Galileo Mission Status - April 28, 1997
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
As the Galileo spacecraft prepares for another encounter with Jupiter's largest moon, Ganymede, playback of data from the craft's previous Ganymede flyby on April 4 Pacific Standard Time is nearing completion.
This final batch of data return from the April flyby will conclude around noon Pacific Daylight Time on Saturday, May 3. It includes observations of Ganymede's bright, dark and dark- rayed regions from the remote sensing instruments, and high resolution fields and particles data on the magnetospheres around Jupiter and Ganymede and the interaction between the two.
Playback also includes observations of Europa's lineated circular regions. This will be used to help determine how these features originated and to construct a global map of Europa at regional resolution. Regional observations of Jupiter to be returned this week will also be used for a global map of Jupiter.
A few Jupiter observations from the remote sensing instruments will be returned, including a study of a small red spot in the Jovian atmosphere, a hot spot on the planet and a single image of Adrastea, one of Jupiter's small inner moons. The fields and particles instruments' survey of Jupiter's magnetosphere will resume on Friday, marking the start of the second magnetospheric "mini-tour."
The Galileo flight team will transmit the first set of encounter sequence commands to the spacecraft later this week, as it prepares for the next encounter with Ganymede on May 7. This will be Galileo's final close flyby of Ganymede.
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