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Planetary scientists and astronomy enthusiasts are organising a petition to
persuade NASA to stump up $1.5 million for a final close-up look at
Jupiter’s volcanic moon Io next January. In March, NASA decided to extend the
Galileo mission until August 2003, but to shut down its cameras from October.
Astronomers are dismayed. “Every time you look at Io you see something amazing,”
says John Spencer of the Lowell Observatory in Arizona. The January fly-by
offers the only chance for close-ups of the face of Io photographed by Voyager
20 years ago. The petition, at www.fullspeed.to/io had 465 signatures as New…