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Media Contact:
Jason Perry
volcanopele@netzero.net
Petition Created to Save Galileo Io Imaging in January 2002 Pass
Leavenworth, KS - NASA recently extended Galileo's mission at Jupiter until January 2003. NASA funded remote sensing for 2001, which includes a flyby of Callisto and two flybys of Io. However, remote sensing was not funded for 2002, including a pass over Io in January 2002.
Jason Perry, a high school junior from Leavenworth, Kansas, has created an online petition in the hopes that NASA will reverse this decision. The petition, called "Pennies for Pele," was started on March 30, 2001 and has been signed by 75 people from around the world.
During the January 17, 2002 pass over Io on Galileo's thirty-third orbit (I33), Galileo will fly over the side of Io that always faces Jupiter (projovian), an area not well seen by Galileo. The five other close passes of Io in which remote sensing were funded have been over the side of Io that permanently faces away from Jupiter (antijovian). The I33 pass provides an excellent opportunity to compare the frequency, activity level, and volcanic styles of the projovian hemisphere to the previously seen antijovian hemisphere.
"This is a unique opportunity to view Io's Jupiter facing hemisphere at high resolution using Galileo's remote sensing instruments. It is very hard to understand the rationale for turning off the remote sensing instruments after October. With 3 more months of funding, we could have this unique I33 fly-by! We have already done a lot of the necessary work. The observations are already planned and designed. Nobody wants to miss this unique chance," says Rosaly Lopes of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
Despite the fact that NASA has not funded remote sensing, observations for the three major remote sensing instruments have already been designed. Some of the key goals of Galileo's three major remote sensing instruments, the Solid-State Imaging instrument (SSI), the Near-Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (NIMS), and the Photopolarimeter-Radiometer (PPR), include:
· The I33 flyby will obtain high resolution by SSI (15-100 m/pixel)
observations of several large lava flow fields, some of which are thought to
be associated with ultramafic (high-temperature, magnesium-rich) silicate eruptions.
These observations may provide clues to the styles of these eruptions, which
last occurred on Earth millions to billions of years ago. Thus, the I33 imaging
is crucial to obtain a better understanding of a style of volcanism that was
important on the ancient Earth.
· The I33 flyby will obtain high resolution (15-100 m/pixel) observations
of several large volcanoes called tholi, which are shaped like pancakes and
resemble domes from some terrestrial silica-rich volcanoes. These tholi are
rare on Io, and their study could provide clues into the diversity of Io's volcanism.
· The I33 flyby will obtain high resolution (~100 m/pixel) observations
of Hi'iaka, Gish Bar, and several other of Io's enigmatic mountains. These observations
will improve our understanding of the relationship between volcanism, tectonism,
and mountain formation on Io.
· The major scientific objective for NIMS is to map the thermal emission
from Io's Jupiter-facing hemisphere. Galileo has only seen this hemisphere at
poor spatial resolution, and there may be significant differences in the distribution
and power output of the hot spots. The longitudinal distribution of hot spots
has implications for the mechanism of tidal dissipation within Io and I33 provides
us a unique opportunity to test if the distribution of hot spots is similar
or significantly different from that of the hemisphere of Io that faces away
from Jupiter.
· For PPR, the main goals include high-resolution nighttime mapping of
temperatures at Prometheus, Marduk, and Pillan, high-resolution scans of nighttime
equatorial temperatures, helping to constrain Io's total heat flow, daytime
temperature maps of Kanehekili- a major volcano never seen in close-up by Galileo
before, a global map of daytime temperatures, at longitudes where this has never
been done before- another constraint on Io's total heat flow.
The cost of performing remote sensing during I33 is $1.5 million, $604,000 for SSI imaging alone. This should be compared to the $9 million allocated for the new extension mission and the $1.5 billion so far spent.
"The funding/science ratio for imaging at I33 is ridiculously cheap. Considering the amount of money it took us to get there, NOT funding I33 imaging makes absolutely no sense," commented Joseph Plassmann at the Planetary Image Research Laboratory in Tucson, Arizona, on the petition.
It is hoped that 1000 signatures can be obtained before August 6, the date of the next Io flyby. Copies of the petition will then be passed to the NASA's Office of Space Science.
For more information or to sign the petition, you may visit the petition's website at http://fullspeed.to/Io
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