roughly
16,000 images of Saturn, its rings and satellites were obtained. Voyager was rechristened
the Voyager Interstellar Mission (VIM) in 1989. On 14 February 1990, Voyager 1 looked back
and took the first "family portrait" of the solar system, a mosaic of 60 frames
of the Sun and six of the planets (Venus, Earth, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) as
seen from "outside" the solar system. The cameras on Voyager 1 were then once
again turned off. Voyager 1 appears to have left the heliosphere. Contrary to man media reports,
Voyager 1 has NOT left the solar system and will not for several more centuries.
Jupiter/Saturn/Uranus/Neptune
- Voyager 2 ( Mariner Jupiter/Saturn B) (USA)
20 August 1977. Flew by Jupiter (9 July 1979), Saturn (5 August 1981), Uranus (24
January 1986), and Neptune (25 August 1989). All experiments and encounters have returned
useful data.
Jovian Moons
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Saturnian Moons
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Uranian Moons
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Neptunian Moons
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Page last modified: 04 November 2023 16:28:50.