Juno performs burn , Jupiter approaching .

[Zyraz]

NASA's solar-powered Juno spacecraft successfully executed a maneuver to adjust its flight path today, Feb. 3. The maneuver refined the spacecraft's trajectory, helping set the stage for Juno's arrival at the solar system's largest planetary inhabitant five months and a day from now.

"This is the first of two trajectory adjustments that fine tune Juno's orbit around the sun, perfecting our rendezvous with Jupiter on July 4th at 8:18 p.m. PDT [11:18 p.m. EDT]," said Scott Bolton, Juno principal investigator at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio.

The maneuver began at 10:38 a.m. PST (1:38 p.m. EST). ). The Juno spacecraft's thrusters consumed about 1.3 pounds (0.6 kilograms) of fuel during the burn, and changed the spacecraft's speed by 1 foot (0.31 meters), per second. At the time of the maneuver, Juno was about 51 million miles (82 million kilometers) from Jupiter and approximately 425 million miles (684 million kilometers) from Earth. The next trajectory correction maneuver is scheduled for May 31.

Juno was launched on Aug. 5, 2011. The spacecraft will orbit the Jovian world 33 times, skimming to within 3,100 miles (5,000 kilometers) above the planet's cloud tops every 14 days. During the flybys, Juno will probe beneath the obscuring cloud cover of Jupiter and study its aurorae to learn more about the planet's origins, structure, atmosphere and magnetosphere.

Juno's name comes from Greek and Roman mythology. The god Jupiter drew a veil of clouds around himself to hide his mischief, and his wife - the goddess Juno - was able to peer through the clouds and reveal Jupiter's true nature.

Source

 

[SoulTax]

Wish we could spend as much money on space exploration as we do on war. Imagine the possibilities!

 

[saor]

Wish we could spend as much money on space exploration as we do on war. Imagine the possibilities!

We'd probably have holidays resorts on the moon already. And expeditions heading out into the solar system.

 

[Zyraz]

NASA's Juno Mission 26 Days from Jupiter

NASA's Juno mission is now 26 days and 11.1 million miles (17.8 million kilometers) away from the largest planetary inhabitant in our solar system - Jupiter. On the evening of July 4, Juno will fire its main engine for 35 minutes, placing it into a polar orbit around the gas giant.

It will be a daring planetary encounter: Giant Jupiter lies in the harshest radiation environment known, and Juno has been specially designed to safely navigate the brand new territory.

We're currently closing the distance between us and Jupiter at about four miles per second," said Scott Bolton, principal investigator for Juno from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio.

"But Jupiter's gravity is tugging at us harder every day and by the time we arrive we'll be accelerated to 10 times that speed - more than 40 miles per second (nearly 70 kilometers per second) - by the time our rocket engine puts on the brakes to get us into orbit."

The Juno mission team is using these last weeks to evaluate and re-evaluate every portion of the Jupiter orbit insertion (JOI) process, finding very low probability events and running them to ground - determining which, if any, need to be addressed.

Two scenarios have been identified for further work. The first is a variation in how Juno would come out of safe mode-a protective mode if the spacecraft were to encounter an anomaly or unexpected condition. A second item involves a minor software update.

"We are in the last test and review phases of the JOI sequence as part of our final preparations for Jupiter orbit insertion," said Rick Nybakken, project manager of Juno for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

"Throughout the project, including operations, our review process has looked for the likely, the unlikely and then the very unlikely. Now we are looking at extremely unlikely events that orbit insertion could throw at us."

Source

 

[The_Librarian]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starman_(film)

 

[Rocket Raccoon]

Wish we could spend as much money on space exploration as we do on war. Imagine the possibilities!

War or threat of war is the reason the space race began in the first place.

 

[Arthur]

Jupiter orbital insertion should be underway now.

This is so exciting.

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/juno/overview/index.html

At about 12:15 pm PDT today (3:15 p.m. EDT), mission controllers will transmit command product “ji4040” into deep space, to transition the solar-powered Juno spacecraft into autopilot. It will take nearly 48 minutes for the signal to cover the 534-million-mile (860-million-kilometer) distance between the Deep Space Network Antenna in Goldstone, California, to the Juno spacecraft. While sequence ji4040 is only one of four command products sent up to the spacecraft that day, it holds a special place in the hearts of the Juno mission team.

“Ji4040 contains the command that starts the Jupiter Orbit insertion sequence,” said Ed Hirst, mission manager of Juno from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. “As soon as it initiates -- which should be in less than a second -- Juno will send us data that the command sequence has started.”

When the sequence kicks in, the spacecraft will begin running the software program tailored to carry the solar-powered, basketball court-sized spacecraft through the 35-minute burn that will place it in orbit around Jupiter.

 

[snoopdoggydog]

'Welcome to Jupiter!' NASA's Juno space probe arrives at giant planet

Jet Propulsion Lab (CNN)NASA says it has received tones confirming its Juno spacecraft has successfully started orbiting Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system.

"Welcome to Jupiter!" flashed on screens at mission control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California. The Juno team cheered and hugged.

"This is phenomenal," said Geoff Yoder, acting administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/07/04/world/juno-jupiter-nasa/index.html?adkey=bn

 

[yebocan]

Wonder if a HAL 9000 is on board...-

 

[crackersa]

i'm excited to see some of the reports and papers that NASA will release. even getting a close up image of the cloud tops (from 3000 miles) will be fascinating.

 

[Cray]

Wonder if a HAL 9000 is on board...-

What NASA didn't mention is that it was originally a manned flight...

 

[Zyraz]

Nice watch for those that are curious about the finer details ... the how , why , when , where of Juno`s Jupiter exploration .

[video=youtube;ka6OERznXh4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ka6OERznXh4[/video]

NASA spaceship barrels toward Jupiter, 'planet on steroids'

Juno, an unmanned NASA spacecraft, is barrelling toward Jupiter on a $1.1 billion mission to circle the biggest planet in the solar system and shed new light on the origin of our planetary neighborhood.

On July 4 and 5, the solar-powered vehicle -- about the size of a professional basketball court -- should plunge into Jupiter's poisonous atmosphere to begin orbiting for a period of almost two years.

Jupiter is the fifth planet from the sun. Its atmosphere is made up of hydrogen and helium and packed with so much radiation that it would be more than 1,000 times the lethal level for a human.

The gas giant is also enshrouded in the strongest magnetic field in the solar system.

"Jupiter is a planet on steroids," said Juno principal investigator Scott Bolton, of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. "Everything about it is extreme."

Jupiter is perhaps best known for its Great Red Spot, which is actually a massive storm, bigger than the Earth, that has been roiling for hundreds of years.

The planet is marked by cold, windy clouds of ammonia and water that appear as reddish, brown and beige stripes and swirls.

Getting close, and surviving, is no easy feat. Even though the spacecraft is entirely robotic and controllers on Earth can do nothing at this stage, Bolton admitted this week to being nervous about its entry into orbit of the spacecraft, five years after its launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

- Water is key -

Steve Levin, Juno project scientist from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said water figures are the most important ones that Juno is going to bring back.

"If Jupiter formed far from the sun, where it is cold, out of blocks of ice... you would get a different amount of water inside Jupiter than if it formed closer to the sun than it is now."

The spacecraft will use a microwave radiometer instrument to measure water, essentially a radio receiver that can help Earth-bound scientists "see" inside Jupiter's atmosphere.

"The amount of water inside Jupiter is crucial to understanding how the solar system formed because it is crucial to understanding how Jupiter formed," said Levin.

The spacecraft will rotate as it circles Jupiter, providing something like a three-dimensional CAT scan, added Levin.

The spacecraft will also study Jupiter's gravitational field, magnetic field and interior.

"Oddly enough, Jupiter's interior is quite a mystery to us and that is ironic because it is made up of two of the simplest and abundant elements in the universe -- that's hydrogen and helium," said Jack Connerney, deputy principal investigator at NASA's Goddard Spaceflight Center.

"But the problem is it under such pressure in that environment that it behaves in very mysterious ways."

A dense core of heavy elements may be at the heart of Jupiter's thick, hot -- up to 50,000 degrees -- and soupy center, but scientists are not sure.

The mission also aims to learn more about how solar wind influences auroras by studying the energetic particles that bombard the atmosphere on Jupiter and make it glow.

- Suspenseful orbit burn -

Juno is not the first spacecraft to orbit Jupiter but NASA says its orbit will bring it closer than its predecessor, Galileo, which launched in 1989.

That spacecraft -- after a fruitful 14-year mission during which it found evidence of subsurface saltwater on Jupiter's moons Europa, Ganymede and Callisto -- made a death plunge into Jupiter in 2003.

NASA says Juno will get closer than Galileo -- this time within 3,100 miles (5,000 kilometers) above the cloud tops -- while dodging the highest radiation regions on Jupiter "by approaching over the north, dropping to an altitude below the planet's radiation belts...and then exiting over the south."

The spacecraft is equipped with a radiation shielded electronics vault to protect the machinery on board in the heavy radiation environment.

But first the spacecraft must survive what NASA described as a "suspenseful orbit insertion maneuver," during which the main engine fires for 35 minutes in order to slow Juno down by about 1,212 miles per hour (542 meters per second) so it can enter orbit.

If it does manage to orbit, Juno will circle the gas giant for 20 months.

The US space agency plans to brief reporters about the approach July 4 at 12 noon (1700 GMT).

NASA television coverage of Juno's approach begins later the same day at 10:30 pm (0330 GMT).

The orbit insertion should be complete at around 12 am Eastern time July 5 (0500 GMT), NASA said.

Source

 

[yebocan]

What NASA didn't mention is that it was originally a manned flight...

HAL 9000: Look Dave/Cray, I can see you're really upset about this. I honestly think you ought to sit down calmly, take a stress pill, and think things over.

 

[Mortymoose]

I like the story about the three Lego Men on board, imagine it falls into Alien hands, what on earth would they be thinking about those figurines?

 

[Cray]

:crylaugh:

 

[ISP cash cow]

this is awesome I am looking forward to seeing some of the data and hopefully some cool pictures of the surface.

 

[Dan C]

I like the story about the three Lego Men on board, imagine it falls into Alien hands, what on earth would they be thinking about those figurines?

Aliens on earth ?

 

[ponder]

I like the story about the three Lego Men on board, imagine it falls into Alien hands, what on earth would they be thinking about those figurines?

Dunno but I can guarantee you they are gonna swear when they accidentally step on one!

 

[Arthur]

Last night was New Moon, the longest dark night this year for us Southern Hemisphere terrestrials. Somehow Jupiter shone a little brighter in the black sky. In just a few weeks Juno will again do what she did in Ancient Times - pull back the veil of secrecy around Jupiter and extract some secrets.

The first science exam is on 27 August. Can't wait to see what comes back.

 

[Zyraz]

NASA’s Juno Spacecraft Sends First In-orbit View

The JunoCam camera aboard NASA's Juno mission is operational and sending down data after the spacecraft’s July 4 arrival at Jupiter. Juno’s visible-light camera was turned on six days after Juno fired its main engine and placed itself into orbit around the largest planetary inhabitant of our solar system. The first high-resolution images of the gas giant Jupiter are still a few weeks away.

"This scene from JunoCam indicates it survived its first pass through Jupiter's extreme radiation environment without any degradation and is ready to take on Jupiter," said Scott Bolton, principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. "We can't wait to see the first view of Jupiter's poles."

The new view was obtained on July 10, 2016, at 10:30 a.m. PDT (1:30 p.m. EDT, 5:30 UTC), when the spacecraft was 2.7 million miles (4.3 million kilometers) from Jupiter on the outbound leg of its initial 53.5-day capture orbit. The color image shows atmospheric features on Jupiter, including the famous Great Red Spot, and three of the massive planet's four largest moons -- Io, Europa and Ganymede, from left to right in the image.

"JunoCam will continue to take images as we go around in this first orbit," said Candy Hansen, Juno co-investigator from the Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, Arizona. "The first high-resolution images of the planet will be taken on August 27 when Juno makes its next close pass to Jupiter."

JunoCam is a color, visible-light camera designed to capture remarkable pictures of Jupiter's poles and cloud tops. As Juno's eyes, it will provide a wide view, helping to provide context for the spacecraft's other instruments. JunoCam was included on the spacecraft specifically for purposes of public engagement; although its images will be helpful to the science team, it is not considered one of the mission's science instruments.

The Juno team is currently working to place all images taken by JunoCam on the mission's website, where the public can access them.

During its mission of exploration, Juno will circle the Jovian world 37 times, soaring low over the planet's cloud tops -- as close as about 2,600 miles (4,100 kilometers). During these flybys, Juno will probe beneath the obscuring cloud cover of Jupiter and study its auroras to learn more about the planet's origins, structure, atmosphere and magnetosphere.

JPL manages the Juno mission for the principal investigator, Scott Bolton, of 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 NASA's Science Mission Directorate. Michael Ravine of Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, is the JunoCam instrument lead. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the spacecraft. Caltech in Pasadena manages JPL for NASA.

To see a full video of Jupiter and the Galilean moons during Juno's approach to Jupiter, visit:

https://youtu.be/XpsQimYhNkA

More information on the Juno mission is available at:

http://www.nasa.gov/juno

The public can follow the mission on Facebook and Twitter at:

http://www.facebook.com/NASAJuno

http://www.twitter.com/NASAJuno

DC Agle / Preston Dyches
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-9011 / 818-354-7013
david.c.agle@jpl.nasa.gov / preston.dyches@jpl.nasa.gov

Dwayne Brown / Laurie Cantillo
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726 / 202-358-1077
dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov / laura.l.cantillo@nasa.gov

2016-185
Last Updated: July 12, 2016
Editor: Martin Perez

Source