The NASA Advanced Pioneer Mission

The paper reviews the Advanced Pioneer and its place in the NASA space program. A brief description of the solar environment is given and the scientific objectives of the mission and the types of experiments of interest are discussed. The performance capabilities of various boosters are presented to indicate the possibilities of carrying sufficient payload to achieve the objectives. Problem areas and trade-off analyses of the communication, on-board power, thermal control, and attitude control subsystems are discussed. Based on these results a possible configuration for the Advanced Pioneer that will meet requirements is presented. The growth potential of this configuration is also examined.