Space probe

A space probe, or simply probe, is a robotic

spacecraft that doesn't orbit the Earth, but instead
explores farther into outer space.[2] A space probe
may approach the Moon; travel through interplanetary
space; flyby, orbit, or land or fly on other planetary
bodies; or enter interstellar space.

The space agencies of the USSR (now Russia,

Ukraine and others), the United States, the European
Union, Japan, China, India, and Israel have
collectively launched probes to several planets and
moons of the Solar System, as well as to a number of
asteroids and comets. Approximately 15 missions are
Abandoned 1974 Pioneer H spaceprobe, on display
currently operational.[3]
in the National Air and Space Museum

Contents
Interplanetary trajectories
Some notable probes
Luna 9
Luna 3
Venera 4
Luna 16
Lunokhod 1
Venera 7
Mariner 9
Mars 3
Mariner 10
Sojourner
Spirit and Opportunity
Halley Armada
ICE Diagram of extant Solar System missions (see Reference[1] for most recent
Vega version)
Sakigake
Suisei
Giotto
Genesis
Stardust
NEAR Shoemaker
Hayabusa
Rosetta
 Pioneer 10
Pioneer 11
Voyager 1
Voyager 2
Cassini
New Horizons
Dawn
Juno
Chang'e 2
Beyond the Solar System
Probe imagers
Gallery
See also
References
Sources
Further reading
External links

Interplanetary trajectories
Once a probe has left the vicinity of Earth, its trajectory will likely take it along an orbit around the Sun
similar to the Earth's orbit. To reach another planet, the simplest practical method is a Hohmann transfer
orbit. More complex techniques, such as gravitational slingshots, can be more fuel-efficient, though they
may require the probe to spend more time in transit. Some high Delta-V missions (such as those with high
inclination changes) can only be performed, within the limits of modern propulsion, using gravitational
slingshots. A technique using very little propulsion, but requiring a considerable amount of time, is to
follow a trajectory on the Interplanetary Transport Network.[4]

Some notable probes

 The Lunokhod uncrewed rover on the The Curiosity rover The Rosetta
surface of Moon, displayed in Memorial on the surface of spacecraft and Philae
Museum of Cosmonautics.This is a cargo of Mars. lander nearing comet
the space probe Luna-17 67P.

Voyager 2 in interplanetary space. Artist's concept of Deep Impact spacecraft

prior to its planned collision with comet
Tempel 1.

Luna 9

First man-made object to soft land on the Moon, or any other extra terrestrial surface.[5]

Luna 3

First mission to photograph the far side of the Moon, launched in 1959.

Venera 4

First successful in-place analysis of another planet. It may have also been the first space probe to impact the
surface of another planet, although it is unclear whether it reached Venus' surface.[6] Launched in 1967.
Luna 16

First robotic sample return probe from the Moon.

Lunokhod 1

First rover on Moon. It was sent to the Moon on November 10, 1970.The cargo of the space probe Luna-
17

Venera 7

The Venera 7 probe was the first spacecraft to successfully soft land on another planet (Venus) and to
transmit data from there back to Earth.

Mariner 9

Upon its arrival at Mars on November 13, 1971, Mariner 9 became the first space probe to maintain orbit
around another planet.[7]

Mars 3

First soft landing on Mars (December 2, 1971[8]) The lander began transmitting to the Mars 3 orbiter 90
seconds after landing. After 20 seconds, transmission stopped for unknown reasons.[8]

Mariner 10

First probe to Mercury. Launched November 3, 1973.

Sojourner

First successful rover on Mars.[9]

Spirit and Opportunity

The Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity landed on Mars to explore the Martian surface and
geology, and searched for clues to past water activity on Mars. They were each launched in 2003 and
landed in 2004. Communication with Spirit stopped on sol 2210 (March 22, 2010).[10][11] JPL continued
to attempt to regain contact until May 24, 2011, when NASA announced that efforts to communicate with
the unresponsive rover had ended.[12][13][14] Opportunity arrived at Endeavour crater on 9 August 2011, at
a landmark called Spirit Point named after its rover twin, after traversing 13 miles (21 km) from Victoria
crater, over a three-year period.[15] After a planet wide dust storm in June 2018, the final communication
was received on June 10, 2018, and Opportunity was declared dead on February 13, 2019. The rover
lasted for almost fifteen years on Mars — although the rover was intended to last only three months.[16]

Halley Armada
The first dedicated missions to a comet; in this case, to Halley's Comet during its 1985–86 journey through
the inner Solar System. It was also the first massive international coordination of space probes on an
interplanetary mission, with probes specifically launched by the Soviet (now Russian) Space Agency,
European Space Agency, and Japan's ISAS (now integrated with NASA to JAXA).

ICE

Originally a solar observatory in the International Sun-Earth Explorer series, it was sent into solar orbit to
make the first close observations of a comet, Comet Giacobini–Zinner, in 1985 as a prelude to studies of
Halley's Comet.

Vega

Two Russian/French spacecraft, Vega 1 and Vega 2, dropped landers and balloons (first weather balloons
deployed on another planet) at Venus before their rendezvous with Halley's Comet.

Sakigake

This Japanese probe was the first non-US, non-Soviet interplanetary probe.

Suisei

A second Japanese probe, it made ultraviolet wavelength observations of the comet.

Giotto

The first space probe to penetrate a comet's coma and take close-up images of its nucleus.

Genesis

First solar wind sample return probe from sun-earth L1.[17]

Stardust

First sample return probe from a comet tail.

NEAR Shoemaker

First probe to land on an asteroid.

Hayabusa

First sample return probe to launch from an asteroid.

Rosetta
The Rosetta space probe flew by two asteroids and made a rendezvous and orbited comet 67P/Churyumov-
Gerasimenko in November 2014.[18]

Pioneer 10

Launched 1972. First probe to Jupiter. Radio communications were lost with Pioneer 10 on January 23,
2003, because of the loss of electric power for its radio transmitter, with the probe at a distance of 12 billion
kilometers (80 AU) from Earth.

Pioneer 11

First probe to fly by Saturn. (Communications were later lost due to power constraints and vast distance.)

Voyager 1

Voyager 1 is a 7200-kilogram (with fuel) spaceprobe launched

September 5, 1977. It visited Jupiter and Saturn and was the first
spaceprobe to provide detailed images of the moons of these
planets.

Voyager 1 is the farthest human-made object from Earth, traveling

away from both the Earth and the Sun at a relatively faster speed
than any other probe.[20] As of September 12, 2013, Voyager 1 is
about 12,3 billion miles (20 billion kilometers) from the Sun.[21] Voyager 1's view of Solar System
(artist's impression).[19]
On August 25, 2012, Voyager 1 became the first human made
object to enter interstellar space.[22] Voyager 1 has not had a
functioning plasma sensor since 1980, but a solar flare in 2012 allowed scientists from NASA to measure
vibrations of the plasma surrounding the craft. The vibrations allowed scientists to measure the plasma to be
much denser than measurements taken in the far layers of our heliosphere, thus concluding the craft had
broken beyond the heliopause.

Voyager 2

Voyager 2 was launched by NASA on August 20, 1977. The spaceprobe's primary mission was to visit the
ice giants, Uranus and Neptune, which it completed on October 2, 1990. It is currently the only spaceprobe
to have visited the ice giants. It is the fourth of five spacecraft to have left the solar system. It has been
operational for 41 years and 2 months as of October 20, 2018.

Cassini

The Cassini spacecraft was a 5,712-kg (12,593-lb) space probe designed to study gas giant Saturn, along
with its ringed system and moons. The NASA probe was launched with ESA lander Huygens on October
1, 1997 from Cape Canaveral. The Cassini probe entered Saturn orbit on July 1, 2004, and Huygens
landed on Titan, Saturn's largest moon, on January 14, 2005.[23] On September 15, 2017, the probe was
de-orbited and burned up in Saturn's atmosphere, after almost 20 years in space.
New Horizons

First probe to be launched to Pluto. Launched on January 19,

2006, it flew by the Pluto–Charon system on July 14, 2015.[24]

Dawn

First spacecraft to visit and orbit a protoplanet (4 Vesta), entering

orbit on July 16, 2011.[25][26] Entered orbit around dwarf planet
Ceres in early 2015. Currently orbiting Ceres as of February 2017.

Juno

First probe to Jupiter without atomic batteries,[27] launched August

8, 2011.

Chang'e 2

Chang'e 2 was deployed to orbit the Moon, visit Sun–Earth L2

Lagrangian point, and make a flyby of asteroid 4179 Toutatis.

Huygens' landing site on Saturn's

Beyond the Solar System moon Titan

Along with Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11, and its sister space probe
Voyager 2, Voyager 1 is now an interstellar probe. Voyager 1 and 2 have both achieved solar escape
velocity, meaning that their trajectories will not return them to the Solar System.[28][29]

Probe imagers
Examples of space probe imaging telescope/cameras (focused on visible spectrum).
 Aperture
Name Type Where When
cm (in.)
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter— 50 cm
R/C Mars orbit 2005
HiRISE (19.7″)
35 cm 1996–
Mars Global Surveyor—MOC[30] R/C Mars orbit
(13.8″) 2006
20.8 cm Space (33+ AU
New Horizons—LORRI R/C 2006
(8.2″) from Earth)
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter 19.5 cm
Reflector Lunar orbit 2009
LROC-NAC[31] (7.68″)

2004–
Cassini—ISS-NAC[32] 19 cm (7.5″) Reflector Saturn orbit
2017
17.65 cm 1989–
Galileo – Solid State Imager[33] Reflector Jupiter
(6.95″) 2003
17.6 cm
Voyager 1/2, ISS-NAC[34] Catadioptric Space 1977
(6.92″)
Mariner 10 – TV Photo Experiment 1973–
15 cm (5.9″) Reflector Space
(x2)[35] 1975

10 cm ( 1998–
Deep Space 1—MICAS[36] Reflector Solar orbit
3.94″) 2001

Voyager 1/2, ISS-WAC[34] 6 cm (2.36″) Lens Space 1977

5.7 cm 2004–
Cassini—ISS-WAC[32] Lens Saturn orbit
(2.2″) 2017
2004–
MESSENGER MDIS-WAC[37] 3 cm (1.18″) Lens Mercury orbit
2015
2.5 cm 2004–
MESSENGER MDIS-NAC[38] R/C Mercury orbit
(0.98″) 2015
Dawn Framing Camera 2007–
2 cm (0.8″) Lens Asteroid belt
(FC1/FC2)[39] 2018

Image forming systems on space probes typically have a multitude of specifications, but aperture can be
useful because it constrains the best diffraction limit and light gathering area.

Gallery

Voyager spacecraft at Saturn

Photograph of Artist's concept of Artist's concept of Artist's concept of
Voyager 2 Pioneer 10 / Pioneer Pioneer 10 New Horizons
11 spacecraft near spacecraft
Jupiter approaching Pluto.

Artist's concept of Artist's concept of Artist's concept of Artist depiction of

New Horizons Cassini in Saturn's Galileo spacecraft Stardust spacecraft
spacecraft near orbit encounter with Io, during the 'burn-to-
Pluto. moon of Jupiter depletion' phase

Artist depiction of Titan IV on Launch

Mars Global pad with "Cassini".
Surveyor spacecraft.

See also
Interplanetary contamination
Interstellar probe
List of Solar System probes
Mariner 10 1973–1975
Orbit
Pioneer 10 1972–2003
 Robotic spacecraft
Space capsule
Space exploration
Uncrewed spacecraft
U.S. space exploration history on U.S. stamps
Viking program 1975–1982

References
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National Geographic Education. National Geographic Society. 2011-09-30.
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9. Sojourner (rover)
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12. Webster, Guy (25 May 2011). "NASA's Spirit Rover Completes Mission on Mars" (http://ww
w.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mer/news/mer20110525.html). NASA. Retrieved 2011-10-12.
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ws.cfm?release=2011-156&cid=release_2011-156). NASA. Retrieved 25 May 2011.
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16. Brown, Dwayne; Wendel, JoAnna (2019-02-13). "NASA's Record-Setting Opportunity Rover
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21. JPL.NASA.GOV. "Voyager – The Interstellar Mission" (http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/).
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24. Brown, Dwayne; Buckley, Michael; Stothoff, Maria (15 January 2015). "January 15, 2015
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29. "Voyager-The Interstellar Mission" (http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/interstellar.html). Jet
Propulsion Laboratory. Retrieved November 2, 2013.
30. "Mars Global Surveyor" (https://web.archive.org/web/20120219064058/http://burro.astr.cwru.
edu/stu/advanced/20th_far_mgs.html). Archived from the original (http://burro.astr.cwru.edu/s
tu/advanced/20th_far_mgs.html) on 2012-02-19.
31. "eoportal – LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) – LROC" (https://web.archive.org/web/201
20316204928/http://events.eoportal.org/presentations/129/13466.html). Archived from the
original (http://events.eoportal.org/presentations/129/13466.html) on 2012-03-16.
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sf12-1.php). nasa.gov.
34. "Voyager" (http://www.astronautix.com/v/voyager.html). astronautix.com.
35. "NASA – NSSDCA – Experiment – Details" (https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/experiment/dis
play.action?id=1973-085A-01).
36. "Deep Space 1" (https://web.archive.org/web/19970627083943/http://nmp.jpl.nasa.gov/DS
1/). nasa.gov. Archived from the original (http://nmp.jpl.nasa.gov/ds1/) on 1997-06-27.
37. "NASA – NSSDCA – Experiment – Details" (https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/experiment/dis
play.action?id=2004-030A-01).
38. "NASA PDS – MDIS" (https://web.archive.org/web/20100602205942/http://starbrite.jpl.nasa.
gov/pds/viewInstrumentProfile.jsp?INSTRUMENT_ID=MDIS-NAC&INSTRUMENT_HOST_
ID=MESS). Archived from the original (http://starbrite.jpl.nasa.gov/pds/viewInstrumentProfile.
jsp?INSTRUMENT_ID=MDIS-NAC&INSTRUMENT_HOST_ID=MESS) on 2010-06-02.
39. "Sierks, et al. – The Dawn Framing Camera: A Telescope En Route to the Asteroid Belt –
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Sources
 Deep Space: The NASA Mission Reports. edited by Robert Godwin (2005). ISBN 1-894959-
15-9

Further reading
McNutt, et al. – Radioisotope Electric Propulsion (2006) – NASA Glenn Research Center (ht
tp://www.lpi.usra.edu/opag/mcnuttstaif06.pdf) (includes Centaur orbiter mission)
Scott W. Benson – Solar Power for Outer Planets Study (2007) – NASA Glenn Research
Center (http://www.lpi.usra.edu/opag/nov_2007_meeting/presentations/solar_power.pdf)

External links
Media related to Space probes at Wikimedia Commons
JPL – What Is a Space Probe? (2010) (http://www.nasa.gov/centers/jpl/education/spaceprob
e-20100225.html)

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