Pioneer 11

*Pioneer 11*
	An artist's impression of a Pioneer spacecraft on its way to interstellar space.
Mission type	Planetary and heliosphere exploration
Operator	NASA / ARC
COSPAR ID	1973-019A
SATCAT no.	6421
Website	Pioneer Project website(archived); NASA Archive page
Mission duration	22 years, 5 months, 25 days
Spacecraft properties
Manufacturer	TRW
Launch mass	259 kilograms (571 lb)
Power	155 watts (at launch)
Start of mission
Launch date	April 6, 1973, 02:11:00 UTC
Rocket	Atlas SLV-3D Centaur-D1A Star-37E
Launch site	Cape Canaveral LC-36B
End of mission
Last contact	September 30, 1995
Flyby of Jupiter
Closest approach	December 3, 1974
Distance	43,000 kilometers (27,000 miles)
Flyby of Saturn
Closest approach	September 1, 1979
Distance	21,000 kilometers (13,000 miles)
	Pioneer ← Pioneer 10 Pioneer 12 →

Pioneer 11 (also known as Pioneer G) was a NASA space probe to explore space and gather information. It was the second mission to visit Jupiter and the first mission to visit Saturn. The space probe was launched on April 5, 1973 and flew by Jupiter on December 2, 1974 and Saturn on September 1, 1979.

In 1983, Pioneer 11 was predicted to be surpassed by Voyager 1 in the distace to the Sun and later by Voyager 2 around March 1988.

The probe was last heard on November 24, 1995 when the last communication between Earth and the probe ended due to power limitation and vast diatance, when it was 44.1 AU (4.1 billion miles or 7.5 billion km) from Earth.^[1]^[2]

By Nov. 5, 2017, Pioneer 11 was estimated to be about 97.590 AU (9.1 billion miles or 14.599 billion kilometers) from Earth.

Both Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 had plaques etched in gold. The plaques were designed by a team lead by Carl Sagan to communicate with extraterrestrial life should the spacecraft come into contact with it.

By 2027, Pioneer 11 is predicted to have exited the heliosphere and entered interstellar space.

Pioneer 11 Media

Two RTGs are mounted at the end of each of two extended booms to reduce nuclear radiation effects on the sensitive scientific instruments.
The magnetometer, mounted on a long boom to keep it far away from the RTGs measures magnetic fields in space and in the vicinity of Jupiter. The electronics at the left of the magnetometer are mounted in the spacecraft.
A plasma analyzer peers through a hole in the large dish-shaped antenna to detect particles of the solar wind originating from the Sun.
Charged particle detectors are used to study the life history of cosmic rays in the Solar System.
A combination of cosmic ray telescopes seeks further information on the composition of the cosmic ray particles and their energy ranges.
A Geiger tube telescope characterizes Jupiter's radiation belts using seven Geiger-Muller tubes to survey the intensities, energy spectra, and angular distributions of electrons and protons along the spacecraft's path through the radiation belts of Jupiter.
Radiation is further explored over an even broader range of energies by a trapped radiation detector.
Twelve panels of pressurized cell detectors mounted on the back of the main dish antenna record penetrating impacts of small meteoroids. In this image is a single cell detector.
Meteoroid-asteroid detector looks into space with four non-imaging telescopes to track particles ranging from close-by bits of dust to distant large asteroids.
Ultraviolet light is sensed by this ultraviolet photometer to determine the quantities of hydrogen and helium in space and on Jupiter.