Galileo Amalthea Flyby Threatened

vince writes "The Galileo spacecraft will fly by Jupiter's moon Amalthea on November 5th. This is the *only* close flyby of this moon Galileo will make, but (as currently planned) it will not return any images, in order to save a paltry $1m - $1.5m. Looks like a grassroots campaign is going to be necessary to save the flyby."

Comments

Re:Why build ISS?

[Tablizer]

I agree!

I am sick of that space station sucking up all the science money.

It is the first black hole ever witnessed up close by humans. A money-hole that is.

Why not re-use Galileo? (maybe off-topic)

[doughmein_dot_net]

The whole fly-by thing got me pondering Galileo's planned fate, and how NASA has planned to nudge it into Jupiter when they have closed its planned mission. As I thought about this more, I began to realize just how valuable Galileo might be in the future.

Imagine a time, possibly in the near future, when humanity is able to overcome our petty differences, savage warfare, and all that which keeps us from truly growing as a species. When you're done laughing, take a minute to clean the Dr. Pepper off your monitor, and think about what would happen if, in a state of relative world peace, humanity embarked upon a mission to colonize our solar system and beyond.

We already know that we live on one of the best sources of heavy metals in our region of the solar system, at least until mining operations on Luna (or possibly Mercury) can be established. We've already sent out many satellites to explore the inner and outer solar system, with sizes varying from a small car to a large school bus. Think about the amount of heavy and precious metals used for the construction of these satellites. Think about how much gold, silver, silicon, iron, and other rare metals were bought by our tax dollars and shot into space. (Don't be outraged just yet -- the satellites served their intended purpose, and gave us good science and some really cool pictures.)

Now, let's list some of the most likely places where humanity can colonize and expand:

• Luna, close to Earth but probably poor in volatiles or metals
• Mars, a bit farther, but with unknown volatiles or surface metals
• Ganymede and Callisto, farther away but probably have enough volatiles and water ice to sustain a colony
• Titan, even farther and with extreme atmospheric conditions

As the list goes on, none of these places are known to have any serious deposits of heavy or rare metals. Given that most of the colonists' heavy and rare metals would probably have to come from Earth (and be pushed out of our deep gravity well at enormous expense) and be carried to their eventual destination, shouldn't we at least try to re-use an existing object of heavy and rare metals in the area? Wouldn't it make sense to save Galileo for this future colonization time, with the intent that we humans could scavenge it for its valuable parts and heavy metals?

Perhaps the imaging devices and optics, though old, could still work and serve as a near-field camera or for some other purpose. The computer circuits could be saved for their silicon, gold, and other elements. The nuclear power plant would probably not be too radioactive by the time we got to it, so there's some nice lead and uranium/plutonium for the taking. Even the frame of the spacecraft could be melted down and reformed into something useful. I'm sure there isn't much refined steel, titanium or aluminum just floating around, waiting to be picked up by us humans. Sure, we could start mining the asteroids, but that'd take time and lots of work.

Just because Galileo has surpassed its original mission lifetime and survived for additional scientific purposes doesn't mean that we should waste it completely by dropping it into Jupiter. The giant planet already has 317 Earth-masses, and it really doesn't need any more. Plus, if we drop anything in there, there isn't any way we are going to get it back.

My suggestion is to put Galileo into a comfortable parking orbit around Ganymede or Callisto, and maybe let it continue to operate, snap a few random pictures once in a while, and report on the Jovian system. Then, after it stops functioning and we can get out there to colonize, we'll have a nice starting point towards a space station, or raw materials to help build a Jovian moon colony.

Thoughts?

Re:Why not re-use Galileo? (maybe off-topic)

[CheshireCatCO]

Because there are no comfortable parking orbits in the Jovian system. There are too many bodies to provide a system we can solve over longer-term. (For a Jovian orbit, that means say a few hundred orbits. Each orbits is of order days, so we're talking a few years.) Beyond any short term, the perturbations to the orbit add up and thanks to the chaotic nature of the orbits, we lose the ability to predict where Galileo will be. Thanks to an almost non-existant fuel supply, nothing can be done to prevent this.

So we lose control of the orbit, so what? So what is that they don't want it to crash into a moon like Europa. While the RTG is relatively safe, it's still warm and would probably work its way down through the ice, saith NASA analysts. (Even if it doesn't, there is a fair chance that the anything on the surface will eventually end up inside the moon.) Once inside, there is the risk of contaminating the moon with not only the radioactive plutonium but also any terrestrial microorganisms that might be left on Galileo. (The spacecraft was not cleaned to the levels that would be required of a lander.) Either way, that runs the risk of contaiminating the whole moon.

Is the risk small? Yes. But the last thing anyone wants is to ruin any extraterrestrial ecosystems for study. Once you contaminate them, all subsequent research is going to be of questionable value.

There is also the risk that Galileo could be ejcted from the system. This has the potential to be bad, as well, as it could (very long term, admittedly) come back and smack Earth. I know, low probability. I was incredulous when I heard the NASA folks worry about that, but it is a risk. And so that's why they're not getting it out of Jupiter orbit, in fact.

Ultimately, I suspect that everyone at NASA would dearly love to save poor Galileo. It's been a trooper and deserves to be enshrined in the Smithsonian. (No offense, but given the choice between that and a few tons of scrap metal and outdate technology, I'd pray they'd bring it home.) But the risks, small though they are, are deemed too great.