Arrivederci, Galileo!

[Mark]

"We haven't lost a spacecraft, we've gained a steppingstone into the future of space exploration," said Dr. Torrance Johnson, Galileo project scientist.

http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/solarsystem/galileo_final.html

 

[Tarrasque Wrangler]

Man, I want some footage of that in the worst way. Anyone know if such footage exists?

 

[Wombat]

This was an amazing journey for what was essentially a crippled sattelite -- the main antenna never did deploy, yet we got fantastic information back nonetheless.

Here's to a fine job, Little Probe That Could!

 

[zenld]

Score one for the boys and girls of NASA and JPL.

Long shall this little probe remain in our minds and hearts. Thanks for everything Galileo.

 

[Scarbonac]

*plays Taps*

 

[Dirigible]

Just goes to show how little imagination NASA has.

They should've deliberatly sent Galileo careening into Europa. Then we could have placed bets on which microbes would win : The Europabugs, with their home-field advantage, or the courageous underdogs the Earthlings, the little bacteria that could ! NASA could've secured it's funding for the next century !

 

[Umbran]

Anyone know if such footage exists?

The CNN article says that the final plummet into atmosphere occurred on the far side of Jupiter from us, so there'd be no footage.

 

[Norfleet]

They should've deliberatly sent Galileo careening into Europa. Then we could have placed bets on which microbes would win : The Europabugs, with their home-field advantage, or the courageous underdogs the Earthlings, the little bacteria that could ! NASA could've secured it's funding for the next century !

Damn straight. It's not like anything higher than monocellular life is going to ever evolve there before we colonize it ourselves, bringing our microbes there anyway.

NASA's high point was during the Cold War, when we hid our flag on the Moon so the Russkies couldn't capture it. That was innovative. That was brilliant.

 

[Zappo]

BTW, arrivederci means "see you again". I don't think there are many chances of that.

 

[Castellan]

The CNN article says that the final plummet into atmosphere occurred on the far side of Jupiter from us, so there'd be no footage.

It also entered the Jovian atmosphere at ~100kmph. Since Galileo only had the low-gain antenna in use, even if there had been line-of-sight to Earth, and even if it hadn't been buffeted by the atmosphere, it wouldn't have lasted long enough to transmit the first photograph.

I'm gonna miss it... It made astronomy education so much easier and cooler.... *sigh*