Pioneer 11

Description

Designed as the first spacecraft to venture through the asteroid belt and explore the outer solar system, NASA approved the Pioneer 10 and 11 missions in February 1969. NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley managed the project and TRW Systems in Redondo Beach, California, built the two spacecraft. Each 571-pound probe carried 12 scientific instruments including an imaging system and used plutonium-238 in two radioisotope thermal generators (RTG) to supply power to their systems and instruments. At Jupiter's distance from the Sun, capturing enough solar energy would have required prohibitively large and heavy solar arrays. Model is from the Nasa Archive and is free to use.