Douglas Isbell

Headquarters, Washington, DC October 4, 1995

(Phone: 202/358-1753)

Mary Beth Murrill

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA
(Phone: 818/354-5011)

RELEASE: 95-168

NASA SCIENTISTS GO "ONLINE FROM JUPITER"

Members of NASA's Galileo project will provide a

behind-the-scenes look at what it's like to be part of the
flight team on a pioneering interplanetary expedition when
"Online from Jupiter" makes its debut on the Internet in mid-
October.

Galileo scientists and mission engineers are opening

their notebooks to classrooms, museums and the public via the
Internet to share their observations and experiences working on
the NASA spacecraft mission to Jupiter.

From mid-October through January 1996, members of the

flight team will write brief field journal entries describing
the scientific puzzles, engineering challenges and excitement
of discovery as the Galileo orbiter and atmospheric entry probe
begin their scientific investigation of Jupiter. The
atmospheric probe is set to descend into Jupiter's atmosphere
on Dec. 7, the same day the Galileo orbiter begins circling the
giant planet for a two-year mission.

"For the first time, we're providing a window on the

inner workings and interactions of a scientific deep space
mission," said Dr. Jo Pitesky, member of the Galileo Mission
Planning Office. "In sharing the journal entries, we hope to
give readers, particularly students, an idea of the tremendous
efforts that go into controlling and collecting data from a
robot spacecraft a half-billion miles away."

After reading background material and the journals,

kindergarten through 12th grade students and their teachers can
ask project members questions -- via E-mail -- starting in late
November and running through January 1996. They will receive
personal responses, corresponding with experts on subjects
ranging from atmospheric science to spacecraft systems. An
archive of all questions and answers will be available online.
In addition, students will be able to take part in online
experiments that will use actual probe data.

"Online from Jupiter" is the latest in a series of

NASA educational initiatives that have taken students from
studying the bottom of the Earth's oceans via the oceanographic
satellite TOPEX/POSEIDON to the top of the stratosphere in
NASA's Kuiper Airborne Observatory (KAO) as it flies at 41,000
feet.

The program is part of the "Sharing NASA with our

Classrooms" series, organized by the NASA K-12 Internet
Initiative. It is made possible by funding from the NASA
Information Infrastructure Technology and Applications program,
which is part of the High Performance Computing and
Communications program authorized by federal legislation and
passed in December 1991.

"Online From Jupiter" can be accessed electronically in

several ways:

- For World Wide Web access:

http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/jupiter.html.

- For Gopher area access: quest.arc.nasa.gov; see

Interactive Projects directory.

- Via E-mail: To receive regularly updated information

online, join the "updates-jup" list: Send an E-mail message
to:

listmanager@quest.arc.nasa.gov. In the message body, write:

"subscribe updates-jup" (no quotes). This places users on an
electronic mailing list to receive information.

- To receive introductory materials and other

background information, send an E-mail message to: info-
jup@quest.arc.nasa.gov.

-end-

NASA press releases and other information are available

automatically by sending an Internet electronic mail message to
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of each subscription. A second automatic message will include
additional information on the service. Questions should be
directed to (202) 358-4043.