1:1 Pioneer 4 with instrumentation

[ETG]

Here we have a problem I have to deal with all too often: the difficulty of finding useful information.
Apart from a few pictures and sketchy, pixelated drawings, I can not find any good info about any Pioneer
satellite. It must have been a top secret program, at the time. Or maybe nobody had the idea of making pictures.
If you are satisfied with "Hmm... yeah... maybe it did look like that....Perhaps..." , than I would be glad to help
you out. After all, I am working on redrawing my old Pioneer 4 model. It badly needs an update. Any kind of
info we can find will help us both.
I'll see what I can do.

______
Erik

[thorst]

That's a nice model! And the preview picture is great, too!

I think you already know them, but here are nice documents on the spacecraft with some pictures and diagrams:

http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/ca...1963042108.pdf

http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/ca...1965069888.pdf

(found via http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp)

Thorsten

[ETG]

I found a large, high res pictures of Pioneer 3. The balance weight release system is in plain view !!
Solar System Exploration: Multimedia: Gallery: Historical Images

On page 4 you can see the picture we already know. A small part of the instruments can be seen here.
One of the protrusions looks like the Geiger instruments on the inside.
Solar System Exploration: Multimedia: Gallery: Historical Images

There are metal strips connected, on top of the vertical bars. I have no idea what their function is. Maybe
somebody out there knows?

[rocketmantan]

Originally Posted by thorst

That's a nice model! And the preview picture is great, too!

I think you already know them, but here are nice documents on the spacecraft with some pictures and diagrams:

http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/ca...1963042108.pdf

http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/ca...1965069888.pdf

(found via http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp)

Thorsten

Wow, I did not come across these documents, surprisingly. They would've been of great help when I was designing it! I might get around to doing the despin mechanism and the photosensor sometime.

[thorst]

The NTRS is always a good starting point if you search for information about US space vehicles. Lots of great documents there!

Thorsten