A total of 138.9 h of operation was completed, and over three megabits of data were received. About four operations of 25 min duration were scheduled per day with occasional increases during times of special interest. Weight limitations on the solar cells prevented continuous operation of the telemetry transmitters. The recorded digital data were transmitted at 1, 8, and 64 bit/s, depending on the distance of the spacecraft from Earth and the size of the receiving antenna. The micrometeorite counter failed to operate as the data system saturated and failed to operate properly. The spacecraft also measured solar flare particles, and cosmic radiation in the interplanetary region. The spacecraft returned data collected by the magnetometer on the magnetic field and it measured that the median undisturbed interplanetary field was approximately 5 γ ± 0.5 γ in magnitude. There were some minor anomalies with the second stage flight control system that resulted in unplanned pitch and roll motions, however, they were not enough to endanger the mission. īooster performance during launch was overall excellent considering the numerous earlier difficulties with the Thor-Able vehicle. It was used to measure the amount of meteoritic dust particles and the momentum of these particles. A micrometeorite momentum spectrometer (or micrometeorite detector) that consisted of two diaphragm and microphone combinations.It was mounted normal to the spin axis of the spacecraft. A Neher-type integrating ionization chamber and an Anton 302 Geiger-Müller tube (which functioned as a cosmic ray detector) to measure cosmic radiation.It could output its measurements in both an analog and a digital format. It consisted of a single search coil that was mounted on the spacecraft in such a way that it measured the magnetic field perpendicular to the spin axis of the spacecraft. It was capable of measuring fields from 1 microgauss to 12 milligauss. A rotating search coil magnetometer to measure the magnetic field in the distant field of the Earth, near the geomagnetic boundary, and in interplanetary space.It could detect photons with E > 75 MeV and electrons with E > 13 MeV. A triple coincidence omnidirectional proportional counter telescope to detect solar particles and observe terrestrial trapped radiation.The spacecraft was a 0.66 metres (2 ft 2 in) diameter sphere with four solar panels that spanned over 1.4 metres (4 ft 7 in) and it was equipped with four scientific instruments: Since it was not possible to send the probe to Venus, it would instead merely investigate interplanetary space and an actual mission to the planet would have to wait another three years. The original mission plan was for a launch in November 1959 where Pioneer 5 would conduct a flyby of Venus, but technical issues prevented the launch from occurring until early 1960 by which time the Venus window for the year had closed. Pioneer 5 was the most successful probe in the Pioneer/Able series. Among other accomplishments, the probe confirmed the existence of interplanetary magnetic fields. It was a 0.66 metres (2 ft 2 in) diameter sphere with 1.4 metres (4 ft 7 in) span across its four solar panels and achieved a solar orbit of 0.806 × 0.995 AU (121,000,000 by 149,000,000 km).ĭata was received until 30 April 1960. It was launched on 11 March 1960 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 17A at 13:00:00 UTC with an on-orbit dry mass of 43 kilograms (95 lb). Pioneer 5 (also known as Pioneer P-2, and Able 4, and nicknamed the "Paddle-Wheel Satellite" ) was a spin-stabilized space probe in the NASA Pioneer program used to investigate interplanetary space between the orbits of Earth and Venus.
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