Binary event: end of days for Galileo Mission

The Countdown to Galileo's planned impact with Jupiter nears completion: While you wait, read up on the mission, the first collision of two solar system bodies ever to be observed and speculation on the composition of a certain moon. SF fans might remember Clarke's Space Odyssey series. This was mentioned before on /., so what will you be doing at 4PM?

SkyNews for September 2003

September 21 - End of Galileo Mission
The Galileo spacecraft that has been exploring Jupiter since 1995 will end it mission today as it crashes into the giant planet.

Galileo Millennium Mission Status 18 Jan 2002

Galileo will pass near Amalthea in November 2002 and plunge to its demise in Jupiter's crushing atmosphere in September 2003.

GOODBYE GALILEO

Like a modern-day Orpheus, NASA's Galileo spacecraft comes to its finale on September 21st. It too will be torn limb from limb, as it enters the underworld of the planet Jupiter. Galileo was launched on October 18, 1989, and arrived at Jupiter in December 1995. En-route it visited Venus; asteroids Ida, Dactyl, and Gaspra; and the Earth and Moon. Although Galileo's damaged main antenna meant it could never sing as sweetly as Orpheus, it did return impressive information. Galileo's primary mission was to study Jupiter's atmosphere, magnetosphere, and the four largest moons for two years (1995-1997) from the orbiting spacecraft and an atmospheric probe. In an extended mission, for two more years (1997-1999) Galileo studied in further detail and closer range Jupiter's icy moon Europa and its fiery moon Io. Galileo continued its studies under yet another extension, called the Galileo Millennium Mission, which saw joint observations of Jupiter with the Cassini spacecraft as it flew by on its way to Saturn. The Galileo spacecraft made a final visit to Jupiter's moon Amalthea in November 2002. The rendezvous set it on a course to impact with Jupiter itself on September 21, 2003. It will be destroyed to prevent possible contamination while still controllable, lest it drift into an unwanted impact with the moon Europa, where Galileo discovered evidence of a subsurface (there's that theme again!) ocean that is a possible habitat for extraterrestrial life.

Galileo - Countdown to Jupiter Impact

The Galileo mission will end when the spacecraft impacts Jupiter on September 21, 2003. Galileo has been in orbit around Jupiter since December 1995.

Galileo Project Home

The Galileo spacecraft will end its mission September 21, 2003. Launched in 1989 aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis, Galileo has been exploring Jupiter and its moons since December 1995. Members of JPL's Solar System Ambassadors program will celebrate the jovian legacy with events around the country.

Galileo-Galileo

With its fuel almost all gone now, however, the time has come to bring this incredibly productive voyage of discovery to an end. Although NASA will obtain one final burst of photographs and data as the spacecraft plunges towards Jupiter's surface and is crushed by the huge gravitational forces of this massive planet, the main reason for this spectacular end is to eliminate even the slightest chance that the craft would crash instead on Jupiter's moon Europa. Ever since Galileo discovered what seems to be a subsurface ocean on Europa, in the course of its second mission, scientists have wondered if there could be life there. Given that possibility, however remote, the last thing anyone wants is for an earthly spacecraft to crash there, possibly carrying tiny microbes from home and as a result maybe ruining a future exploration of the planet.

Space Today Online - Exploring Jupiter - Galileo's Mission Is Extended

The Galileo spacecraft will impact Jupiter on Sunday, September 21, 2003, around 4 p.m. EDT (1 p.m. PDT) bringing to an end an eight-year tour of the Jovian system and a mission that spanned some 30 years from concept through mission execution.

Tumbling Stone 21 - mission Galileo

The Galileo mission will end on September 21, 2003 after 8 years from its beginning, when the spacecraft will be made to impact Jupiter.

Galileo's Successor

With the Galileo mission nearing its end, NASA is already looking toward the future and the next mission to explore Jupiter and its major moons. During its 8-year jovian residency Galileo revealed how interesting Jupiter's Galilean moons are, but its inability to explore them thoroughly have left many of their characteristics unknown. For example, Galileo found evidence that Jupiter's icy moons Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto may harbor subsurface oceans, but it couldn't determine whether the buried seas truly exist, what these potential oceans include, or how deep they are.

TCS: Tech Central Station - Galileo's Last Ride

During its November flyby of Amalthea, the spacecraft will collect data about the satellite's composition and about the intense radiation and magnetism in the vicinity. But there has been criticism, from Aviation Week magazine and some scientists, of NASA's decision not to take any further pictures of the 154-mile-long moon. Such imaging was deemed too expensive and of lesser scientific importance. There may be further controversy over plans to shut off the probe's instruments months before the plunge into Jupiter. The spacecraft is running out of fuel and money, and has been battered by politics and radiation. But any final glitches notwithstanding, Galileo's performance has been heroic.

CNN.com - End nears for orbiting Galileo probe - Feb. 10, 2003

At its height, 300 people worked on the mission at JPL. Now just two dozen do. The end is slated for September 21, when Galileo is expected to plunge into Jupiter's stormy atmosphere after completing its 35th loop around the planet.

NSSDC Photo Gallery: Jupiter
Nice pics, Jupiter and Satellites.

Texas A&M Observatory Jupiter Images