[ RadSafe ] radiation fear strikes again ?

[Franta, Jaroslav]

Pluto Team Practices at Jupiter 
Aviation Week & Space Technology, 03/05/2007, page 31
Frank Morring, Jr., Columbia, Md.

<SNIP>
Lessons from last week's encounter are already being applied as the
1,000-lb. nuclear-powered spacecraft hurtles down Jupiter's magnetotail, the
leeward stream of charged solar-wind particles escaping the planet's
magnetic field. 

Minutes after contollers at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics
Laboratory (APL) here confirmed that New Horizons had passed its closest
approach to the planet Feb. 28 without apparent radiation damage, they began
resetting the automatic-safeing parameters on one instrument to higher
radiation levels. The ultraviolet imaging spectrometer--Alice--kicked off
needlessly during the approach to the planet, costing star-occultation data
on the atmospheres of some of Jupiter's moons.
"We should never have trip wires and set points for safety lower than they
need to be," says New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern. "We sort
of stubbed our toe by not thinking it through well enough."

<SNIP>

http://www.aviationweek.com/media/images/awst_images/large/AW_03_05_2007_104
6_L.jpg
Closeup of Jupiter's "Little Red Spot" from the New Horizons spacecraft,
which used a Feb. 28 flyby to practice for its 2015 encounter with
Pluto.Credit: NASA/APL/SwRI 










CONFIDENTIAL AND PRIVILEGED INFORMATION NOTICE

This e-mail, and any attachments, may contain information that
is confidential, subject to copyright, or exempt from disclosure.
Any unauthorized review, disclosure, retransmission, 
dissemination or other use of or reliance on this information 
may be unlawful and is strictly prohibited.  

AVIS D'INFORMATION CONFIDENTIELLE ET PRIVILÉGIÉE

Le présent courriel, et toute pièce jointe, peut contenir de 
l'information qui est confidentielle, régie par les droits 
d'auteur, ou interdite de divulgation. Tout examen, 
divulgation, retransmission, diffusion ou autres utilisations 
non autorisées de l'information ou dépendance non autorisée 
envers celle-ci peut être illégale et est strictement interdite.