Galileo Status Report - January 26, 1996

PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109. 
TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

NASA's Galileo spacecraft successfully began playing back tape-recorded atmospheric probe science data from Jupiter on schedule yesterday after recovery from a second tape-sticking incident, JPL engineers reported.

The data now being sent to Earth are six minutes of Jupiter atmospheric measurements made by the Galileo probe as it plunged into Jupiter December 7. Playback of the tape recorded data began at 1 a.m. PST (4 a.m. EST) January 25 and is scheduled to continue through February 5. Nearly all of the probe's data were transmitted directly from the Galileo orbiter's computer in December and January. The data on the tape recorder now being received will augment the probe information still being analyzed by the probe science team.

The tape recorder had stuck in October 1995 before playing back a picture of Jupiter, forcing the Galileo team to forego picture-taking in December when Galileo approached the planet and went into orbit. The recorder has been used at slow speed, however, to record the probe data and other science measurements.

The tape stuck January 18 during tests of the device while conditioning it for playback. It pulled free later as expected when engineers commanded the recorder to advance the tape.

"This looks consistent with the theoretical model of the tape sticking to the guide head, except that we were very surprised the tape stuck when it was stopped for just a few seconds," said Galileo Project Manager William O'Neil of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "We are evaluating the implications of this second incident."

Galileo engineers have been working with a laboratory model of the tape recorder that sticks. "The lab model is a great aid for developing a strategy for efficient tape recorder operations," said O'Neil.

Galileo's scientists, in the meantime, have begun the final stages of detailed planning for Galileo's 11-orbit tour of the jovian system. Encounters with Jupiter's moons begin June 27 with a close approach to Ganymede. Imaging data during the mission are to be recorded on the tape recorder before the data are edited and compressed by spacecraft computers and sent to Earth.

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