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Faulty Tape Recorder Hinders Retrieval of Galileo
Sponge! writes "In an article on space.com, NASA scientists struggled to get a balky tape recorder to work last Tuesday so they could retrieve some of the final data gathered by the aging Galileo spacecraft. It would be sad to see something like this prevent us from getting the data that we've waited so long for, and may have to wait even longer."
It turns out the problem wasn't that they used a tape recorder.
The mistake was that they selected a metric tape recorder.
Who the hell knows where parts can be obtained for a metric tape recorder???
The Galileo mission design goes back a long way: The official start of the project was in October 1977, with the name being changed to Galileo in February 1978.
Fancy stuff like space-rated solid state memories didn't exist back then, and in any case the original plan was to transmit most of the science data in real-time. The recorder was really intended as a back-up to store the atmospheric probe data in case there was a problem. (good job too, since the high-gain antenna didn't open as planned)
-- We don't understand software, and sometimes we don't understand hardware, but we can *see* the blinking lights
This isn't the sad part. The sad part was just after launch when they realized that the high gain antenna wouldn't deploy properly. That is what prevented us from getting all sorts of data. We've just been fortunate for the people that run the telemetry system who have managed to pack as much information as we've been getting into the low data rate downlink over the last decade.
I would also bet that given the length of time and the amount of radiation it has been hammered with, a tape recorder is probably the only storage medium that could stand up to those conditions.
The contents of the tape are as follows:
"do you get this thing to play?"
"Just push play"
"I already did that"
"You did? Did you push the button with the arrow?"
"The arrow? What arrow? I pushed the button with the dot...but I'm not hearing anything"
"Shit"
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
E-gads indeed.
Try, mid-70s tech, retrofitted for early 80s capability. Galileo was first envisioned in the mid 70s, and original plans were to launch circa 1982 on the shuttle. Shuttle delays and redesign resulted in significant redesign of propulsion systems (I'm not sure how much of the science package was also redone) for a planned early 80s launch. Due to more shuttle delays and congressional budget snipes, the Galileo package was knocked back and forth a few times between different launch systems (a May 1985 launch scrubbed again) until finally the science and launch packages were assembled and readied for a launch on Atlantis STS-61G in May 1986.
After the Challenger explosion, STS-61G was cancelled, and I remember vividly that afternoon hearing talk radio gibbering madly about "NUCULER DIZASTER!" aka, the RTG power source that some people felt would set up us the bomb.
The probe that launched in 1989 was already old and had been sitting on the shelf for several years. Its now felt that some of the subsequent failures were due to the amount of time spent in mothballs.
I wouldn't be surprised if the design specs for the science package froze early in development, what with the rest of the probe changing to meet current availability of launchers so frequently. And mag tapes were considered very well tested, reliable storage under the conditions Galileo faced.
First, nothing begins if not opening
I recently attended a talk given by JPL's Nagin Cox, she worked on the Galileo project for 5 years.
Regarding Amalthea flyby, she said that it was very likely that Galileo was going to be toasted by Jupiter's magnetic field. That's why Galileo went in to the flyby already lined up for the September 2003 Jovian Kamikaze Mission. The fear was that once it became a flying toaster they wouldn't be able to control it, they'd rather have it burn up in Jupiter's atmosphere rather than risk contaminating a moon.