THE GALILEO MISSION TOWARDS JUPITER

In order to exploit the  gravitational  slingshot effect offered by the masses of the planets, thus saving precious fuel, the Galileo probe first directed towards Venus, then again towards the Earth and, after it crossed the asteroid belt, giving us the very first image of one of them, returned towards the Earth for the last jolt, directly towards Jupiter.  (JPEG, 497 K)  (NASA-JPL)

Logo of the space mission to Jupiter, dedicated to Galileo.  (JPEG, 495 K)

The spacecraft is prepared to be placed on the Shuttle which will carry it in orbit. The black and gold materials, and the solar shield protected the equipment from the the sudden changes of temperature and from micro meteorites.  (JPEG, 391 K)  (NASA-JPL)

On October 18th 1989 the Galileo probe was released in space by the Shuttle Atlantis.  (JPEG, 278 K)  (NASA-JPL)

By pointing its antenna towards the Earth, the spacecraft, which has now almost reached Jupiter, sends its precious data. This is how we imagine that it looked like.  (JPEG, 172 K)  (NASA-JPL)

The scientific goals of the mission concentrate on three areas: the atmosphere of Jupiter, the magnetosphere and the satellites. Compared to Galileo Galilei's observations the obtained images improve the details at least 1 million times.  (JPEG, 242 K)  (NASA-JPL)

Flight configuration of the Galileo spacecraft.  The half open umbrella shape and the high gain antenna that unfortunately stopped working when it opened, remaining useless.  The data arrived to Earth all the same, even though it took them a longer time, using the small antenna on top of the spacecraft.  (JPEG, 477 K)  (NASA-JPL)

December 7th 1995: the descent in the atmosphere of Jupiter of the probe released by the Galileo spacecraft, in an artistic image. The parachute is completely opened and the thermal shield detached. The probe transmitted its data for almost an hour before it was destroyed due to the increase in pressure and temperature of the dense layers of the atmosphere of Jupiter. (JPEG, 393 K)  (NASA-JPL)

Extraordinary image of Io on the background of the jovian clouds. It has approximately the size of the Moon and it is the nearest to Jupiter, tormented by the powerful magnetic field and by the  tidal forces of the planet.    It was the first body of the Solar System, besides the Earth, that revealed to be volcanically very active. Photographed by the Galileo probe on September 7th 1996, it shows great changes of its surface compared to the images of the Voyager spacecraft, 17 years ago. The dark and red areas are very recent volcanic layers.  The Prometheus active volcano can be seen on center right.  (JPEG, 242 K)  (NASA-JPL)

The surface of Ganymede, the largest of the jovian satellites, photographed by the Galileo probe on June 27th 1996 at the small distance of 7,500 km. It is a very old soil, with clefts and craters excavated in the crust of dirty ice. The dark material could have come from  meteorites . The large crater rim visible on the left has a diameter of 19 km.  (JPEG, 440 K)  (NASA-JPL)

The frozen plains of the satellite Europa are crossed by darker lines and fractures, that indicate the presence of rocky material. The colours are intensified to highlight the contrasts. The image was taken on September 1996.  (JPEG, 163 K)  (NASA-JPL)

The main engine of the Galileo spacecraft and the nozzles were built in Germany by Daimler-Benz Aerospace for DARA. All propulsive maneuvers of the spacecraft are controlled by such system that proved to be very reliable.

DUST DETECTOR SYSTEM (DDS)  This dust detector, placed on the Galileo spacecraft, measures the speed, the mass, the electric charge and the direction of single dust particles in the interplanetary space and within the jovian   magnetosphere. (JPEG, 30 K)  (DARA)

 

LIGHTNING AND RADIO EMISSION DETECTOR/ENERGETIC PARTICLE INSTRUMENT (LRD/EPI)  A detector of lightning, radio emissions and energetic particles, placed in the probe which penetrated the atmosphere of Jupiter. The quantity of lightning resulted lower than expected, approximately 10 times lower than in a corresponding area of the Earth, but the intensity of the charges is 10 times higher. (JPEG, 281 K)  (DARA)

 

The engines of the Galileo spacecraft during some of the tests.  (JPEG, 407 K)  (DARA)