ISBN: | 978-5-5111-2390-5 |
High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Pioneer 10 (also known as Pioneer F) is a 258-kilogram robotic space probe that completed the first interplanetary mission to Jupiter, and became the first spacecraft to achieve escape velocity from the Solar System. The project was managed by the NASA Ames Research Center and the contract for the construction of the spacecraft was awarded to TRW Inc. The spacecraft was assembled around a hexagonal bus with a 2.74 m parabolic dish high-gain antenna oriented along the spin axis. Power was supplied by four radioisotope thermoelectric generators that provided a combined 155 W at the start of the mission.