TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. Twenty seven years ago today, on September 1, 1979, Pioneer 11 passed by Saturn at a distance of 21,000 km. Its companion spacecraft, Pioneer 10 also flew by Jupiter for the first close‐up observation of the Sun's largest planet in December 1973. “The spacecraft is working fine; Saturn is there; everything is where it should be,” said Fred D. Kochendorfer, manager of the Pioneer Saturn program at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, as the spacecraft, now eight million miles away from Saturn, accelerated toward the planet at a speed of 19,200 miles an hour. Pioneer 11 will get within 220,700 miles of Titan.
This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996.
Titan is considered by many scientists to be the only body in the solar system other than Earth that may have life. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions.
On the chance that it might be found by an intelligent species, it carries a plaque containing a message about Earth. Two theories for the creation of the rings, which were considered unique until similar f6rmations were recently discovered around Jupiter and Uranus, are that they are a result of gravitational forces which prevented the formation of a close‐in satellite from the planet's original material or that the planet captured a “wandering moon” which was then torn apart by Saturn's massive gravity.
It appears wrapped in opaque orange clouds and has a primitive methane, ammonia and hydrogen atmosphere held to its surface by a pressure almost identical to the atmospheric pressure on Earth. By the time the 570‐pound spacecraft skims in under Saturn's rings to within 13,300 miles of Saturn's white, yellow and yellow‐brown banded cloud tops, its closest point to the planet, it will be traveling 71,900 miles per hour. In preparation for man's closest look ever at the distant planet covered with swirling gases, Pioneer 11 made a slight left tilt last Thursday to allow scientists to start their search for hydrogen, helium and other properties of the planet.
The spacecraft will skim under the rings for 80 minutes, before it curves back out for a close look at Titan, the largest of Saturn's 10 moons. Pioneer 11 will pass through the plane of the rings in a very shallow dive until it is under them, then sweep in for its closest look at the planet on Sept. 1. Pioneer 11, launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla., April 5, 1973, started taking pictures of Saturn last Monday, and by next Monday it will be sending back photos better than any ever taken from Earth. After it passes Titan, Pioneer 11 will send back information for as long as its nuclear power and communications devices hold out. While Pioneer 11 will pass some 21,000 miles outside the visible edge of the rings, the scientists theorize that debris or fine dust particles may extend tens of thousands of miles further into space and could destroy the craft.
That craft is now speeding out of the solar system in the opposite direction from that which will be taken by Pioneer 11.
Saturn's ring system, which scientists believe consists of ice, ice‐covered rocks, or rocks imbedded in ice, was discovered by Galileo in 1610 and ranges out from the planet's cloud tops about 48,000 miles. Because of the great distance involved, it will take one minute and 18 seconds for a signal from Earth to be received by Pioneer 11 or a picture of Saturn to reach the huge receivers on Earth.
While Saturn is only 960 million miles from Earth, Pioneer 11 has traveled over two billion miles in a curving path that brought it to the vicinity of the planet Jupiter in December 1974. Pioneer 11, launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla., April 5, 1973, started taking pictures of Saturn last Monday, and by next Monday it will be sending back … By A.o. It is thought to be similar to Earth's primordial atmosphere and may well have produced organic molecules, the building blocks of life. Sulzberger Jr. Special to The New York Times. WASHINGTON, Aug. 21 — More then six years and two billion miles since it left Earth, the robot explorer spacecraft Pioneer 11 is racing toward a historic rendezvous late this month with Saturn and its famous rings. qDeterrnine the makeup of Saturn's two outer rings and whether the planet has an outer ring, as hypothesized, that would double the total ring width and could pose a hazard to a Voyager spacecraft expected to rendezvous with Saturn in 1981. qMetermine if Saturn has a magnetic field, as believed.
qDetermine whether an internal heat source is present and the effect of this on atmospheric circulation.
Launched from Cape Canaveral on April 6, 1973… Pioneer 11 is also scheduled take about 50 close‐up color pictures of Saturn and several of Titan. It will then speed out of the solar system.
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The greenhouse effect is caused by gases in the atmosphere preventing heat from escaping into space.
On September 1, 1979 – 40 years ago today – NASA’s Pioneer 11 came within 13,000 miles (21,000 km) of Saturn, making it the first spacecraft ever to sweep closely past that world.
Pioneer 11 Nearing Saturn After Trip of 2 Billion Miles. Pioneer 11 is expected to perform experiments that will do the following: qProvide a temperature and density profile of the planet. The craft will be approaching Saturn, the second‐largest planet in the solar system and the farthest ever visited by manmade vehicles, from above its rings, which will be lighted from behind by the sun. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them.
As one of many tests Pioneer 11 will make an infrared measurement of the satellite aimed at finding out if Titan has enough of a “greenhouse effect” to retain heat, making the moon habitable. But before it does that, Pioneer 11 must pass safely through the plane of Saturn's rings, and today NASA scientists gave the craft only a 50‐50 chance of survival. Because of the thinness of the rings (about two miles) and the speed of the craft, the passage will take only four‐fifths of a second, not long enough for experiments to take place. Scientists say this will mean that photographs of the planet taken from this position will show the rings as being dark and the gaps in them light, the opposite of pictures taken from Earth. Because of the chance of life, has been agreed internationally that no Earth craft will be guided near enough Titan to risk an accidental impact.
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