NASA’s Juno Mission expands into the future
Press Release from: Jet Devolution Laboratory
Posted: Wednesday, January 13, 2021
The spacecraft, which has been collecting data about the gas giant since July 2016 be a researcher of the whole Jovian system – Jupiter and its rings and branches.
NASA has approved a mission extension for its Juno spacecraft exploring Jupiter. The farthest planetary orbiter from the group will now continue their exploration of the largest planet in the solar system through September 2025, or until the end of the spacecraft’s life. This expansion employs Juno to become a researcher of the entire Jovian system – Jupiter and its rings and branches – with multiple rendezvous planned for three of Jupiter’s most interesting Galilean branches: Ganymede, Europa, and Io.
“Since its first orbit in 2016, Juno has unveiled one after another about the operation of this giant gas giant,” said chief investigator Scott Bolton of the Southwest Research Institute in San. Antonio. “With the expanded mission, we will answer fundamental questions that have arisen during Juno’s core mission arrive outside the planet to study the Jupiter ring system and Galilean satellites. ”
Proposed in 2003 and launched in 2011, Juno Jupiter arrived on July 4, 2016. The main mission completed in July 2021. The extended mission includes an additional 42 orbits, including a dense passage of Jupiter’s north pole wheels; flybys of Ganymede, Europa, and Io; as well as the first extensive study of the narrow rings orbiting the planet.
“By expanding the science objectives of this important orbiting observatory, the Juno team will begin to address a historically critical range of key flags,” said Lori Glaze, director of the planetary science department at NASA Headquarters. in Washington. “This represents an effective and innovative advancement for NASA’s solar system exploration strategy. ”
The data Juno collects will contribute to goals the next generation of missions to the Jovian system – NASA’s Europa Clipper and the ESA (European Space Agency) mission JUpiter ICy moons Explorer (JUICE). Juno’s study of the Jupiter Io volcanic moon addresses many scientific goals identified by the National Academy of Sciences for Io’s future researcher mission.
Science missions will expand on Juno’s previous discoveries about Jupiter’s internal structure, internal magnetic field, atmosphere (including polar cyclones, deep atmosphere, and aurora), and magnetosphere .
“With this expansion, Juno will become a mission of its own,” said Steve Levin, a scientist of the Juno project at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “Close-up of the pole, radio events” – a remote sensing device for measuring the properties of a planet atmosphere no ring systems – “satellite flybys, and focused magnetic field studies come together to create a new mission, the next logical step in our study of the Jovian system. ”
Jupiter’s enigmatic Great Blue Spot, a remote patch of intense magnetic field near the planet’s equator, will be the target for a full-space magnetic study during six flybys early in the extended mission. As Juno’s orbit grows, multiple flybys of the Ganymede (2), Europa (3), and Io (11) branches are designed, as well as several passages through Jupiter’s tenuous rings.
Juno also flies through Europa and Io tori – ion clouds in the shape of a ring – several times, marking the radiation environment near these satellites to better prepare the Europa Clipper and JUICE missions for observation strategies and increase planning, science priorities, and mission. design. The extended mission will also add planetary geology and ring dynamics to Juno’s extensive list of scientific studies.
Growing orbit
The natural evolution of Juno’s orbit around the gas giant provides a wealth of new science opportunities that the extended mission is taking advantage of. All science passes place the solar-powered spacecraft moving low above the tops of Jupiter clouds, collecting data from a specific observatory that no other spacecraft has enjoyed.
The point during each orbit where Juno is closest to the planet is called a perijove (or PJ). Over the course of the mission, Juno’s perijoves have migrated north, greatly advancing the mission across the northern hemisphere. The design of the extended perjoves takes advantage of continuous northward migration of these perijoves to sharpen its view of the multiple rounds around the north pole while incorporating ring moon flybys and Galilean.
“The mission’s designers have done an incredible job creating an expanded mission that retains the single most valuable resource on board – fuel,” said Ed Hirst, Juno’s project manager at JPL. “Gravity helps multiple satellite flybys navigate our spacecraft through the Jovian system while offering a wealth of science opportunities.” The satellite flybys also reduce Juno’s orbital time, which increases the total number of science orbits received. ”
The satellite meetings begin with a flyby at the low altitude of Ganymede on June 7, 2021 (PJ34), which will reduce the orbital time from about 53 days to 43 days. That flyby establishes a close flyby of Europa on September 29, 2022 (PJ45), reducing the longer orbital time to 38 days. A pair of close Io flybys, on December 30, 2023 (PJ57), and February 3, 2024 (PJ58), come together to reduce the orbital time to 33 days.
More about the mission
JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages Juno’s mission for principal investigator Scott J. Bolton, of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. Juno is part of NASA’s New Frontiers Program, which is managed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the group’s Science Mission Steering Group in Washington. Lockheed Martin Space built the spacecraft in Denver.
More information about Juno is available at:
https://www.nasa.gov/juno
https: //www.missionjuno.swri.
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