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Pioneer 5 color picture

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Paolo

Jan 5 2007, 09:37 AM

Post #1

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From: 43° 35' 53" N 1° 26' 35" E
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Hi all
I have recently found this nice color image of Pioneer 5, which shows some mysterious blue cylinders on the solar panels, that I have never seen in any other picture. Any idea of what they may be?

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I'm one of the most durable and fervent advocates of space exploration, but my take is that we could do it robotically at far less cost and far greater quantity and quality of results.

James Van Allen

djellison View Member Profile	Jan 5 2007, 09:57 AM Post #2
Administrator Group: Chairman Posts: 13250 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1	I don't have a CLUE what they are - but I'll have a few guesses... Attachments for cables to test array deployment in 1G environment. Launch restraint bolts. An instrument of some king for Mag etc? They look a little like the sort of motors we see all over the MER's - but I don't think they would be that. Doug

edstrick View Member Profile	Jan 5 2007, 10:09 AM Post #3
Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1869 Joined: 20-February 05 Member No.: 174	Without knowing the answer, I strongly suspect magnetometer coils, though I have a very very vague recollection that they only got mag field parallel and perpendicular to the spin axis.

Paolo View Member Profile	Jan 5 2007, 10:48 AM Post #4
Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1147 Joined: 3-August 06 From: 43° 35' 53" N 1° 26' 35" E Member No.: 1004	QUOTE (edstrick @ Jan 5 2007, 11:09 AM) Without knowing the answer, I strongly suspect magnetometer coils, though I have a very very vague recollection that they only got mag field parallel and perpendicular to the spin axis. The Pioneer 5 magnetometer is usually said to be mounted on the instrument deck on the inside of the sphere (which caused data to be quite garbled). I think that they are some kind of solar panel extension dampers, but I am not sure -------------------- I'm one of the most durable and fervent advocates of space exploration, but my take is that we could do it robotically at far less cost and far greater quantity and quality of results. James Van Allen

edstrick View Member Profile	Jan 5 2007, 12:15 PM Post #5
Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1869 Joined: 20-February 05 Member No.: 174	I'm inclined to agree. The first spacecraft to get REALLY good interplanetary field data were the Interplanetary Pioneers (6-9) and Mariner 10. Previous missions like Mariners 2, 4 and 5 had headaches separating spacecraft magnetic fields from the weak solar field. Building a "Magnetically Clean" spacecraft is a pain, and is expensive. Mariner 10 cheated. They installed two magnetometers, one halfway out the magnetometer boom, the other at the end of the boom. Comparing the two sets of readings reduced the spacecraft field interference to a small fraction of the solar wind's field.

Bob Shaw View Member Profile	Jan 5 2007, 01:06 PM Post #6
Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2488 Joined: 17-April 05 From: Glasgow, Scotland, UK Member No.: 239	QUOTE (Paolo @ Jan 5 2007, 10:48 AM) The Pioneer 5 magnetometer is usually said to be mounted on the instrument deck on the inside of the sphere (which caused data to be quite garbled). I think that they are some kind of solar panel extension dampers, but I am not sure Paolo: They certainly look like pistons, whether used as dampers or during deployment. Bob Shaw -------------------- Remember: Time Flies like the wind - but Fruit Flies like bananas!

djellison View Member Profile	Jan 5 2007, 01:22 PM Post #7
Administrator Group: Chairman Posts: 13250 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1	this image http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/db/Pioneer_5.jpg Of P5 atop its LV without those features would suggest they're in the 'remove before flight' catagory. This may only be a coin, but it doesn't have them either http://www.farthestreaches.com/images/pioneer5f.jpg Not sure if this is a model - but they're not here either http://astro.zeto.czest.pl/sondy/pioneer5.jpg Doug

hendric View Member Profile	Jan 5 2007, 02:51 PM Post #8
Director of Galilean Photography Group: Members Posts: 709 Joined: 15-July 04 From: Austin, TX Member No.: 93	Maybe they are some kind of handle for moving the solar panels? -------------------- Space Enthusiast Richard Hendricks -- "The engineers, as usual, made a tremendous fuss. Again as usual, they did the job in half the time they had dismissed as being absolutely impossible." --Rescue Party, Arthur C Clarke Mother Nature is the final inspector of all quality.

Airbag View Member Profile	Jan 5 2007, 05:55 PM Post #9
Member Group: Members Posts: 373 Joined: 3-August 05 Member No.: 453	Look like those silicone caulk dispensers to me. Airbag

ljk4-1 View Member Profile	Jan 6 2007, 03:09 AM Post #10
Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2454 Joined: 8-July 05 From: NGC 5907 Member No.: 430	I looked at Explorer 6, which closely resembles Pioneer 5, but it does not have those blue cylinders, either. http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/image/explorer_6.jpg http://www1.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/hillge...rer-6_image.jpg http://www1.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/hillge...er-6_cover3.jpg Two more Pioneer 5 images: http://www1.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/hillge...eer-5_image.jpg http://www1.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/hillge...er-5_image2.jpg -------------------- "After having some business dealings with men, I am occasionally chagrined, and feel as if I had done some wrong, and it is hard to forget the ugly circumstance. I see that such intercourse long continued would make one thoroughly prosaic, hard, and coarse. But the longest intercourse with Nature, though in her rudest moods, does not thus harden and make coarse. A hard, sensible man whom we liken to a rock is indeed much harder than a rock. From hard, coarse, insensible men with whom I have no sympathy, I go to commune with the rocks, whose hearts are comparatively soft." - Henry David Thoreau, November 15, 1853

Paolo View Member Profile	Mar 12 2010, 10:12 PM Post #11
Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1147 Joined: 3-August 06 From: 43° 35' 53" N 1° 26' 35" E Member No.: 1004	We all forgot that yesterday was the 50th anniversary of the launch of Pioneer 5, the first true interplanetary probe -------------------- I'm one of the most durable and fervent advocates of space exploration, but my take is that we could do it robotically at far less cost and far greater quantity and quality of results. James Van Allen

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