Why weren the new data compression methods originally planned to be used to return even more data?
Galileo’s computers are not fast enough to compress data at the rate which was to be transmitted through the HGA! It is important to remember that at the time Galileo was being developed, spacecraft designers were using fairly state-of-the-art computers, but those computers are extremely slow by contemporary standards. With the advent of increasingly faster and more densely packed microprocessors, such computationally intensive processes are becoming practical for spacecraft to perform and are being incorporated into future spacecraft designs.
Related Questions
- Why weren the new data compression methods originally planned to be used with the High Gain Antenna to get even more data back?
- Why weren the new data compression methods originally planned to be used to return even more data?
- What other methods, besides data compression, are used to reduce data transmission time?
