Exploration of Jupiter Exploration of Jupiter The exploration of Jupiter has been conducted via close observations by automated spacecraft. It began with the arrival of "Pioneer 10" into the Jovian system in 1973, and, , has continued with eight further spacecraft missions. All of these missions were undertaken by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and all but two have been flybys that take detailed observations without the probe landing or entering orbit. These probes make Jupiter the most visited of the Solar System's outer planets as all missions to the outer Solar System have used Jupiter flybys to reduce fuel requirements
Surveyor 3 panspermia, but more importantly, it led NASA to adopt strict abiotic procedures for space probes to prevent contamination of the planet Mars and other astronomical bodies that are suspected of having conditions possibly suitable for life. Most dramatically, the "Galileo" space probe was deliberately destroyed at the end of its mission by crashing it into Jupiter, to avoid the possibility of contaminating the Jovian moon Europa with bacteria from Earth. The "Cassini" probe also impacted Saturn at the end of its mission in 2017. However, independent investigators have challenged the claim of surviving bacteria on Surveyor 3 on the Moon.