Part 1: Online from Jupiter 97 winds down
Part 2: Europa-6 planning and notes on Europa-4, did we succeed?
Part 3: How do you see Jupiter?
Part 4: Have a good trip, Galileo - - I had a lovely time
Part 5: Subscribing/Unsubscribing: How to do it

The OFJ97 project is winding down as this is being written. The project ended on April 6th and we are in the process of making some website revisions to tie up any loose ends. Everything that is currently on the website will still be available for your perusal long after the project is over.

This update contains three excellent field journals continuing the tradition of providing an inside look at the Galileo project through "electronic diaries." You can expect several more field journals in the last Online from Jupiter 97 update - - it will arrive in your email in a few days.

Part 1: Time for yet another observing trip in Hawaii!

Our Jupiter atmosphere observation plans for the Europa-6 orbit included taking a good look at some of the large white ovals which "live" just south of Jupiter's Great Red Spot (or GRS, for short). The ovals rotate around the planet at a different speed than the GRS itself, making it more difficult to predict where they will be. The people who plan observations of Jupiter's satellites don't have this problem, since rocky features don't move all over the place!

We needed to use observations from here on Earth (specifically, the Infrared Telescope Facility in Hawaii, or IRTF) to determine where we needed to point Galileo's cameras to "capture" one or more of the white ovals.I was having a problem keeping up with processing the data, and it was beginning to show. In an early December planning session, I gave some tentative locations for the longitudes (or east-west location) for these white ovals. It turned out that those locations were wrong, so now I had to figure out where they would be, using the IRTF data. What you do is look at different images of the white ovals taken over a period of time, and then you can figure out how fast they are moving around Jupiter. It's like predicting how fast a storm system will move into your area. Finding these "drift rates" is usually an easy task, but since I hadn't had time to work with all the data, I never quite got the correct drift rates worked out.

So, we estimated the rates and did what we could, and - sure enough - when we got the rates in, everyone had to make more pointing changes. It was a twofold lesson: (a) there is not enough of me to go around (I didn't know this already? :-), and (b) there really were lots of people counting on my work and I'd better not screw up again. Everyone understood, but it didn't make anyone's workload lighter.

Another question was: where would we find the target hot spot feature, similar to the region where Galileo's atmospheric probe had entered? A bright(when seen at a 5-micron wavelength) feature, while not the brightest on the planet, was sighted near the target hot spot location. It was a chevron- shaped feature with the upper part narrow and dim. The feature's location told us that we were not dealing with an older, "granddaddy"hot spot. The hot spot we targeted originally had disintegrated and a new one formed, or the old one changed and moved substantially in longitude.

We also did some Io observations as payback for some observers who had helped us out earlier; boy, did we owe! But this is one of the ways in which science works: you do someone a favor, they return it.

Another problem that cropped up was the fact that Jupiter was so close to the sun as seen in the sky that our IRTF observations (which were done at a wavelength where Jupiter is very dim and we see sunlight reflected off only the highest particles in Jupiter's atmosphere) were totally swamped by the background sky. So much for being able to look at particular features in Jupiter's northern hemisphere so that we could have Galileo look at them during the Ganymede-7 orbit encounter in early April.

Because of my travel and my observing schedule, I'd have a single night (when I returned, really refreshed - yeah, sure) to buy Christmas gifts AND an anniversary present for my wife AND birthday presents for my son. I ended up getting everything before I left on travel (which meant that the day before I left, I visited 12 stores in 5 hours!). Making life even MORE interesting during the observing run was the fact that one of my teeth lost a filling - ow!

Part 2: Computers and Funding

All this time (yes, the entire journal time frame), I'd been hounded by computer software problems in a very detailed program used to simulate the way in which radiation (e.g. heat) in Jupiter moves up and down in the atmosphere. If our actual data matches up to what we can generate from the computer program, then we know that our computer model is doing a good job of imitating the real Jupiter. But before using the program to test the data, we need to make sure that the program isn't filled with errors.

To make sure that the computer program had no errors, I would check its results against other computer programs, written by other people. If they match up, that means that our programs don't have any obvious bugs. But, my results never quite coincided with those from an apparently simpler program by my colleage and fellow Galileo Probe Net Flux Radiometer co-investigator Andrew Collard. This was especially strange since my model is more complicated, and should do a *better* job! After many changes in my original programming to account for the ways in which he was doing things, our results STILL weren't matching. This continued to be a source of great frustration, as I'd love to be really working on the data - not twiddling bits in a numerical model!

More paperwork was required, too. We were rapidly exhausting the funds in our account to do all this ground-based astronomical support work. The cost of all this equipment shipping and airline travel wasn't trivial! Last year, we'd applied for and gotten a supplement to the budget. Once again, it was time to write letters to the relevant NASA headquarters person for a funding "supplement." which headquarters said they'd consider if it were "moderate." I had no idea what "moderate" was supposed to mean, but the deadline was approaching.

It's sometimes a little tricky asking for support for people who are not associated directly with NASA. For example, we wanted to pay for someone at the University of Wisconsin to work at the Swedish Solar Telscope during the Europa-6 encounter (Hubble and the University of Hawaii telescopes were certainly not capable of handling anything this close to the sun). In addition, we wanted to fund the Mt. Stromlo / Siding Spring Observatory in Australia to monitor Jupiter for us between the Ganymede-8 and Callisto-9 orbit encounters (early May to late June) in order to continue to track various features of interest. The IRTF was scheduled to be down during this entire time for shutter refurbishment, and the Mt. Stromlo / Siding Spring Observatory was one of the few facilities in the world which was capable of doing the type of imaging we needed.

Does Jupiter look any different to you now? I am sitting on a plane somewhere over the North Atlantic flying to a Cassini meeting in Cannes, France. Looking out the window I see the planet Jupiter rising in the constellation Capricorn in the predawn sky, and I notice that it doesn't quite look the same to me anymore. Now, when it shines in the night sky, a little of its light comes from Earth. Once the Galileo probe's job was done, its final act was to become part of the planet it was sent to explore. Some of the light from Jupiter now comes from atoms and molecules that started in the probe instruments and electronics on Earth. When I look at Jupiter, I know that it has now and forever a new moon, one that we built at home here on Earth.

When we look to the start we see from where we came. When we look to the planets we see worlds that were born and grew up with us. Now, when we look at Jupiter we see our past and, perhaps, some of our future. Part of Jupiter is us. I don't think I'll ever look at Jupiter quite the same way again.

Gute Reise, Galileo! Es war sehr schoen.

(Have a good trip, Galileo! I had a lovely time.)

What a fitting way to conclude my involvement with OFJ--a journal entry on my last day of essentially full-time Galileo employment! On Monday, I start in earnest on the Cassini mission to Saturn, with lesser amounts of time spent on Galileo and a Mars Sample Return mission.

It is really tough thinking of leaving this project. I started on Galileo in October, 1990, one year after launch. This was my first job after leaving college, and I watched the remainder of my 20's slip away on this project. What times we have had together! Stunning triumphs and bitter disappointments--I have grown and stumbled as Galileo has grown and stumbled. I will never forget the deep and lasting friendships I have made here, the true sense of teamwork and commitment that embodies Galileo. To all of my friends and coworkers on the project, I say thank you. Without you, this would just be a job--you made it an adventure.

Since my last journal entry, I have been busier than ever, even though the propulsion system has continued its exemplary performance. We are writing a conference paper for a propulsion conference in Seattle, and that is keeping me and my two German colleagues very busy. Specifically, this is the final propulsion system "characterization" (that is, describing the state and health of the system) paper for Galileo, including the performance of the main engine and propellant feed system. I'm sure that the propulsion community eagerly awaits our data, since Galileo was a true trailblazer among bipropellant propulsion systems. No mission has ever asked so much of a bipropellant propulsion system, and Galileo rose marvelously to the challenge (but not without some "hiccups" along the way, to keep things interesting).

I still continue to talk about Galileo to service organizations and schools, as part of the JPL Speakers' Bureau. This is tremendously rewarding work to me. In fact, recently I had three talks within one week--two rotary clubs and one elementary school (4th-6th graders) with 250 students present! (It's a good thing I am kind of a "ham" and like public speaking.) Many of the children have written me letters and I have written them all back individually, answering their questions. This takes some time, but if I can entice just one person to keep up their interest in math and science, it is well worth the effort. Our society at large has an abysmal connection to math and science in every day life, and I want to help correct that (of course, I am preaching to the choir here, because OFJ participants are obviously scientifically knowledgeable and inquisitive by nature).

This year has been tough for me, trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up! I knew that the Germans with whom I work would be staying for the Galileo Europa Mission (GEM), and it is hard to "compete" with them on a cost-capped mission--since the German government pays their salaries, Galileo gets to use them for free! What a stroke of luck that my friend Fawzi decided he had had enough of smoggy Pasadena! I am taking over for him on Monday as a member of the Cassini propulsion team. Cassini, an exciting mission of discovery at Saturn, is due to launch on October 6, 1997. Saturn arrival is July 1, 2004!

Before the Cassini position came through, I was actually finding some free time on Galileo. Therefore, my boss gave me some work to do for a Mars Sample Return mission, to be launched in 2003 from the Earth. This was a very different challenge for me, since this mission is literally just on the drawing board. My task was to survey EVERY rocket builder in the world to see if they had an engine that would meet our thrust requirements for a Mars Ascent engine (i.e., the rocket motor used to propel samples from Mars back to Earth). I have been struggling with this assignment, trying to contact companies in Sweden, England, Germany, Italy, France, Russia, and Japan, as well as a dozen companies in the United States! Time zone changes, international dialing, language barriers, vacations, etc. are really making this task quite challenging and a bit frustrating.

When my friend Fawzi decided to leave JPL, his boss on Cassini asked for me by name, as a replacement. So my supervisor told me he had two offers for me for next year. One was Fawzi's Cassini position, the other was a permanent position designing the Mars Sample Return mission. Though I have not yet had any development experience (and therefore that would be very useful for me), I selected the Cassini position. I absolutely LOVE mission operations, flying a spacecraft and enjoying the fantastic science results. Since it is 35 years until my expected retirement date, I have plenty of time to design, build, and fly many missions. Cassini just looked too exciting to pass up!

I thank you for your boundless interest in Galileo. It could not work with out your support (your tax dollars, your scientific interest, and your enthusiasm). You are every bit as much a part of this project as I am.

Until we meet again (hopefully on the way to Saturn!)