🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <93025.205009IO20721@MAINE.MAINE.EDU>, Michael Petersen <IO20721@MAINE.MAINE.EDU> writes...
>Could someone tell me if NASA has successfully deployed the high-gain
>antenna on Galileo yet?   I heard that their most "aggressive" attempts
>would occur after the the last Earth flyby.

The recent hammerings have not opened the antenna.  The first hammering
attempt turned the ballscrew an additional full rotation, but it has
not budged since.  Despite 13,000+ hammerings at different frequencies
and at various antenna temperatures, the ribs are still stuck.   One last
attempt will be made by spinning up the spacecraft from 3 rpm to 10 rpm
in March, but this is not expected to do much.  March has been designated
as the deadline to open the antenna.  After that the focus will be
on the Ida flyby in August and a low gain antenna mission.  One other
event that may open the antenna is the Jupiter orbit insertion in December
1995.  The solid rotor motor will fire for an hour and the resulting 
vibrations may jar the antenna loose, but this is to be considered a long shot.
     ___    _____     ___
    /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|     Ron Baalke         | baalke@kelvin.jpl.nasa.gov
    | | | |  __ \ /| | | |     Jet Propulsion Lab |
 ___| | | | |__) |/  | | |__   M/S 525-3684 Telos | Every once in a while,
/___| | | |  ___/    | |/__ /| Pasadena, CA 91109 | try pushing your luck.
|_____|/  |_|/       |_____|/                     |