OT: Juno now in orbit around Jupiter

Submitted by superstringer on

While we were all snarfing hot dogs / bbq / brots etc., the NASA spacecraft "Juno" successfully entered Jovian orbit (meaning, around Jupiter).  Juno travelled for 5 years, over 1.7 billion miles, and this evening fired its engines for 35 minutes. Juno will now spend about 2 years studying Jupiter, in a HIGHLY elliptical orbit -- it will take 58 days to make one orbit, which at its farthest point will be hundreds of thousands of miles from Jupiter, but at its closest point will be only 2600 miles above the top of the atmosphere.

Juno will try to figure out what is deep inside Jupitor's thick clouds; we don't know if it has a solid surface (probably doesn't), or just a really thick, gooey surface deep inside, or molten metals etc.  We don't know why it has such a powerful magnetic field ("magnetosphere"), or how much water is in its atmosphere.  It was probably the first planet to form, and could explain how all the planets formed.

Juno is the farthest-out solar-powered vehicle in history.  The Sun's rays are really weak out at Jupiter, so Juno has three massive solar arrays -- end to end, it's bigger than a basketball court.  Juno also has a "vault" to protect its electronic equipment, because Jupiter is incredibly radioactive.  (How radioactive?  IIRC, a human, exposed to certain parts of it, would die in 10 minutes.)

Juno cost over $1 billion, or about the cost of the Warriors' starting lineup I think.

MGoBoard
Other

NotADuck

July 5th, 2016 at 1:31 AM ^

I genuinely find this interesting.  Is Juno able to study Jupiter's moon's as well?  If so, will it?  I know its not likely but I read about how Europa might contain extremely basic lifeforms beneath its icey surface.  It would be nice to know for sure that we are 100 percent alone in our solar system.

Joined: 12/20/2013

MGoPoints: 18023

superstringer

July 5th, 2016 at 1:40 AM ^

From what I understand, Juno is 100% geared towards Jupiter itself.  I have no idea how close it will pass to any of Jupiter's 67 moons (you read that correctly) (assuming you read it to say "sixty seven moons").  It potentially could take pictures of moons like Europa, but none of the scientific instruments are meant for it.

In the meantime, Europa is being HEAVILY discussed within the halls of NASA, as well as Saturn's moon Encelaedus, both of which are believed to have flowing water oceans under their icy surfaces.  Costs of those missions is, well, astronomical, but sampling the water is a really big deal.  Here's why:  everywhere on earth you find flowing water, you find life.  It's a tantalizing opportunity.  (Seems Encelaedus might be the slightly-more-likely place to find life, but Saturn is harder to get to, but less radioactive than Jupiter.)

By the way, they think they can sample the water not be drilling into miles of ice, but, by passing the spacecraft thru plumes of water that spray into space occasionally (thru massive cracks in the ice).  The contents of the oceans also might be scattered on the surface of the moons, as they spray up then fall back onto the ice.

I have already volunteered to man a nuclear submarine to go under the Europan ice, if I get to select my crew (Jessica Alba and Margot Robbie -- but only for their scientific acumen, of course).

Joined: 02/04/2009

MGoPoints: 17934

1VaBlue1

July 5th, 2016 at 8:17 AM ^

You know, you can't just climb into a submarine and start driving it - they're a fairly complicated lot...But in a stroke of good fortune for you, I happen to have earned my Dolphins on just such a craft.  So I'll tag along to drive the damn thing.  As an added bonus, I'll help occupy the time of the three 'scientists' making the trip with us (Jessica, Margot, and Kate).

I've always wanted to be shot into outer space - thanks for making my dream come true!

 

(PS: When do we leave?)

Joined: 01/31/2016

MGoPoints: 126476

LSAClassOf2000

July 5th, 2016 at 8:10 AM ^

I would say "Exactly this" as it is this shirt which I ordered with my signed copy of HTTV, but it isn't here yet so I cannot celebrate this news appropriately. I feel a bit shafted by that, quite honestly. 

Still, it will be fascinating to see what comes from Juno, whose camera - I believe - will be switched on later today, or so I understood from Good Morning, America. 

Joined: 01/07/2011

MGoPoints: 130560

YakAttack

July 5th, 2016 at 2:48 AM ^

for around 110 minutes. my sister in law works for JPL and was heavily involved in this mission. She was interviewed on Saturday on CBS, but we only saw the side of her face last night.

Joined: 01/20/2009

MGoPoints: 53679

Yo_Blue

July 5th, 2016 at 9:05 AM ^

True that.  To be accurate though, Jupiter is only about 500 million miles away.  The probe had to travel 1.7 billion miles to achieve the slingshot effect of Earth and to reach the point of Jupiter's orbit five years in the future.  More than algebra taking place there, so you can be assured no Spartys were tasked in this endeavor.

Joined: 08/24/2010

MGoPoints: 102591

mgoblue0970

July 5th, 2016 at 1:41 PM ^

There's software by AGI called STK.  A demo is free to download.  I don't know if this team used it but missions to Mars have in the past and its Navigator program is quite remarkable.  Many of the people who write the code or do the development have PhDs in astro or some other related science.  One of them even taught at Michigan for 6 years.

Joined: 11/22/2008

MGoPoints: 18648

Space Coyote

July 5th, 2016 at 9:15 AM ^

Here's essentially what the orbits look like

Notice that these are polar orbits. This is to remain outside, for as much as possible, the massive amounts of radiation that are higher around the equator (Jupiter's strongest radiation belts are located near the equator) as well as to remain in the sun for as long as possible for reasons of power, among other reasons. To answer the question about viewing moons, this orbit would make it very difficult to study any of Jupiter's moons even if that were a goal. And, in fact, one of the goals of its final deorbit is to avoid Jupiter's largest moons (the ones believed to hold liquid water) so as not to run the risk of collision and polluting the currently pristine natural satellites.

If you're really interested in Juno and what it's all about and what went into its design, there is a lot of good info here

LINK

Joined: 06/18/2009

MGoPoints: 38962

superstringer

July 5th, 2016 at 11:33 AM ^

The coincidence is in fact not a coincidence -- it's why the name was selected.

The story NASA tells is this:  There is a fable that Jupiter (Zeus) was boinking some of those hot girls on Earth, like Io. Callista and Europa.  (Just curious, would you do a girl named "Ganamede"?)  So to hide his affairs he made a thick cloud cover.  His wife Juno (Hera) wasn't no fool, and being a goddess herself, she was able to peer thru those clouds and see what (er, whom) her hubby was doing.

The Juno spacecraft is designed to peer thru Jupiter's clouds.  Hence, the name Juno makes total sense.

If Juno spies anyone hooking up, however, NASA's gonna have some 'splainin' to do.

Joined: 02/04/2009

MGoPoints: 17934