Galileo Mission Status - March 11, 1998
MEDIA RELATIONS 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 is once again sending pictures and science information to Earth following a 2-1/2 week-hiatus caused by a period of "solar conjunction." Radio communications were hampered during this period, when the Sun passed between Earth and Galileo.
Now that full communications have been re-established, Galileo is sending to Earth pictures and information stored on its onboard tape recorder during the close Europa flyby this past December. Included are observations of the Pwyll impact crater region, the Conamara Chaos region, and fields and particles information on Europa's interaction with Jupiter's magnetic and electric fields.
This batch of information was actually transmitted once before, but this retransmission of the recorded data allows scientists to fill gaps caused by transmission problems, and to replay particularly interesting observations and additional data.
A turn for attitude maintenance was performed successfully on Sat., March 7. On Tues., March 10, the spacecraft's attitude control system was tested. This test was designed to determine how Galileo was affected by intense radiation exposure during the February 10 Europa flyby. Intense radiation in the Jovian system is considered a prime candidate as a cause of recent anomalous behavior by an attitude control system gyroscope. After analyzing results of the test, it was determined that the gyro's performance had degraded further. Although this may affect future pointing accuracy and stability, the Galileo team believes strongly that spacecraft still can collect additional science information during future flybys.
Later this week, the spacecraft will perform a flight path adjustment to ensure that it is aimed correctly for its next encounter with Europa, scheduled for March 29.
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