Mission Jupiter by Daniel Fischer, Copernicus/ Springer-Verlag, $32,
ISBN 0387987649
GALILEO—the spacecraft, not the man—has shown us space
exploration in all its phases, from the frustrating to the rewarding. Since late
1995 it has sent us 15,000 astonishingly detailed images gleaned from its orbit
round Jupiter. The craft has dropped a probe into the gas giant’s atmosphere and
scooted around above the surfaces of Io, Ganymede and Europa, nosing into active
volcanoes and finding liquid salty water underneath smooth ice. It’s monitored
the Jovian weather and recorded meteors, polar lights and magnetic storms. And
without it, a…
