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THE LAST DANCE (Galileo)- As the Galileo spacecraft headed away from Jupiter after passing within 63 miles of Io, commands were sent to take the spacecraft out of standby mode. Galileo paced itself in a safe mode about thirty minutes before the approach to Io. While the loss of the planned observations is disappointing, it is worth remembering that Galileo's primary mission was over in 1997. The spacecraft has be exposed to three-and-a-half times the radiation it was designed for. In order to prevent the craft from crashing into Europa, Galileo is targeted to pass Amalthea in November and crash into Jupiter in September, 2003.
HAVE A (N)ICE DAY (Cryobot)- NASA with researchers from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology along with the Norwegian Polar Institute and the Norwegian Space Center recently tested an ice penetrating robot on a glacier far above the Arctic Circle. The robot was successfully tested down to 75 feet into the glacier. Such a device melts its way down, allowing the ice to refreeze behind it to help prevent contamination. This Cryobot is being considered and tested for studying the polar cap on Mars, Europa and Lake Vostok, the Earth's forth largest lake which lies under the ice in Antarctica.
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