Instrument Host Information
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INSTRUMENT_HOST_ID |
P12
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INSTRUMENT_HOST_NAME |
PIONEER
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INSTRUMENT_HOST_TYPE |
SPACECRAFT
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INSTRUMENT_HOST_DESC |
INSTRUMENT HOST OVERVIEW
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The main body of the spacecraft is a flat cylinder 2.5 meters
in diameter and 1.2 meters high. In the upper end of this
cylinder there is a circular equipment shelf with an area of
4.37 square meters on which all the scientific instruments and
electronic subsystems are mounted. The shelf is mounted on the
forward end of a thrust tube that connects the spacecraft to
the launch vehicle. Below the shelf, 15 thermal louvers
control heat radiation from an equipment compartment located
between the shelf and the top of the spacecraft. A cylindrical
solar array attached to the shelf by 24 brackets forms the
circumference of the flat cylinder of the spacecraft. On top
of the spacecraft, a 1.09 meter diameter, despun, high-gain,
parabolic dish antenna is mounted on a mast so that its line of
sight clears equipment mounted outside the spacecraft. The
despun design allows the antenna to be mechanically directed to
Earth from the spinning spacecraft. The antenna operates at S-
and X-bands. The spacecraft also carries a solid propellant
rocket motor. Including the antenna mast, the Orbiter is
almost 4.5 meters high, and it weighed 553 kg when launched.
The launch weight included 45 kg of scientific instruments and
179 kg of rocket propellant.
|
REFERENCE_DESCRIPTION |
Colin, L., The Pioneer-Venus program. J. Geophys. Res. 85, 7575-7598, 1980.
Fimmel, R.O., L. Colin, and E. Burgess, Pioneer
Venus, NASA SP-461, Scientific and Technical
Information Branch, National Aeronautics and Space
Administration, Washington, D.C., 1983.
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