1903-2003 Century Of Flight Great Moments In Aviation

Editor’s note: Each Monday until the 100th anniversary of the Wright brothers’ flight on Dec. 17, 2003, we’ll showcase great moments in a century of flight.

On June 13, 1983, the space probe Pioneer 10 becomes the first man-made object to pass the orbit of Pluto. It was one of many milestones of the trailblazing spacecraft on a mission helped by Ohioans.

Launched on March 2, 1972, Pioneer 10 got was the first spacecraft to travel through the Asteroid belt and the first to make direct observations and obtain close-up images of Jupiter. It charted Jupiter’s intense radiation belts, located the planet’s magnetic field, and discovered that Jupiter is mostly liquid. Pioneer 10 passed within 81,000 miles of the giant planet’s cloudtops on Dec. 3, 1973.

NASA’s Lewis (now Glenn) Research Center in Cleveland managed the design, building and launch of the rocket that carried Pioneer 10 into space. The Atomic Energy Commission’s (now Department of Energy’s) Mound plant in Miamisburg assembled and tested the four radioisotope thermoelectric generators that powered its instruments, including the radio that kept it in touch with earth for more than 30 years.

Leaving Jupiter behind, Pioneer 10 continued to return data on the outer regions of our solar system until its science mission ended on March 21, 1997.

The probe is now more than 7.6 billion miles away. NASA engineers heard the last weak whisper from its radio on Jan. 23, 2003. But its final mission continues. Drifting silently toward the stars, it carries a plaque with simple drawings meant to tell any creatures that find it about the craft’s creators. It should reach the red star Aldebaran, the eye of Taurus 68 light years away, more than 2 million years from now.

– Timothy R. Gaffney

E-mail: tgaffney@daytondailynews.com

* On the net: Make a Pioneer 10 paper model: quest.nasa.gov/ pioneer10/education/paper/