This illustration depicts NASA’s Juno spacecraft successfully entering Jupiter’s orbit. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
After an almost 5-year journey, NASA’s Juno spacecraft successfully entered Jupiter’s orbit during a 35-minute engine burn. With its suite of 9 science instruments, Juno will investigate 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. Confirmation of a successful orbit insertion was received from Juno tracking data monitored at JPL, CA and Lockheed Martin Juno operations center in Denver. The telemetry and tracking data were received by NASA’s Deep Space Network antennas in Goldstone, California, and Canberra, Australia.
Preplanned events leading up to the orbital insertion engine burn included changing the spacecraft’s attitude to point the main engine in the desired direction and then increasing the spacecraft’s rotation rate from 2 to 5 rpm to help stabilize it..The burn of Juno’s 645-Newton Leros-1b main engine began on time at 8:18 p.m. PDT (11:18 p.m. EDT), decreasing the spacecraft’s velocity by 1,212 mph (542 meters per second) and allowing Juno to be captured in orbit around Jupiter. Soon after the burn was completed, Juno turned so that the sun’s rays could once again reach the 18,698 individual solar cells that give Juno its energy.”The spacecraft worked perfectly, which is always nice when you’re driving a vehicle with 1.7 billion miles on the odometer,” said Rick Nybakken, Juno project manager, JPL.
Juno spacecraft and its science instruments. Image credit: NASA/JPL…. Juno’s scientific payload includes: A gravity/radio science system (Gravity Science) A six-wavelength microwave radiometer for atmospheric sounding and composition (MWR) A vector magnetometer (MAG) Plasma and energetic particle detectors (JADE and JEDI) A radio/plasma wave experiment (Waves) An ultraviolet imager/spectrometer (UVS) An infrared imager/spectrometer (JIRAM) The spacecraft will also carry a color camera, called JunoCam, to provide the public with the first detailed glimpse of Jupiter’s poles.
Over the next few months, Juno’s mission and science teams will perform final testing on the spacecraft’s subsystems, final calibration of science instruments and some science collection. “Our official science collection phase begins in October, but we’ve figured out a way to collect data a lot earlier than that,” said Bolton.
Juno’s principal goal is to understand the origin and evolution of Jupiter. The mission also will let us take a giant step forward in our understanding of how giant planets form and the role played in putting together the rest of the solar system. As our primary example of a giant planet, Jupiter also can provide critical knowledge for understanding the planetary systems being discovered around other stars.
http://www.nasa.gov/juno
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6558
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