NASA space tech: From Pioneer to Curiosity

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The same technology that has revolutionised our lives has changed space science forever, building ever-cleverer robots exploring ever farther into space.

As the Voyager probes celebrate their 35th birthday and prepare to leave the Solar System, and as the Curiosity rover starts on the most exciting Mars mission ever, we look back at the IT under the hood that has made science fiction into everyday fact.

Pioneer 10

Launched in 1972, Pioneer 10 (above) was the first imaging mission to fly past Jupiter, Although it is widely reported that it used an Intel 4004 processor for navigation, mission sequencing and communication, it in fact used a custom processor system built from a variety of standard logic chips, with individual commands handled by dedicated circuits.

Storage was 49,152 bits of magnetic core memory, which was too heavy to be expanded further. But alternatives were pricey — a proposed upgrade to 1 megabit (256kB) of chip memory for a later mission was priced at $630,000 in 1974.

Pioneer 10 and its sister probe Pioneer 11 were the first missions to have a recognisably modern computer system capable of multiple commands and a measure of independent operation, due in part to the availability of high-density logic chips and the need to manage short, high-intensity science-gathering flypasts at a distance from Earth that precluded direct commands in real time.

However, they were still recognisably derived from earlier probe thinking, where pre-programmed sequences unaffected by local information drove manoeuvres.

An in-depth NASA design document discussing the Pioneer architecture and future developments into what would become the Voyager probes can be found here (PDF).

Image: NASA