For the first time ever, two interplanetary spacecraft are
studying the same outer planet at the same time. A new Internet
site will keep people on our own planet up to date about the
adventure.
The Jupiter Millennium Flyby site maintained by NASA’s Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., gives visitors a travel
guide of NASA’s Cassini and Galileo spacecraft near Jupiter from
October through March. It will provide regular updates of new
information and pictures gathered by the spacecraft and by
related Jupiter research.
The site is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/jupiterflyby
.
Cassini will pass near Jupiter in December to gain the
gravitational assist it needs for reaching its main objective,
Saturn, more than three years later. Its closest approach to
Jupiter will be about 10 million kilometers (6 million miles)
away, on Dec. 30, 2000. It began returning Jupiter pictures and
data last week, from about eight times farther away.
Galileo has been orbiting Jupiter since late 1995, still
making discoveries after more than double its planned orbital
lifespan and triple its planned radiation exposure. Galileo is
currently in a distant portion of an elongated orbit and will be
returning close to Jupiter in December. A coordinated plan of
studies aims to use the opportunity of having two different
vantage points to gain new information about Jupiter, its moons,
and its surrounding environment.
The Jupiter Millennium Flyby site will offer several
animations from various points of view. It also has educational
material for classroom use.
Cassini is a cooperative endeavor of NASA, the European
Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL manages the
Cassini and Galileo missions for NASA’s Office of Space Science,
Washington, D.C. JPL is a division of the California Institute
of Technology in Pasadena.
