Since passing the outer planets, despite dwindling power onboard, Pioneer 10 has been sending back information by radio as it heads into interstellar space. Interplanetary space is the area between planets in the solar system. It was made housing a hydrazine propellant with radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs). I calculate that as of some point today, the spacecraft Pioneer 10 is 18,469,781,120 km from the earth. The prototype spacecraft displayed here was constructed for NASA by TRW, Inc. Voyager entered interstellar space at around 18 billion km. The Pioneer plaque appears in the booklet of David Bowie's 2016 album Blackstar, on the page for the song "Girl Loves Me". NASA's Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 have both stopped functioning, but they also are coasting into interstellar space as ghost ships. No spacecraft from Earth has reached there yet. Pioneer 10 will continue to coast silently as a ghost ship through deep space into interstellar space, heading generally for the red star Aldebaran, which forms the eye of Taurus (The Bull). With NASA's Voyager 2 space probe now in interstellar space, it's the second time in history that a human-made object has reached the space between the stars. Future objectives of the Pioneer 10 and I1 missions are to continue measuring the large-scale properties of out heliosphem and to search for its boundary with interstellar space. GENERAL MISSION DESCRIPTION The Pioneer 10 spacecraft launched March 2, 1972, is the most distant man-made object in our solar system. But where is it going? Pioneer 10 was set in motion on March 2nd, 1972, and from July 15th, 1972 to February 15th, 1973 it was the first rocket to travel through the asteroid belt. VOYAGER 1 It was announced in September 2013 that Voyager 1 is the first spacecraft to officially leave the solar system, pacing along at a little over 62,000 kilometers per hour. Eventually it will fly into the so-called heliopause, that part of space where the Sun's influence ends and true interstellar space begins. In 1972, an attempt to contact extraterrestrial life was cast into space with the launch of the Pioneer 10 spacecraft. of this diagram shows, only Pioneer 10 is moving in the opposite direction to the Sun's motion through the galaxy. Pioneer 10 (originally designated Pioneer F) is an American space probe, launched in 1972 and weighing 258 kilograms (569 pounds), that completed the first mission to the planet Jupiter. This space vehicle was designed to explore the environment of Jupiter, along with asteroids, solar winds, and cosmic rays. Composition. Pioneer 10 was set in motion on March 2nd, 1972, and from July 15th, 1972 to February 15th, 1973 it was the first rocket to travel through the asteroid belt. The power source on Pioneer 10 finally degraded to the point where the signal to Earth dropped below the threshold for detection in 2003. As it drifts into interstellar space, Pioneer 10 will continue to carry a plaque designed to inform intelligent life that may find it about the spacecraft and its origins. Interstellar Probe is also the name of a proposed NASA space probe intended to travel out 200 AU in 15 years, studied in 1999. 17776 has Pioneer 10 (named Ten in the story) as a sentient being who is made fun of by Pioneer 9 (Nine) and Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) for being sent into space with a plaque displaying naked humans. Pioneer 10. The unusual encounter happened as Pioneer 10 was exiting the realm of the planets and exploring for the first time the outer limits of the heliosphere -- a giant bubble carved out of the gaseous interstellar medium by the solar wind. Finally, the largest physical space is the area between galaxies themselves which is called intergalactic space! The music for this piece was recorded on June 13, 1983 in celebration of the fact that Pioneer 10 was leaving our solar system that day, headed for interstellar space… Its sister ship, Pioneer 11, ended its mission Sept. 30, 1995, when the last transmission from the … Moving up on the scale is interstellar space or the area between stars within the same galaxy. Voyager 1 entered interstellar space in 2012. As it drifts into interstellar space, Pioneer 10 will continue to carry a plaque designed to inform intelligent life that may find it about the spacecraft and its origins. Pioneer 10 will continue to coast silently as a ghost ship through deep space into interstellar space, heading generally for the red star Aldebaran, which forms the eye of the constellation Taurus (The Bull).