This Week on Galileo - December 9-15, 1996
This week Galileo returns the last bit of data from the Callisto encounter and starts its encounter with Europa. The encounter with Europa marks the last "first" close encounter of the Galileo orbital tour. After Europa, with the exception of Io, the spacecraft will return to each Galilean satellite two more times before the end of the primary mission in Dec 1997.
Playback plans for this week continue to include observations that had been previously previewed. Some very unique data is being returned in this final week of data return. Included in this set of observations is the highest resolution observation of Io performed by the NIMS instrument during the orbital tour. This data set is even more unique because it will include all of the observable frequencies available to NIMS. Also included in this set of data are observations of some unique terrain on Europa and some unique views of Jupiter's rings. These particular ring observations are also taken from the closest distance Galileo will come to the rings for the rest of the orbital tour.
The only non-previewed observation returned during this week is one of Jupiter's atmosphere obtained by the Ultraviolet spectrometer. This particular observation was taken of Jupiter's darkside while the spacecraft was blocked from the Sun by Jupiter. This view is not possible from Earth and will provide unique information on the activity of the upper atmosphere in the absence of sunlight.
Encounter science starts with remote observations of the Io torus conducted on approach to the Jupiter system. Optical navigation images continue to be taken this week in preparation for the last pre-encounter orbit trim maneuver. This maneuver is sent to the spacecraft toward the end of the week for execution within the first couple of days of the start of the encounter sequence. The encounter sequence of commands is also sent to the spacecraft during this week and begins to execute on December 14 at 4 pm PST.
Tune in for the return of TODAY ON GALILEO on December 14th.