UPDATED: 27 October 1997

This week the Galileo spacecraft is on the last orbit of its primary mission.

Galileo's next satellite flyby will occur on November 6, 1997 when the spacecraft swings by Jupiter's moon Europa . The current orbit of the Galileo spacecraft is known as Europa 11, as it is the eleventh orbit of the eleven orbit primary mission and it includes a close flyby of the moon Europa. After playback of the data recorded on its current orbit, the Galileo team will proceed with the Galileo Europa Mission which is an extension of the primary mission.

The Galileo Europa Mission will include 8 more consecutive flybys of Europa .

Ref: This week on Galileo (October 27 - November 2, 1997)

The last signal received from the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft occurred on Sol 93, which was October 7, 1997.

The Mars Pathfinder mission operations team believes the spacecraft may still be functioning, however they suspect that the spacecraft may not be receiving commands from Earth due to problems associated with degredation of the spacecraft's battery. In the "no battery" mode of operations, the spacecraft will be powered on for less time each day, requiring the hardware to operate at colder than normal temperatures. It is thought that the colder temperatures could cause the transmitter to operate outside its normal radio frequencies. Ground controllers are attempting to signal the spacecraft through a wider frequency range to get the spacecraft receiver to lock onto the transmitted signal.

Mars Pathfinder is the first mission to land on Mars since two "Viking" spacecraft touched down there in 1976.

The Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft is currently orbiting Mars and all systems are performing as expected.

Aerobraking to resume on November 7 - after a two-week hiatus

The MGS mission requires the spacecraft to "aerobrake" using the thin Martian atmosphere to slow the spacecraft and place it into a circular orbit for mapping. On October 6, 1997, the MGS spacecraft's solar panel that had not fully deployed to its latched position, a minor malfunction thought to be caused by a piece of debris, moved past its fully deployed and latched position during the 15th aerobraking pass through the Marian atmosphere. The movement of the panel is thought to have occurred because the Martian atmosphere had unexpectedly doubled in density during this pass, causing higher than planned pressure on the panel.

The spacecraft's flight controllers temporarily halted the aerobraking phase until they could assess the situation. Aerobraking will proceed at a more gradual pace than before. Aerobraking will take much longer, perhaps eight to 12 months, at this more gradual rate.
Reference: NASA Release: 97-249

"NEAR spacecraft state is nominal." The NEAR team is preparing for the spacecraft's January 23, 1998 Earth/Moon flyby.
Reference: NEAR Weekly Report - 10/24/97

On September 15, 1997, the NEAR spacecraft's Gamma Ray Spectrometer detected a major gamma-ray burst that lasted for about 10 seconds. Since then, six more bursts have been detected.

NEAR's gamma ray spectrometer was originally planned to begin its work once the spacecraft arrived at its destination, 433 Eros in January 1999, however the NEAR team found that their system worked so well that they had time to upload gamma ray burst mode detection programming to the instrument. NEAR's planetary gamma ray spectrometer is now working in conjunction with two other spacecraft, the Ulysses solar physics spacecraft currently in polar orbit around our Sun and NASA's Wind spacecraft near Earth, to provide astrophysical data on one of the most mysterious phenomena in the Universe.

Reference: The Planetary Society - Headlines

Reference: NASA Release: 97-242 - October 22, 1997

The Lunar Prospector will conduct a low polar orbit investigation of the Moon. Data from the spacecraft will allow the compositional mapping of the Moon, including possible water ice deposits trapped in permanently shadowed areas near the lunar poles. Other instruments will measure the crustal magnetic field, gravity fields and radon outgassing.

The Cassini spacecraft's "Spectacular launch occurred at 4:43 a.m. EDT, October 15, 1997." - reports the JPL Cassini home page.

"The spacecraft is operating beautifully" said Cassini Program Manager Ronald Draper. - Reference: Cassini Status Report - October 28, 1997

The Cassini Mission is the last of the multibillion dollar unmanned planetary missions that marked space exploration.

Deep Space One is the first deep space mission of NASA's New Millennium Program. The New Millennium Program (NMP) is an agressive technology demonstration established to validate advanced technologies while returning science data.

To be launched in July, 1998, Deep Space 1 will validate 12 advanced technologies and instruments while conducting a flyby of asteroid McAuliffe, then Mars , and finally by comet West-Kohoutek-Ikemura.

"The goal is at least one flight each month" - Kane Casani, manager of the New Millennium Program. Reference: NMP press release - February 10, 1995 - Which will make keeping SPACEUPDATE up-to-date a very much more demanding job!

Planet-B is the first Japanese space mission to Mars.

Planet-B is an aeronomy mission.

Planet-B (NSSDC)

NASA Orbiter mission to Mars.

Mars Volatiles and Climate Surveyor 1998 Lander

Deep Space 2 - Mars Microprobe Project

NASA sample return mission to Comet Wild-2.

LUNAR-A

Mars 2001 Orbiter

Mars 2001 Lander

NASA AND JAPAN ASTEROID SAMPLE RETURN MISSION

MUSES-C will be launched on a Japanese M-5 launch vehicle in January 2002 from Kagoshima Space Center, Japan and touchdown on the asteroid Nereus in September 2003. A NASA-provided miniature robotic rover will conduct in- situ measurements on the rocky surface and collect samples.

The asteroid samples will be returned to Earth by MUSES-C via a parachute-borne recovery capsule in January 2006.

Reference: NASA press release 97-95

CONTOUR multiple comet mission.

Selene is an ISAS (Japan) Lunar orbiter and lander mission.

European Space Agency rendezvous and lander mission to Comet Wirtanen.

The mission is named for the Rosetta Stone which was the key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics. (The stone was named for the seaside town of Rosetta, Egypt, where it was found by Napoleon's troops in 1799.)

The rover Champollion is named after Jean Francois Champollion, a French Egyptologist who, collaborating with Thomas Young, deciphered the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic and demotic text on the stone by comparing it with the known Greek text on the same stone.

Here's The Light Curve of Periodic Comet Wirtanen (JPL)

Mars Surveyor 2003 lander/rover

Mars Surveyor 2005 lander/rover/sample return.