Beyond Earth
A CHRONICLE OF DEEP SPACE EXPLORATION, 1958–2016
Asif A. Siddiqi
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Beyond Earth: A CHRONICLE OF DEEP SPACE EXPLORATION, 1958–2016
<!-- image --> <!-- image -->NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION Office of Communications NASA History Division Washington, DC 20546
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Siddiqi, Asif A., 1966– author. | United States. NASA History Division, issuing body. | United States. NASA History Program Office, publisher. Title: Beyond Earth : a chronicle of deep space exploration, 1958–2016 / by Asif A. Siddiqi. Other titles: Deep space chronicle Description: Second edition. | Washington, DC : National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Office of Communications, NASA History Division, [2018] | Series: NASA SP ; 2018-4041 | Series: The NASA history series | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2017058675 (print) | LCCN 2017059404 (ebook) | ISBN 9781626830424 | ISBN 9781626830431 | ISBN 9781626830431 (paperback) Subjects: LCSH: Space flight—History. | Planets—Exploration—History. Classification: LCC TL790 (ebook) | LCC TL790 .S53 2018 (print) | DDC 629.43/509—dc23 | SUDOC NAS 1.21:2018-4041 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017058675
Original Cover Artwork provided by Ariel Waldman
The artwork titled Spaceprob.es is a companion piece to the Web site that catalogs the active human-made machines that freckle our solar system. Each space probe's silhouette has been paired with its distance from Earth via the Deep Space Network or its last known coordinates.
<!-- image -->This publication is available as a free download at http://www.nasa.gov/ebooks.
<!-- image -->For my beloved father Dr. Hafiz G. A. Siddiqi Whose achievements I can only hope to emulate
Contents
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1967
1968
1969
1973
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Preface
January 31, 1958 marked a significant beginning for space exploration. More than the historic and successful launch of Explorer 1, the first U.S. satellite, it was the beginning of an unprecedented era of exploration and understanding of our own planet and the distant worlds beyond. The more we uncover about the mysteries and beauty of space, the more we are inspired to go farther. Yet, with all we have learned, we still cannot even imagine what future generations will find.
Spacecraft from NASA and others have shown us the intricacies within clouds and terrain of distant planets that were only a dot in an astronomer's telescope a few decades ago. We have seen the birth of stars, black holes, and found exoplanets orbiting stars in systems remarkably similar to ours. Future missions will take us forward in history, as we seek to uncover the very origins of our universe.
We may not know precisely what—or who—we will find out there, but we can be sure that space exploration will continue to surprise and inspire us, as it did for those who came before and those who will follow. Along the way there will be missteps, some more devastating than others. That is the price of doing what's never been done before—a price that sometimes is tragically paid at the highest cost by the courageous. But like those early days of the space program, we are as motivated to succeed by the missions that do not make it as those that do. And we learn from them, coming back stronger and smarter.
In this book, the history of NASA's six decades of exploration beyond Earth and its Moon to other planets and their moons is laid out. The story follows spacecraft to the Sun, comets, minor and dwarf planets and, ultimately, beyond our solar system. As we marvel at the ingenuity of the early pioneers of the Space Age, we realize how much they achieved with what, comparatively, was so little. Computers were human, and when the machines did take over calculations, they also took up entire rooms with processing capability less than smartphones in your pockets today.
Yet some of NASA's greatest achievements took place during this period: Mariner IV, which took the first pictures of the surface of Mars in 1965; the global view of Mars from Mariner 9 in 1971; and the Viking landers of the 1970s, which executed the first planetary soft-landings of American spacecraft. The crowning achievements of America's mid-century robotic space exploration were the Pioneer and Voyager missions which were sent to the far boundaries of our solar system using early 1970s technology. As this is being written, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 continue to send us data from beyond the outer planets from the boundary region of the Sun's sphere of influence, the heliosphere. But space does not belong to the United States alone. We have evolved from the earliest days of the Space Race, when being "first" brought serious geopolitical consequences, to our current era of international partnerships that have taken us farther together than we could have gone alone.
In the modern era of exploration, which itself will look outdated in a generation, we have discovered the extraordinary rings and moons of Saturn with NASA's Cassini spacecraft and the Huygens lander built by the European Space Agency. We marvel at images of the swirling storms on Jupiter sent back to Earth by our Juno mission. And we constantly find new science from the Curiosity rover that's been trekking across the surface of Mars for more than five years.
Our robotic emissaries have made tremendous journeys over the past six decades. They carry the vision and inspiration of humankind beyond our physical ability to make the trip—yet. This book celebrates the extraordinary men and women who have looked up and wondered what's out there and then found the answer. In only 60 years, our technology has evolved from a simple, modified Geiger counter launched into Earth orbit to sublime technologies sending full-color, high-resolution images and data from the edge of the universe. The next 60 should be exponentially rewarding.
– Dr. Thomas H. Zurbuchen NASA Associate Administrator at Science Mission Directorate
Introduction
Humans abandoned their nomadic habits and moved into settlements about 40 to 50 thousand years ago. We have been using tools even longer. But our ability to send one of our tools into the heavens is of much more recent origin, spanning only the past 60 years. Yet, in that time, we have created new tools—we call them robotic spacecraft—and sent them into the cosmos, far beyond Earth. Of course, many never got very far. That's the cost of hubris and ambition. But most did. And many never came back to Earth and never will. In that sense, we as a species have already left a mark on the heavens; these small objects that dot the cosmos are a permanent legacy of our species, existing for millions of years, even if we as a planet were to disappear. This book that you hold in your hands (or are reading in digital form) is a chronicle of all these tools, both failed and successful, that humans have flung into the heavens beyond Earth.
The text in front of you is a completely updated and revised version of a monograph published in 2002 by the NASA History Office under the original title Deep Space Chronicle: A Chronology of Deep Space and Planetary Probes, 1958–2000. This new edition not only adds all events in robotic deep space exploration after 2000 and up to the end of 2016, but it also completely corrects and updates all accounts of missions from prior years. The information in the monograph is current as of mid-2017 when I completed writing.
What Does This Publication Include?
This monograph contains brief descriptions of all robotic deep space missions attempted by humans since the opening of the space age in 1957. The missions are listed chronologically in order of their launch dates (i.e., not their target body encounters).
Different people have different criteria for which kind of spacecraft to include in a list of "deep space probes." In the list that follows, I have included all spacecraft that satisfied the following guidelines:
- Any probe that was launched to an "encounter" with a "target." a. An "encounter" includes the following events: i. flybys ii. orbiting iii. atmospheric entry and impacts iv. soft-landing b. "Targets" include the following: i. the planets of the Solar System (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) ii. the Earth's Moon iii. minor planets or asteroids iv. natural satellites of the planets and asteroids v. comets vi. dwarf planets (such as Pluto)
- Any probe that was deliberately sent into heliocentric (solar) orbit.
- Any probe that was sent into a halo (Lissajous) orbit around any of the libration points involving Earth, the Moon, and the Sun.
- Any probe that was launched as part of a science, lunar, or planetary program to at least lunar distance in order to simulate a deep space trajectory (such as, for example, Geotail, Zond 4, and a few early Surveyor Model mockups).
I have included probes whether they succeeded in their objectives or not. Thus, some probes never got a few meters beyond the launch pad while others are heading into the outer reaches of the solar system.
It should be noted that the criteria for inclusion in this volume does not always coincide with NASA's own programmatic distinctions about what constitutes a planetary science mission. For example, this volume includes missions such as Wind, ACE, MAP, and SIRTF, none of which was funded through NASA's solar system exploration line. The criteria for inclusion here is simply whether the mission was intended to operate beyond Earth orbit and satisfied the above four requirements, regardless of who funded it or what kind of science it generated.
Where Is the Information From?
For statistical data on U.S. probes (such as launch vehicle numbers, launch times, list of instruments, etc.), I have used original NASA sources such as Public Affairs releases, press kits, postflight mission reports, and official histories. These records are deposited in the NASA Historical Reference Collection at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC, or are available online at various NASA or government databases. For missions after approximately 2000, there is a proliferation of official mission websites, hosted by the organization sponsoring the missions, including, for example, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), and the S. A. Lavochkin Scientific-Production Association (or NPO imeni Lavochkina). I have used these as primary sources of information. For some of the initial Earth orbital parameters of many deep space probes, a very useful source has been the online newsletter "Jonathan's Space Report" prepared by Jonathan McDowell.
For Soviet/Russian sources, I have used only Russian-language sources, such as the journal Kosmicheskaya issledovaniya (Space Research), official organizational histories, reliable memoirs, or the semi-official journal Novosti kosmonavtiki (News of Cosmonautics).
In the bibliography at the end of the monograph, I list a few published secondary sources that have been useful in verifying or framing data. Every attempt has been made to present accurate information, but with a project of this size and scope, there will naturally be errors.
I have avoided as much as possible using unofficial amateur Web sites (such as Wikipedia) or secondary history books, such as Andrew Wilson's otherwise quite wonderful Solar System Log. These sources are good for a quick overview but they often reproduce errors (especially in timings, details, and distances) that have now been repeatedly and erroneously propagated in the Internet era. The one exception is Don Mitchell's excellent website on Soviet lunar and planetary exploration, found at http://mentallandscape.com/V_Venus.htm. I highly recommend it.