Restarting the NewsBlog...
Let's see if I can keep this up now... I certainly hope so! Now, for some interesting scientific news articles...
Galileo Hits Glitch in Final Flyby of Io
The Galileo spacecraft, which has been orbiting Jupiter since 1995, performed its last flyby of the moon Io on Thursday, Jan. 17. However, because the spacecraft erroniously shut down it's on-board computer systems, no data was collected. Scientists were highly disappointed, as this was to be the closest pass to Io's surface: only 62 miles up. They were, however, not entire unsuspecting of an error of this nature beforehand, since Galileo has lasted four years beyond it's scheduled life, and has survived around three-and-a-half times the radiation it was designed to handle. In it's life, the spacecraft has taken some 14,000 photographs of Jupiter and it's moons, and has been called an incredible success, even in light of other system failures along the way (including the loss of the onboard video recording system, design to relay near-live video footage of Jupiter's atmosphere, and the loss of the high-band antenna, which forced NASA to rely upon the low-band antenna, severely limiting the number of photos Galileo was capable of sendign back to Earth). Galileo was launched in October 1989 from Kennedy Space Center, and will soon be sent into a death plunge into Jupiter's atmosphere, which scientist's explain is a method of cleaning up after themselves; specifically, to avoid polluting the moon Europa's surface (believed to contain a massive liquid water ocean and possible life).
Mars Odyssey Completes Aerobraking Maneuvers
On Friday, Jan. 11, the Mars Odyssey spacecraft completed a series of orbits known as Aerobraking, maneuvers designed to bring Odyssey into an appropriate orbit for carrying out it's experiments without expending very much of it's critical propulsive fuel. To accomplish this feat, Odyssey orbited Mars 332 times in a series of ever-tightening ovals. Over the next few weeks, the spacecraft handlers will fine-tune the orbit until the optimum mapping altitude of 249-miles. Experiments are due to begin in late February.
Let's see if I can keep this up now... I certainly hope so! Now, for some interesting scientific news articles...
Galileo Hits Glitch in Final Flyby of Io
The Galileo spacecraft, which has been orbiting Jupiter since 1995, performed its last flyby of the moon Io on Thursday, Jan. 17. However, because the spacecraft erroniously shut down it's on-board computer systems, no data was collected. Scientists were highly disappointed, as this was to be the closest pass to Io's surface: only 62 miles up. They were, however, not entire unsuspecting of an error of this nature beforehand, since Galileo has lasted four years beyond it's scheduled life, and has survived around three-and-a-half times the radiation it was designed to handle. In it's life, the spacecraft has taken some 14,000 photographs of Jupiter and it's moons, and has been called an incredible success, even in light of other system failures along the way (including the loss of the onboard video recording system, design to relay near-live video footage of Jupiter's atmosphere, and the loss of the high-band antenna, which forced NASA to rely upon the low-band antenna, severely limiting the number of photos Galileo was capable of sendign back to Earth). Galileo was launched in October 1989 from Kennedy Space Center, and will soon be sent into a death plunge into Jupiter's atmosphere, which scientist's explain is a method of cleaning up after themselves; specifically, to avoid polluting the moon Europa's surface (believed to contain a massive liquid water ocean and possible life).
Mars Odyssey Completes Aerobraking Maneuvers
On Friday, Jan. 11, the Mars Odyssey spacecraft completed a series of orbits known as Aerobraking, maneuvers designed to bring Odyssey into an appropriate orbit for carrying out it's experiments without expending very much of it's critical propulsive fuel. To accomplish this feat, Odyssey orbited Mars 332 times in a series of ever-tightening ovals. Over the next few weeks, the spacecraft handlers will fine-tune the orbit until the optimum mapping altitude of 249-miles. Experiments are due to begin in late February.
posted by Benjamin Hunt at
1/18/2002 04:12:00 AM
