How will Solar Conjunction affect the science gathering and transmission of data to Earth?
The geometrical situation that you describe occurs when the Sun lies directly between Jupiter and Earth (scientists refer to this as “conjunction”). The Sun is a strong source of electromagnetic activity, and it wreaks havoc with the spacecraft’s radio signal, essentially reducing the spacecraft’s data rate to Earth to zero for the two and a half weeks centered around conjunction. Mission planners and telemetry engineers define this problem area as occurring when the Sun-Earth-Galileo angle is less than 7 degrees (see figure below); a relatively “quiet” Sun can mean that data can be successfully returned at angles as small as 3-5 degrees. Solar conjunction blocks radio signals from Galileo During the primary mission, Galileo’s two conjunction periods ran from December 11-28, 1995, and January 11-28, 1997. Conjunction lowered the amount of data that was returned to Earth. However, not being able to receive data for a few days per year is not a serious difficulty.
The geometrical situation that you describe occurs when the Sun lies directly between Jupiter and Earth (scientists refer to this as “conjunction”). The Sun is a strong source of electromagnetic activity, and it wreaks havoc with the spacecraft’s radio signal, essentially reducing the spacecraft’s data rate to Earth to zero for the two and a half weeks centered around conjunction. Mission planners and telemetry engineers define this problem area as occurring when the Sun-Earth-Galileo angle is less than 7 degrees (see figure below); a relatively “quiet” Sun can mean that data can be successfully returned at angles as small as 3-5 degrees. During the primary mission, Galileo’s two conjunction periods ran from December 11-28, 1995, and January 11-28, 1997. Conjunction lowered the amount of data that was returned to Earth. However, not being able to receive data for a few days per year is not a serious difficulty.
