Good news for space policy

Greg Kuperberg wrote:

But Galileo is pretty grandiose even by American
science standards.

Galileo is one of the great lost opportunities in space science and
public relations. Yes, Galileo, the wounded warrior who carried on,
managed to send back oodles of good and valuable photos. But the drop
probe? Nothing of the slightest interest to the public. In other
words... no friggen' camera. Joe Q Public couldn't give a **** less
about magnetometer readings, or about "reconstructions" of what the
Jovian sky might have looked like. A few color photos, however, would
have been worth the price of the whole mission.

(George William Herbert) wrote

Scott Lowther wrote:

Galileo is one of the great lost opportunities in space science and
public relations. Yes, Galileo, the wounded warrior who carried on,
managed to send back oodles of good and valuable photos. But the drop
probe? Nothing of the slightest interest to the public.

And would have wrecked the data link budget for all eternity.


Anybody know how many bits the entry probe actually returned?