Why was Uruk Sulcus chosen as the first non-navigation imaging to be sent back to Earth from the G1 orbit?
There are a number of reasons why Uruk Sulcus was chosen (other than being the first Ganymede closest approach image on the tape recorder). The region encompasses bright fractured terrain and adjacent (older) dark terrain, and the observation had several objectives, including (1) to look for evidence of volcanic (water) activity in the area, (2) to assess the contact relation between the old dark terrain and the bright ridged terrain–how is the dark terrain being deformed and broken up?, and (3) to characterize the tectonic style of the bright/ridged terrain. As you can see, this observation was designed to address a number of geologic questions, and this is why it was given top priority for early image return. Unfortunately, because of the cumulative effects of line truncation (i.e. losing regions near the edge of the image, an effect of the data compression process selected for this image), pointing uncertainty, and a slight shift (9 km) in the spacecraft delivery point, we missed t
