1989-1995: A Galileo Navigation Space Odyssey
£5.00
R. J. Haw et al. (1998), JBIS, 51, pp.83-98
Refcode: 1998.51.83
Abstract:
On December 7, 1995 the Galileo spacecraft came within 900 kilometres of the volcanoes of Jupiter’s satellite Io and, less than five hours later was in a position to receive the unprecedented first-ever signal from an atmosphere-sampling probe falling into Jupiter’s clouds below. After another two hours the spacecraft executed an on-board command sequence causing is retropropulsion module to thrust for 48 minutes, subtracting the velocity necessary to place Galileo into an elliptical orbit around Jupiter. These three remarkable feats – the first near passage of a spacecraft with a satellite of Jupiter, the first in-situ measurements of an miler planet’s atmosphere, and the first spacecraft to orbit an outer planet – were only the latest in a six year voyage traversing a length of 25 AU (90% the Earth-Neptune distance).
