This Week on Galileo - April 7-13, 1997
With only about a month before Galileo's next encounter, playback was initiated immediately following the end of the Ganymede encounter period. The fields and particles instruments will continue to survey the magnetosphere during this week and navigators will execute the first orbit trim maneuver to correct the spacecraft's path for any residual errors from the satellite encounter flyby.
Once again, the playback plans contain a variety of different observations - a reflection of the many different types of experiments that are possible with a spacecraft like Galileo. The fields and particles plasma sheet observation is first in line to be transmitted to earth. Remember from "Today on Galileo" that the collection of these observations (performed in different orbits) will be used to map the distribution of plasma and to understand it varies in different parts of the magnetosphere.
Global observations of Callisto performed by SSI (Solid State Imaging camera) and NIMS (Near Infrared Mapping Spectrometer) will also be played back this week. They are part of the mission-long goal to completely map the surface of all the Galilean satellites (did you catch the composite - global image of Io recently posted on the Galileo WWW page? - http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galilhttp://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/PIAGenCatalogPage.pl?PIA00585) and are the first to include the Valhalla multi-ring structure. In addition to a global image of Thebe, the first Europa images from the non-targeted flyby, a Europa image while eclipsed by Jupiter and an Europa global image taken 12 hours prior to closest approach, are also scheduled for transmission during this week.
Jupiter observations returned during the week are comprised mostly of SSI and NIMS observations of the small red spot feature selected for this past encounter. These observations are expected to provide more information regarding long lasting storms in Jupiter's atmosphere. Images of aurora comprise the remaining portion of the week's return of Jupiter observations.
Finally, a large set of Io monitoring observations performed by NIMS, SSI and PPR (Photopolarimeter Radiometer) are also on the playback schedule. These observations will provide information regarding the changes in Io's surface: chemistry, composition, temperature, new hot spots, etc. They are all part of the goal to understand the volcanic processes on Io.