Galileo To Taste Jupiter Before Taking Final Plunge
Wednesday, September 17, 2003
JPL/NASA
"This is a very exciting time for us as we draw to a close on this historic mission and look back at its science discoveries. Galileo taught us so much about Jupiter but there is still much to be learned, and for that we look with promise to future missions."
Deployment from the Shuttle
The Galileo spacecraft and its Inertial Upper Stage booster rocket were deployed from the space shuttle Atlantis October 18, 1989. Shortly thereafter, the booster rocket fired and separated, sending Galileo on its six-year journey to the planet Jupiter. Upon its arrival at Jupiter in December 1995, Galileo released a probe into the atmosphere so that scientists could survey the composition of the planet's clouds. The orbiter has relayed probe information, surveyed its surroundings, and photographed Jupiter and some of its major satellites.
Image Credit: JPL/NASA
JPL/NASA
In the end, the Galileo spacecraft will get a taste of Jupiter before taking a final plunge into the planet's crushing atmosphere, ending the mission on Sunday, Sept. 21. The team expects the spacecraft to transmit a few hours of science data in real time leading up to impact.
The spacecraft has been purposely put on a collision course with Jupiter to eliminate any chance of an unwanted impact between the spacecraft and Jupiter's moon Europa, which Galileo discovered is likely to have a subsurface ocean. The long-planned impact is necessary now that the onboard propellant is nearly depleted.
Without propellant, the spacecraft would not be able to point its antenna toward Earth or adjust its trajectory, so controlling the spacecraft would no longer be possible.
"It has been a fabulous mission for planetary science, and it is hard to see it come to an end," said Dr. Claudia Alexander, Galileo project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "After traversing almost 3 billion miles and being our watchful eyes and ears around Jupiter, we're keeping our fingers crossed that, even in its final hour, Galileo will still give us new information about Jupiter's environment."
Although scientists are hopeful to get every bit of data back for analysis, the likelihood of getting anything is unknown because the spacecraft has already endured more than four times the cumulative dose of harmful jovian radiation it was designed to withstand. The spacecraft will enter an especially high-radiation region again as it approaches Jupiter.
(More: JPL.NASA.gov/Galileo/News)
2003 © JPL/NASA.
Farewell, Galileo.
According to the site, impact was at 18:57 UTC (2:57 PM ET). Signal loss was expected at 19:50 UTC (3:50 PM ET), 52 light-minutes later -- and approx. 39 minutes ago.
Good run, Galileo,
Dan
Galileo To Taste Jupiter Before Taking Final Plunge . . .