Best bits: applications of microprocessors: micros to probe jupiter...

NASA's deep-space Jupiter probe to be launched from the Space Shuttle will be a multiple first for microprocessors. If the barrel-shaped dual-spun “Galileo” satellite survives its 20-month trip and some 10 to 12 orbits around Jupiter, then it will be the first successful use of a micro in deep space and the first to survive high radiation - some predicted 1560 kilorads - courtesy of Jupiter's radiation belts, even with elliptical orbits about that planet to cut the dosage.