Like the famed astronomer for which it was named, Galileo studied the planet Jupiter and its moons, as well as several other Solar System bodies in finer detail than was ever possible before. To accomplish this, the Galileo orbiter carried several science instruments.


Galileo’s mission ended on Sept. 21, 2003, when the spacecraft was intentionally commanded to plunge into Jupiter’s atmosphere, where it was destroyed. However, to this day scientists continue to study the data it collected during its 14-year mission.

The low-gain antennas mounted on the spinning section supported communications and provided the spacecraft's link to Earth. During the orbit, the collected data were sent to 100 scientists from United States, Great Britain, Germany, France, Canada and Sweden.

The descent probe had a mass of 339 kilograms and about 127 centimeters in diameter, and included a deceleration module to slow and protect the descent module.

Inside the heat shield, the scientific instruments were protected from ferocious heat (during entry) and pressure on its high-speed journey at 170590,464 km per hour. These were devices to measure temperature, pressure and deceleration, atmospheric composition, clouds, particles, and light and radio emissions from lightning and energetic particles in Jupiter's radiation belts.

The orbiter featured an innovative "dual-spin" design. Most spacecraft are stabilized in flight either by spinning around a major axis, or by maintaining a fixed orientation in space, referenced to the Sun and another star. As the first dual-spin planetary spacecraft, Galileo combined these techniques.

A spinning section rotated at about 3 rpm (=revolutions per minute), and a "despun" section was counter-rotated to provide a fixed orientation for cameras and other remote sensors. The power supply, propulsion module and most of the computers and control electronics were mounted on the spinning section.

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The spinning section carried instruments to study magnetic fields and charged particles. These instruments included magnetometer sensors mounted on a 36-foot (11-meter) boom to minimize interference from the spacecraft's electronics.

The plasma-wave detector studied electromagnetic waves generated by the particles.

The extreme ultraviolet detector, associated with the ultraviolet spectrometer, studied gases.

Electrical power was provided by two radioisotope thermoelectric generators. Heat produced by natural radioactive decay of plutonium was converted to electricity (570 watts at launch, 485 at the end of the mission) to operate the orbiter spacecraft's equipment.

The spacecraft's propulsion module consisted of 12 2.25-pound-force (10-newton) thrusters and a single 90-pound-force (400-newton) engine which used monomethylhydrazine fuel and nitrogen-tetroxide oxidizer.

The dust counter counted particles of dust in space, usually when they had an impact on the instrument. More precisely, the job of this instrument was to examine dust in the Jovian system to see where it comes from, where it goes, and what happens to it in between.

The star scanner, a small optical telescope, on the spinning side determined orientation and spin rate. It also made several scientific discoveries serendipitously. In the prime mission (the mission to Jupiter), it was found that the star scanner was able to detect high-energy particles as a noise signal.

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© Study project by Thomas Wink and Nergis Kuru.

The information visualization provides an overview of all science instruments and components of NASA’s satellite GALILEO. You are presented with a detailed description of the devices and their functions. To get to these detailed descriptions, you can move your mouse over the 3D model – various components are then highlighted. Once clicked, you will be taken to the respective pages describing them. Alternatively, you can also click on navigation points on the right side.