Xref: utzoo sci.space:15178 sci.space.shuttle:3968 sci.astro:5617 Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!henry.jpl.nasa.gov!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov!baalke From: baalke@mars.jpl.nasa.gov (Ron Baalke) Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.space.shuttle,sci.astro Subject: Galileo Update (Forwarded) Message-ID: <2059@jato.Jpl.Nasa.Gov> Date: 1 Nov 89 20:44:55 GMT Sender: news@jato.Jpl.Nasa.Gov Reply-To: baalke@mars.jpl.nasa.gov (Ron Baalke) Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA. Lines: 54 GALILEO WEEKLY STATUS October 30, 1989 This is a weekly Galileo status report. Today, October 30, 1989, the spacecraft is about 2.5 million miles from Earth, and has gone 16.7 million along its 2.4-billion-mile spiral course to Jupiter. Its velocity around the Sun is almost 60,000 mph. All subsystems are working well. Since launch, operators have sent hundreds of real- time commands to the Galileo spacecraft. The S-band transmitter has been switched to 30 watts, and the propulsion system has been exercised twice in maintenance maneuvers (primarily to move oxidizer and fuel along in the plumbing.) The telemetry rate is 7.68 kilobits per second. As of this morning, the spacecraft is spinning at 2.9 rpm around an axis within 1 degree of the Sun line. As Galileo progresses around towards Venus, the Sun angle changes; this is held to less than 14 degrees, by commanded or automatic maneuvers, to assure a shaded spacecraft. The atmospheric entry probe was checked out last Thursday, October 26, and its condition is satisfactory. The imaging system and the near-infrared mapping spectrometer were checked out Friday, with good results. Preparatory activities for various other science instruments are being done, but the only instruments actually turned on and taking data are the magnetometer and the HIC. The heavy ion counter, an engineering instrument modified from parts of a Voyager cosmic-ray sensor, was turned on ten days ago and detected the latter part of the solar flare of October 19. Heavy ions of energies up to 130 MEV (million electron volts) have been detected, but the spacecraft has experienced no single-event upsets (i.e., no ill effects.) Today the star sensor on the spinning section is to be checked out, in preparation for Wednesday's start of dual- spin operations. The lower section of the Galileo spacecraft will be spun in reverse, with electric motors, stopping the rotation and despinning the science scan platform. The first trajectory-correction maneuver, TCM-1, is scheduled, in three instalments, for November 9, 10 and 11. Ron Baalke | (818) 541-2341 x260 Jet Propulsion Lab M/S 301-355 | baalke@mars.jpl.nasa.gov 4800 Oak Grove Dr. | Pasadena, CA 91109 |