Universe Today
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Juno,
NASA's
next big mission bound for the outer
planets
, has arrived at the
Kennedy Space Center
to kick off the final leg of
launch
preparations in anticipation of
blastoff
for Jupiter this summer.
The huge solar-powered Juno
spacecraft
will
skim
to within 4800 kilometers (3000 miles) of the cloud tops of Jupiter to study the origin and evolution of
our solar system's
largest planet. Understanding the mechanism of how Jupiter formed will lead to a better understanding of the origin of
planetary systems
around other stars throughout our galaxy.
Juno will be spinning like a windmill
as it fly's in a highly elliptical polar
orbit
and investigates the gas giant's origins, structure, atmosphere and magnetosphere with a suite of nine
science
instruments.
[caption id="attachment_84923" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="Technicians at Astrotech's payload processing facility in Titusville, Fla. secure NASA's Juno spacecraft to the rotation stand for testing. The solar-powered spacecraft will orbit Jupiter's poles 33 times to find out more about the gas giant's origins. Credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller"]
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During the five year cruise to Jupiter, the 3,600 kilogram probe will fly by
Earth
once in 2013 to pick up speed and accelerate Juno past
the asteroid belt
on its long journey to the Jovian system where it arrives in July 2016.
Juno will
orbit
Jupiter 33 times and search for the existence of a solid
planetary
core, map Jupiter's intense magnetic field, measure the amount of water and ammonia in the deep atmosphere, and observe the planet's auroras.
The mission will provide the first detailed glimpse of Jupiter's poles and is set to last approximately one year. The elliptical
orbit
will allow Juno to avoid most of Jupiter's harsh radiation regions that can severely damage the
spacecraft systems
.
Juno was designed and built by Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, and air shipped in a protective shipping container inside the belly of a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster cargo jet to the Astrotech payload processing facility in Titusville, Fla.
[caption id="attachment_84922" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="Juno undergoes acoustics testing at Lockheed Martin in Denver where the spacecraft was built. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Lockheed Martin"]
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This week the spacecraft begins about four months of final functional testing and integration inside the climate controlled
clean room
and undergoes a thorough verification that all its systems are healthy. Other processing work
before launch
includes attachment of the long magnetometer boom and solar arrays which arrived earlier.
Juno is the first solar powered
probe
to be launched to the outer planets and operate at such a great distance from the sun. Since Jupiter receives 25 times less sunlight than
Earth
, Juno will carry three giant solar panels, each spanning more than 20 meters (66 feet) in length. They will remain continuously in sunlight from the time they are unfurled after launch through the end of the mission.
"The Juno spacecraft and the team have come a long way since this project was first conceived in 2003," said Scott Bolton, Juno's principal investigator, based at Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, in a statement. "We're only a few months away from a mission of discovery that could very well rewrite the books on not only how Jupiter was born, but how
our solar system
came into being."
Juno is slated to
launch
aboard the most
powerful
version of the Atlas V rocket – augmented by 5 solid rocket boosters - from Cape Canaveral, Fla. on August 5. The launch window extends through August 26. Juno is the second mission in NASA's New Frontiers program.
NASA's
Mars
Curiosity Rover will follow Juno to the Atlas launch pad, and is scheduled to liftoff in late November 2011. Read my stories about Curiosity
here
and
here
.
Because of cuts to
NASA's
budget by politicians in Washington, the long hoped for mission to investigate the Jovian moon Europa may be axed, along with other high priority
science missions
. Europa may harbor subsurface oceans of
liquid water
and is a prime target in NASA's
search for life
beyond Earth.
[caption id="attachment_84924" align="aligncenter" width="386" caption="Technicians inside the clean room at Astrotech in Titusville, Fla. guide NASA's Juno spacecraft, as it is lowered by overhead crane, onto the rotation stand for testing. Credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller"]
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[caption id="attachment_84925" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="Technicians at Astrotech unfurl solar array No. 1 with a magnetometer boom that will help power NASA's Juno spacecraft on a mission to Jupiter. Credit: NASA"]
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[caption id="attachment_84926" align="aligncenter" width="421" caption="Juno's interplanetary trajectory to Jupiter. Juno will launch in August 2011 and fly by Earth once in October 2013 during its 5 year cruise to Jupiter. Click to enlarge. Credit: NASA/JPL"]
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