Galileo Quicklook Galileo Galileo was designed to perform in-depth studies of Jupiter's atmosphere, satellites, and surrounding magnetosphere. The mission was named in honor of Galileo Galilei, the Italian Renaissance scientist who discovered Jupiter's major moons in 1610. Following deployment, the vehicle went into orbit around Jupiter to continue its investigations. During its interplanetary cruise, the planned deployment of Galileo's high gain antenna failed, forcing use of the its low gain antennas at much lower than planned data rates. Galileo was also the only vehicle in a position to obtain images of the far side of Jupiter when more than 20 fragments of Comet Shoemaker-Levy plunged into Jupiter's atmosphere in July 1994.
Despun section provides fixed orientation for remote sensing insturments, star scanner, gyros.
Redundant flight computers with high level of fault protection. 11 meter deployable boom for some science instruments. Deceleration module, consisting of aeroshell and aft cover, to slow initial descent and provide thermal control. 2.5 m parachute controls descent following deceleration module release. Descent module contains redundant L-band transmitters, instrument package, batteries.