page_title: Pioneer 10
section_title: Pioneer plaque
hierarchical_section_title: Pioneer 10 / Pioneer plaque
caption_attribution_description: English: NASA image of Pioneer 10's famed Pioneer plaque features a design engraved into a gold-anodized aluminum plate, 152 by 229 millimeters (6 by 9 inches), attached to the spacecraft's antenna support struts to help shield it from erosion by interstellar dust. This version has had the tilt of the photograph fixed and the scan was cleaned. Español: Imagen de la placa que tiene el Pioneer, creado por la NASA. Català: Imatge de la placa del Pionner 10, creada per la NASA.
context_page_description: Pioneer 10 is an American space probe, launched in 1972 and weighing 258 kilograms, that completed the first mission to the planet Jupiter. Thereafter, Pioneer 10 became the first of five artificial objects to achieve the escape velocity needed to leave the Solar System. This space exploration project was conducted by the NASA Ames Research Center in California, and the space probe was manufactured by TRW Inc.
  Pioneer 10 was assembled around a hexagonal bus with a 2.74-meter diameter parabolic dish high-gain antenna, and the spacecraft was spin stabilized around the axis of the antenna. Its electric power was supplied by four radioisotope thermoelectric generators that provided a combined 155 watts at launch.
  It was launched on March 2, 1972, by an Atlas-Centaur expendable vehicle from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Between July 15, 1972, and February 15, 1973, it became the first spacecraft to traverse the asteroid belt. Photography of Jupiter began November 6, 1973, at a range of 25,000,000 kilometers, and about 500 images were transmitted. The closest approach to the planet was on December 4, 1973, at a range of 132,252 kilometers.
context_section_description: At the behest of Carl Sagan, Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 carry a 152 by 229 mm (6.0 by 9.0 in) gold-anodized aluminum plaque in case either spacecraft is ever found by intelligent life-forms from another planetary system. The plaques feature the nude figures of a human male and female along with several symbols that are designed to provide information about the origin of the spacecraft. The plaque is attached to the antenna support struts to provide some shielding from interstellar dust.
caption: Pioneer Plaque
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