From: andrew.gray@dunelm.org.uk   
      
   In article , Larry G wrote:   
   > Here's a question I've always wondered about.  How come no space probe (that   
   > I'm aware of) has taken photos inside Jupiter's (or any of the large   
   > planets') atmosphere?  Or at least photos from a very low orbit.   
   >   
   > I think this would be fascinating.  Is it because the atmospheric   
   > temperature would melt the probe/camera before it reached the low orbit   
   > and/or descent?  Are there any known plans to send a probe that could   
   > withstand the extreme temps (or gravity?) to achieve such a feat?   
      
   Bear in mind there have only ever been two probes to do anything more   
   than a flyby of the gas giants, and one of those is still en-route...   
      
   Galileo did carry a small probe to be dropped into Jupiter, but a   
   variety of reasons - the very limited amount of data transmission that   
   was possible being a major one - meant that equipping it for photography   
   wasn't a reasonable option. I've seen the decision characterised as   
   "some interesting science, or two photographs".   
      
   http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=HnH62t.49s%40spsystems.net   
   http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=HF71IH.I4y%40spsystems.net   
          (& following thread)   
   for a couple of posts discussing it; there's more, but I don't want to   
   spend all evening googling    
      
   Cassini also has an entry probe, but this is designed to be dropped onto   
   Titan - undeniably a more interesting target...   
      
   --   
   -Andrew Gray   
    shimgray@bigfoot.com   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)