Galileo To Taste Jupiter Before Taking Final Plunge

DP writes:

Ron Baalke wrote:

RELEASE: 03-297
GALILEO TO TASTE JUPITER BEFORE TAKING FINAL PLUNGE
In the end, the Galileo spacecraft will get a taste of Jupiter
before taking a final plunge into the planet's crushing atmosphere,
ending the mission on Sunday, Sept. 21.

The spacecraft has been purposely put on a collision course with Jupiter
to eliminate any chance of an unwanted impact between the spacecraft and
Jupiter's moon Europa, which Galileo discovered is likely to have a
subsurface ocean.

At some heights in the Jupiter atmosphere the physical
conditions might be suitable to sustain life.
Since temperature increases inward, at some level it must
traverse the 0-100 C interval in layers where water and organic
molecules must be present, and well shielded from cosmic rays.

Apparently NASA seems to be sure enough that either no life
can exist within Jupiter, or that Galileo will be completely
sterilized before entering such "comfortable" atmospheric layers.


The important thing is, NASA seems to be sure enough that the spacecraft
will surely be destroyed and, if little bits of anything survive, they
won't be sending back radio signals.

Most of NASA's planetary missions since Voyager have ended when someone
found an Absolutely Compelling Scientific Reason why the spacecraft
should be deliberately crashed into the nearest large object. This is
probably because the Pioneer and Voyager missions ended by seeing NASA
spend many megabucks over many years maintaining ground teams and
facilities to pick up a steadily declining trickle of bits, only to
face boos and catcalls when they eventually zeroed the budget and pulled
the plug on the Plucky Little Spacecraft What Was Still Bravely Exploring
The Cosmos.

Which isn't to say that there aren't people who are seriously concerned
about the contamination issue and seriously certain that a Jovian entry
event will thoroughly sterilize the craft. But I am skeptical that this
is the dominant motive behind the move.


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