25 MILLIAMPERES - A TALE OF 2 SPACECRAFT

This paper is a participant's account of the spacecraft Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11, their historic missions to Jupiter, Saturn, and the outer heliosphere; and the observations by the University of Iowa radiation instruments on both. Each of these instruments has a mass of 1,64 kg and draws 25 mA from the electrical power supply of the spacecraft. It is shown that a mere 25 mA, if properly applied, can yield some remar kable results. The flow of data is continuing at the time of writing.