30th Anniversary Voyager 2 at Europa, a hint of things to come |
30th Anniversary Voyager 2 at Europa, a hint of things to come |
Apr 9 2009, 01:31 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 207 Joined: 6-March 07 From: houston, texas Member No.: 1828 |
It seems to be a season of anniversaries over the next year or so.
20 years since Voyager 2 at Neptune (see my posting there), 30 yrs since Voyager 1 at Io, 30 since Voyager 2 at Europa, 30 years since VEJUR at . . . . well never mind! plus all the Galileo 400th commemorations (I will have more on that next week). I thought it would be a good time to start a thread on this one, which occurred on a tuesday morning in July 1979. Although the images had been taken on July 9, they were recorded for playback the next day. I was a mere summer intern in those days and was attending the morning briefing along with the rest of the Sci Support Team of which i was a member. Linda Horn and Ellis Miner were my gurus that wonderful summer. Playback was scheduled for sometime between 8 and 9, as i recall, and I can still remember looking up at the monitor as the first high resolution images ever seen of Europa first appeared. Wonderful, even tho only 2 kilometers in resolution. Little did I know where it would lead me . . . Here is a restored version of one of the two mosaics returned that day. They hint at some of the exotic things that Galileo later discovered. cheers paul -------------------- Dr. Paul Schenk, Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston TX
http://stereomoons.blogspot.com; http://www.youtube.com/galsat400; http://www.lpi.usra.edu/science/schenk/ |
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Jul 10 2009, 12:17 AM
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Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8784 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
Well, I'm officially an Old Dude...brings back so many pleasant memories that seem like just yesterday. 30 years...wow.
Thanks, Paul! -------------------- A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.
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Jul 10 2009, 12:45 AM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 207 Joined: 6-March 07 From: houston, texas Member No.: 1828 |
Well, I'm officially an Old Dude...brings back so many pleasant memories that seem like just yesterday. 30 years...wow. Thanks, Paul! I would have written more but my connection this morning took 1 hour to write one sentence . . . I was indeed an intern on the Voyager project but not on imaging. rather it was for Ellis Miner on the Science Support Team, which was responsible for all the planning and execution of the plans. It gave me a healthy respect for those who did not get to appear on camera for the interviews. But also i got to see an encounter as it happened because the images went straight to the JPL TV monitors. Not like Galileo or Cassini which does not quite do that. Jupiter grew larger each day and then on the last day the satellites flashed by quickly. We even had access to quick printers that allowed us to make fast thermal prints. these prints turned black in the sunlight and although i kept some, I have since lost track of those historic photos. I landed in Pasadena a week before the encounter so they immediately put me to work . . . making xeroxes! but i was cool. it was the center of the universe for one week! I relished every minute of it. plus later that summer I was able to make prediction maps for the Saturn moon image due in 1980 and 1981. paul -------------------- Dr. Paul Schenk, Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston TX
http://stereomoons.blogspot.com; http://www.youtube.com/galsat400; http://www.lpi.usra.edu/science/schenk/ |
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