I hear the term “Real Time” used a great deal. What does it refer to?
“Real Time” is a fuzzy term we use for looking at things “as they happen.” Of course, we need to wait for the signal to reach us here on Earth, so it takes one light-time before we see “real time” events. There is also a significant lag in the data return (from minutes to as much as 10 hours or more) as a result of buffering processes on the spacecraft and on the ground. The reason that we refer to “real time” is because Galileo’s scientists and engineers do work in both real time and non-real time. For example, when we do a big engineering event like Jupiter Orbit Insertion, engineers perform both real time analysis (sitting in the control room and watching the events unfold, making sure that as the spacecraft does each programmed command, the right thing happens and nothing has gone wrong) and non-real time analysis (looking over the data afterwards in more detail). A good analogy would be taking an exit poll on Election Day, compared with analyzing the election results over the foll
