This Week on Galileo June 25 – July 1, 2001
This week the Galileo spacecraft peeks back out from behind the Sun. For
about the last three weeks, Jupiter, with Galileo in orbit around it, has
been blocked from view by the Sun. During this period of solar conjunction,
the radio signal from the spacecraft must pass through the turbulent
atmosphere of the Sun, and interference from solar plasma garbles the
information, making it unintelligible. But now the angle between Galileo
and the Sun as seen from Earth is greater than seven degrees, the noise
level has subsided, and the ones and zeroes of telemetry can once again be
captured successfully by the ground communications antennas. Normal cruise
operations for the spacecraft can now continue.
This past Saturday, routine maintenance was performed on the on-board tape
recorder, and the playback of the stored data resumed. These data were
acquired during the May 25 flyby of Callisto. On Tuesday, routine
maintenance of the propulsion system is performed.
The Extreme Ultraviolet Spectrometer (EUV) instrument continues its
two-month-long study of the interplanetary medium. Scheduled for playback
this week are high-resolution Solid State Imaging (SSI) pictures of
Callisto, taken just a few minutes after the closest approach to that
satellite. Stereo images of a domed crater on Callisto are also slated to
be returned.
For more information on the Galileo spacecraft and its mission to Jupiter,
please visit the Galileo home page at one of the following URL’s:
