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.