Galileo Status Report
PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE JET PROPULSION LABORATORY CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION PASADENA, CALIF. 91109. TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
The tape-recorded information confirmed and extended the probe data already in hand and added engineering data to help the probe scientists analyze their data and understand the nature and activity of Jupiter's upper atmosphere. Meanwhile, scientists associated with some of the orbiter spacecraft instruments are studying data on the space environment sent to Earth in real time during the close approach to Jupiter.
Galileo engineers are preparing for a major spacecraft maneuver on March 14. This activity, called the "perijove raise maneuver," will almost double the spacecraft's orbital speed and reshape its orbit around Jupiter. The maneuver is designed to lift the closest point of the spacecraft's orbit from about 185,000 kilometers (115,000 miles) away from Jupiter to a region that is beyond the orbit of Europa, about 670,000 kilometers (420,000 miles) out. This orbit will keep the spacecraft away from the worst part of Jupiter's damaging charged-particle "radiation" belts.
The Galileo team is also busily finishing and testing the new computer software set that will operate the spacecraft through its orbital mission. Replacing the modified software installed in the spacecraft in January 1995, this set will include data compression and a wide range of telemetry speeds to allow a substantial increase in the amount of information the spacecraft can send to Earth. Essential elements of the new programming have been running day and night in the Galileo spacecraft simulator at JPL.
The spacecraft is operating normally, transmitting at 16 bits per second. It is currently 19 million kilometers (12 million miles) from Jupiter, still receding in its long elliptical orbit, and 869 million kilometers (539 million miles) from Earth. Radio signals now take more than 48 minutes to reach the Earth.