Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site mordor.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!genrad!panda!talcott!harvard!seismo!ut-sally!mordor!@S1-A.ARPA,@MIT-MC:crash!usiiden!jholt@Nosc From: jholt%Nosc@usiiden.UUCP Newsgroups: net.space Subject: Galileo mission to Jupiter Message-ID: <1671@mordor.UUCP> Date: Sat, 4-May-85 21:13:49 EDT Article-I.D.: mordor.1671 Posted: Sat May 4 21:13:49 1985 Date-Received: Tue, 7-May-85 20:33:33 EDT Sender: daemon@mordor.UUCP Lines: 221 From: [forwarded from the InterComEx BBS (303) 367-1935 by joe holt - thanx as always to Mark Felton, one of the sysops of this board and the one responsible for these articles] From: _Project Galileo: A Return to Jupiter_ [it should be noted that this is a NASA publication] The great Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei shocked the world in January 1610 when he announced the discovery of four satellites oribiting Jupiter. His discovery provided proof to Nicolaus Copernicus' theory that Earth and the other planets orbit the Sun, and Earth is not the center of the universe. Galileo told the story of his discovery: "On the seventh day of January in the present year 1610, at the first hour of the night, when I was viewing the heavenly bodies with a telescope, Jupiter presented itself to me; and because I had prepared a very excellent instrument for myself, I perceived (as I had not before, on account of the weakness of my previous instrument) that beside the planet there were three starlets, small indeed, but very bright." Galileo thought those "starlets" were just more of the fixed stars that his telescope was allowing him to discover with astounding regularity. But the next night he saw they had changed position. The night after that was cloudy. Then on January 10, he saw only two "starlets", the third having disappeared behind Jupiter. On the 11th: "I had now decided beyond all question that there existed in the heavens three stars wandering about Jupiter as do Mercury and Venus about the Sun, and this became plainer than daylight from observations on similar occasions that followed." On January 13, 1610, Galileo spotted the fourth satellite. Although he nearly paid for his observatons and later writing with his life, Galileo remained the most respected scientist of his time. Today, those four satellites - Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto are called the Galilean satellites in his honor. A NASA project to orbit Jupiter and send an instrumented Probe into the giant planet's atmosphere is under way at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The mission, called Project Galileo after the Italian astronomer, will begin an in depth exploration of the Jovian system: Jupiter, the Galilean satellites, and the giant, invisible magnetosphere surrounding Jupiter. Scientists believe that Jupiter is made of the original material from which stars form, largely unmodified by nuclear processes. Close range studies of Jupiter should provide important information about the beginning and development of our solar system and provide new insights into phenomena that directly relate to our understanding of all the planets. Project Galileo was originally scheduled for launch in early 1982 as the scientific successor to the Voyager mission to Jupiter. The Galileo probe was designed to be attatched to the Orbiter, and the combination spacecraft was scheduled to be launched from an Earth orbiting Space Shuttle. The relative position of Earth, Mars and Jupiter at that time makes it possible to send a heavy spacecraft to Jupiter via Mars in a relatively short time. Problems in the Space Shuttle development, however delayed the Galileo launch until recently. But now two spacecrafts will make the trip; an Orbiter spacecraft and an instrument Probe flying aboard a Probe Carrier spacecraft. The Orbiter will fly within a few hundred kilometers of the surface of Mars. The Orbiter will use Mars' gravity and a long burn of its own rocket motor to boost it the rest of the way to Jupiter. When the Orbiter arrives at Jupiter about one year before the probe, it will photograph the region where the Probe will never enter to ensure achievement of the original mission goals. As the Orbiter reaches its closest approach to Jupiter, it will fire its retrorocket engine for about 50 minutes to slow the spacecraft and permit capture by the planet. Within a few hours of closest approach to Jupiter, the Orbiter will fly past the volcanic satellite, Io, for close scientific observations. Io's gravity will further slow the spacecraft. At that point the spacecraft will be orbiting Jupiter in an elliptical path, ranging from more than 15 million Km (9.3 million mi) to 285,000 Km (178,000 mi) above Jupiter's cloud tops. Thereafter, the orbit will change through a series of elliptical paths to take the spacecraft to all regions of Jupiter's environment. That will be accomplished by using the gravity of the satellites to bend the orbit each time the spacecraft comes close to one of them. Eventually the orbit will be so altered that the spacecraft's closest approach to Jupiter will be 900,000 Km (560,000 mi) above Jupiter's cloud tops. During at least one orbit, the spacecraft will fly through and study Jupiter's magnetotail - the portion of the magnetic region directly opposite the Sun - to a distance of 150 times the radius of Jupiter, more than 10 million Km (6.2 million mi) from the planet. Observations of the magnetotail are not possible from Earth or with flyby spacecraft because the spacecraft pass close to Jupiter, and their trajectories are too strongly deflected to reach that region. The Orbiter will complete 11 orbits of Jupiter while making a close flyby of one Galilean satellite - Io, Europa, Ganymede or Callisto - on each orbit. The Orbiter, carrying 11 scientific instruments and weighing 2660 Kg (5864 lb) at launch, will transmit scientific and engineering data at rates up to 115K bits per second. Meanwhile, the Probe will be launched one month after the Orbiter, in March 1984, and will be transported to Jupiter on a special Probe Carrier spacecraft. Traveling on a long trajectory that does not pass Mars, the Probe and its Carrier will reach Jupiter one year later than the Orbiter in the summer of 1987. After being released from the Probe-Carrier spacecraft, the Probe will descend toward Jupiter's thick atmosphere. Scientists want the instrument-laden Probe to enter Jupiter's light colored Equatorial Zone, between 1 and 5.5 degrees north or south latitude. They believe the topmost clouds of that portion of Jupiter's atmosphere consist primarily of ammonia. By entering at that location, the Probe should be able to measure Jupiter's important cloud layers. As the Probe strikes the upper layers of Jupiter's atmosphere, it will slow so rapidly that it will feel the effects of 400 times Earth's gravity. Once the strongest deceleration forces have passed, the Probe will deploy a parachute. The decent module will begin to take atmospheric measurements and transmit its findings to the Probe Carrier spacecraft for relay back to Earth. 40 minutes after entry, scientists expect the Probe to reach an atmospheric density of about 10 bars (10 X the atmospheric pressure at Earth's surface), below what are believed to be Jupiter's lowest water clouds. At the end of 60 minutes, the Probe will have penetrated 15 to 20 Earth atmospheres. Below that, increasing temperature and pressure and weakening radio signals will eventually bring the Probe mission to an end. Meanwhile, the Probe Carrier spacecraft will monitor signals from the Probe, pricking up scientific information and relaying it to Earth. The data also will be recorded on the Probe Carrier for later playback if needed. Once the Probe's work is done, the mission operations emphasis will revert to the Orbiter. The primary mission is scheduled to end about 20 months after Probe arrival at Jupiter. The Galileo Orbiter will incorporate a new dual spin design. Part of the spacecraft will be three axis stabilized so the camera and some other instruments can be accurately and steadily pointed. The other portion will spin so its instruments can sweep out space to make their measurements. Since Jupiter is too far from the Sun for solar cells, the Orbiter will use radioisotope thermoelectric generators similar to those flown on the two Voyager spacecrafts. Jupiter is vastly different from Earth, Mercury, Venus and Mars. While these terrestrial planets are mostly rock, Jupiter's major constituents are hydrogen and helium, in about the same ratio as the Sun. Jupiter is the noisiest source of radio signals, except the Sun, in our sky. Its magnetic field - the largest in our solar system - would reach from Earth to Venus. Jupiter may change gradually from a gaseous hydrogen helium to a liquid metalic hydrogen. The tops of the clouds - all that can be seen of the planet - are wracked by huge storms that appear to well up from deep within Jupiter's interior. The four Galilean satellites differ from each other in much the same way as the planets differ with distance from the Sun. Io has been subjected to a gravitational tug of war that has resulted in at least eight large, active volcanoes; Europa appears to be rocky with an ice crust. Ganymede and Callisto, while different from each other in significant ways, both consist mostly of water. The Orbiter is designed to: Inspect the surfaces of the satellites (the camera may see details as small as 30-100 meters across) to gain information about their composition, present state, and geological history. Make comprehensive observations of Jupiter's weather. Study the magnetosphere- its size and shape and how it changes, how particles enter and leave it, and how Jupiter's satellites affect it. The Probe is designed to: Determine the temperature, pressure, density, and composition of the various levels of Jupiter's atmosphere down to a level at which pressure is about 10 X that at sea level on Earth, perhaps 129 Km (80 mi) below the cloud tops. Measure and compare the flows of energy through the atmosphere, inward from the Sun and outward from Jupiter's interior. Even before the time of Galileo, people have been interested in Jupiter, our largest planet. More than 475 scientists - including 90 from 10 foreign countries - submitted proposals in Project Galileo; 115 scientists were selected to form the Galileo science team. Project Galileo will be the U.S.' fifth mission to Jupiter; predecessors include Pioneer 10 & 11 and Voyager 1 & 2. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory is the overall management center for Project Galileo. The Orbiter's rocket propulsion system will be provided by the Federal Repulblic of Germany. NASA Ames Research Center will develop the Probe and Probe Carrier spacecraft. Radio signals from the two spacecraft will be received on Earth by JPL's Deep Space Network. [more current-newsish topics will be forwarded in the future]