PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE JET PROPULSION LABORATORY CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION PASADENA, CALIF. 91109. TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
NASA's Galileo spacecraft, now in orbit around the planet Jupiter, this morning began the first scheduled return of data from its companion atmospheric probe that parachuted into the jovian atmosphere last Thursday.
Receipt of probe data from the spacecraft began at 4:15 a.m. PST and is scheduled to continue throughout the day.
This afternoon at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena CA, Galileo scientists will check this first batch of data to assess the quality of the information collected by the probe, said Galileo Project Scientist Dr. Torrence Johnson.
The probe data is the first-ever direct measurement of the giant planet's atmosphere and should reveal details of Jupiter's composition, climate and circulation. Forty minutes of data collected by the probe stored in the orbiter's onboard computer memory will be radioed to Earth over the next four days and presented to Galileo scientists for analysis. In early February, the full collection of probe data stored on Galileo's tape recorder, up to 75 minutes' worth, will be played back to receivers on Earth.
Preliminary analysis of the probe data will be presented at a press briefing December 19 at NASA's Ames Research Center, Mountain View, CA.
The Galileo orbiter's mission, meanwhile, is to conduct two years of detailed studies of Jupiter, its moons and the planet's magnetic environment. The project is managed by JPL.
PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE JET PROPULSION LABORATORY CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION PASADENA, CALIF. 91109. TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
"We are all absolutely ecstatic that our tremendously ambitious, first-ever penetration of an outer planet atmosphere has been so wonderfully successful," said Bill O'Neil, Galileo Project Manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA. "It's especially gratifying because so many of us have worked so hard for nearly two decades to get this first true taste of Jupiter's atmosphere."
The first scientific results from the probe data are to be presented in a press briefing on December 19 at NASA's Ames Research Center, Mountain View, CA. The Ames center, supported by Hughes Space and Communications Co., was responsible for development and operations of the atmopsheric probe and is the lead NASA center for analysis of the probe scientific data, with Marcie Smith as probe manager and Dr. Rich Young as probe scientist. They are leading a team of about 50 scientists who will interpret the first-ever direct measurements of Jupiter.
The Galileo orbiter continues to perform perfectly in orbit around Jupiter, said O'Neil. Given the spacecraft's precise targeting, he said he expects no "orbit trim" adjustments will be required to alter Galileo's orbital path prior to the so-called perijove raise maneuver, the third and last burn of the spacecraft's 400-Newton main engine scheduled for March 1996. That long-planned maneuver is designed to lift Galileo's orbit out of the high-radiation environment of Jupiter's charged- particle belts which could damage the spacecraft's electronics.
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