What to expect during the Juno mission — Destination Jupiter

While most Americans are out watching fireworks to celebrate the Fourth of July, a group of scientists will be huddled in a small, glass conference room at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California, on Monday night to listen for a series of tones.

Juno is the second mission to explore Jupiter.

“We’re starting to realize Jupiter might be the key to our existence”, said Dr. Scott Bolton said, the mission’s lead scientific investigator at the Southwest Research Institute. The Juno team cheered and hugged.

Juno had to turn on its engines to slow down precisely 2,609 miles away from Jupiter, and it needed a 35-minute burn to achieve the correct speed to enter the planet’s orbit. The mission kicks into high gear in October when Juno fires its engine again to tighten its orbit. With any luck, NASA should soon release gorgeous imagery from Jupiter soon. “The whole game is get back to the sun before you run out of battery”.

Scientists are expecting the best photos and information yet from Juno. “I’m most scared of not quite getting back on the sun”. Juno navigated a tricky maneuver – including slowing by around 1,212 miles per hour – to insert itself into orbit in what NASA calls “the king of our solar system”.

Juno is a spinning, robotic probe as wide as a basketball court. It looks a bit like a flying windmill. It shows Jupiter’s four largest moons, Calisto, Ganymede, Europa and Io orbiting the giant planet.

Juno was bombarded with radiation as it neared Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system.

Spacecraft have been to Jupiter before.

NPR’s Joe Palca reports that if the orbit insertion goes smoothly, “Juno will provide a lot answers to questions about Jupiter”. But scientists still are puzzled by the gas giant.

It is also installed with a JunoCam, a citizen science camera that allows amateur astronomers to decide which of Jupiter’s swirling storm clouds should be photographed.

Measuring the magnetic field will also help scientists determine if Jupiter has a solid core, something that remains unknown. We don’t know how much water is in its atmosphere, which is a crucial clue in understanding its formation. Learning more about the odd planet could help us understand the building blocks of life on our own planet and beyond. “It’s what life comes from”. Because the rocket that carried Juno wasn’t powerful enough to boost it directly to Jupiter, it took a longer route.

The spacecraft carries nine instruments to map the planet.

Juno is an armored spacecraft – its computer and electronics are locked in a titanium vault to shield them from harmful radiation.

Instead of being made with plastic, the three special Lego figurines were built using aluminium.

Galileo, launched in 1989, circled Jupiter for almost a decade, beaming back splendid views of the planet and its numerous moons. The other two represent the Roman god Jupiter and his wife Juno.

The Juno spacecraft launched on August 5, 2011 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Bolton says the spacecraft’s 60 square meters (more than 650 square feet) of solar arrays produce 500 watts of power.

That’s the time it took for radio signals from Jupiter to reach Earth. Juno is the first spacecraft to venture so far from Earth powered by the sun.