This Week On Galileo
January 25-30, 1999
Galileo spends most of this week preparing for its next close flyby of Jupiter's icy moon Europa. These preparations include completing playback of data stored on the spacecraft's on-board tape recorder, performing regular maintenance on said recorder, and executing a minor flight path correction. Galileo's encounter will begin on Saturday, January 30, 1999, and is the last flyby of Europa of the Galileo Europa Mission. The close flyby is will occur on Sunday evening, Pacific Time, at an altitude of 1440 km (895 miles).
Three science observations will be returned during these final days. The first is an observation of Jupiter's rings taken by the spacecraft camera during Galileo's September encounter with the Jupiter system. The second contains measurements of the star Sirius acquired by the near-infrared mapping spectrometer. The information will be used to calibrate the instrument's detectors. The final data set is part of a 5 hour recording of Jupiter's plasma sheet obtained by the fields and particles instruments.
This week's activity brings to close Galileo's 18th orbit around Jupiter. Tune in this Saturday, January 30, for details on the start of Galileo's 19th orbit, and the return of Today on Galileo.
For more information on the Galileo spacecraft and its mission to Jupiter, please visit the Galileo home page:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo