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NASA’s Juno Mission Approaching Jupiter


Waspie_Dwarf

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NASA’s Juno Mission 26 Days from Jupiter

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JUNO MISSION STATUS

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."

Read more: NASA

 

 

Edited by Waspie_Dwarf
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Since Juno launched way back in 2011 (or last week for we folks over the age of 55)  here are some articles on Juno's design, its mission and goals and the instruments it carries.  

http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2016/06/10/whats-inside-nasa-spacecraft-to-probe-beneath-jupiters-surface/

NASA’s farthest-flung solar-powered robotic probe, Juno, has finally crossed over into Jupiter territory, where the gravitational attraction of the gas giant planet is stronger than the sun’s. Juno is now on the threshold of a mission that promises to solve many long-standing mysteries about our solar system’s largest planet.

On July 4, Juno will become only the second spacecraft to enter orbit around Jupiter, over twenty years after the end of the successful Galileo mission.

Equipped to observe not only the outward appearance and composition of Jupiter, Juno’s payload of instrumentation will allow scientists to probe deep beneath the planet’s surface and hopefully solve long standing puzzles about Jupiter’s structure, interior conditions and even its origin.

Interactive site https://www.missionjuno.swri.edu/spacecraft/juno-spacecraft

Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juno_(spacecraft)

 

 

 

 

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Junocam captures Earth and Moon on its flyby

 

Edited by Merc14
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Can't wait - the images from Mars and Pluto have been incredible!

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I'm excited! Jupiter photos will be the most awesome we'll see yet. I'd like to see us take closer looks at Jupiter's and Saturn's moons though. There are so many and some just might be hospital to life.

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I'm excited! Jupiter photos will be the most awesome we'll see yet. I'd like to see us take closer looks at Jupiter's and Saturn's moons though. There are so many and some just might be hospital to life.

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NASA’s Juno Spacecraft to Risk Jupiter’s Fireworks for Science

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On July 4, NASA will fly a solar-powered spacecraft the size of a basketball court within 2,900 miles (4,667 kilometers) of the cloud tops of our solar system’s largest planet.

As of Thursday, Juno is 18 days and 8.6 million miles (13.8 million kilometers) from 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. During the 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.

"At this time last year our New Horizons spacecraft was closing in for humanity’s first close views of Pluto,” said Diane Brown, Juno program executive at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Now, Juno is poised to go closer to Jupiter than any spacecraft ever before to unlock the mysteries of what lies within.”

Read more: NASA

 

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  • The title was changed to NASA’s Juno Mission Approaching Jupiter

NASA's Juno Spacecraft Closing in on Jupiter

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June 24, 2016

Today (6/24), at exactly 9:57 and 48 seconds a.m. PDT, NASA's Juno spacecraft was 5.5 million miles (8.9 million kilometers) from its July 4th appointment with Jupiter. Over the past two weeks, several milestones occurred that were key to a successful 35-minute burn of its rocket motor, which will place the robotic explorer into a polar orbit around the gas giant.

"We have over five years of spaceflight experience and only 10 days to Jupiter orbit insertion," said Rick Nybakken, Juno project manager from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "It is a great feeling to put all the interplanetary space in the rearview mirror and have the biggest planet in the solar system in our windshield." 

Read more: NASA

 

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NASA's Mission to Jupiter Will Tell Us Earth's Origin Story

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When NASA’s Juno spacecraft—a 400 pound box of reinforced titanium strapped to a 66 foot-long solar panel—arrives in orbit around Jupiter on July 4th, humans will be able to peer beneath the monstrous gas giant’s upper atmosphere for the first time, into the layers of poisonous thunder clouds packed below. Over the course of a year, Juno will map the entire surface of Jupiter, all the while using nine scientific instruments to probe the gas giant’s interior composition and powerful magnetic field. “Nobody’s ever seen Jupiter the way we will,” Juno mission director Scott Bolton told Gizmodo.
 
By the time the spacecraft makes its suicide plunge into Jupiter’s atmosphere, we’ll have a detailed understanding of the gas giant’s inner workings, and a better picture of how our solar system formed...

 

arrow3.gif Read more on Gizmodo

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Can't wait to see the images and data Juno provides.  Promises to be amazing.

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NASA's Juno Peers Inside a Giant

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NASA's Juno spacecraft will make its long anticipated arrival at Jupiter on July 4.  Coming face-to-face with the gas giant, Juno will begin to unravel some of the greatest mysteries surrounding our solar system's largest planet, including the origin of its massive magnetosphere.

Magnetospheres are the result of a collision between a planet's intrinsic magnetic field and the supersonic solar wind. Jupiter's magnetosphere – the volume carved out in the solar wind where the planet’s magnetic field dominates –extends up to nearly 2 million miles (3 million kilometers). If it were visible in the night sky, Jupiter's magnetosphere would appear to be about the same size as Earth’s full moon. By studying Jupiter's magnetosphere, scientists will gain a better understanding about how Jupiter's magnetic field is generated. They also hope to determine whether the planet has a solid core, which will tell us how Jupiter formed during the earliest days of our solar system.

arrow3.gifRead more: NASA

 

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Wow, great article and very well done video.   This is going to be something to see, can't wait!

Edited by Merc14
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NASA’s Juno Spacecraft to Kick into Planned Autopilot for July 4 Jupiter Burn

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June 30, 2016

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.”

Read more: NASA

 

 

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NASA's Juno Spacecraft Enters Jupiter's Magnetic Field

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NASA's Jupiter-bound Juno spacecraft has entered the planet's magnetosphere, where the movement of particles in space is controlled by what's going on inside Jupiter.

"We've just crossed the boundary into Jupiter's home turf," said Juno Principal Investigator Scott Bolton of Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio. "We're closing in fast on the planet itself and already gaining valuable data."

arrow3.gif  Read more: NASA

 

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NASA's Juno Spacecraft Getting Close to Jupiter

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NASA's Juno mission, launched nearly five years ago, will soon reach its final destination: the most massive planet in our solar system, Jupiter. On the evening of July 4, at roughly 9 p.m. PDT (12 a.m. EDT, July 5), the spacecraft will complete a burn of its main engine, placing it in orbit around the king of planets.

During Juno's orbit-insertion phase, or JOI, the spacecraft will perform a series of steps in preparation for a main engine burn that will guide it into orbit. At 6:16 p.m. PDT (9:16 p.m. EDT), Juno will begin to turn slowly away from the sun and toward its orbit-insertion attitude. Then 72 minutes later, it will make a faster turn into the orbit-insertion attitude.

arrow3.gif  Read more: NASA

 

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NASA Juno Mission T-Minus Two Days From Jupiter

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MISSION STATUS REPORT

As of noon (Pacific time) today, July 2, NASA’s Juno mission was 1.79 million miles (2.88 million kilometers) from Jupiter -- and closing. The solar-powered spacecraft will cross the orbit of the outermost Galilean moon, Callisto, on July 3 at about 11 a.m. PDT (2 p.m. EDT). The orbits of Ganymede, Europa and Io (the other Galilean moons), will be crossed on July 4 at about 4 a.m. PDT (7 a.m. EDT), 10:30 a.m. PDT (1:30 p.m. EDT) and 2:15 p.m. PDT (5:15 p.m. EDT) respectively. These four largest moons of Jupiter are named the Galilean moons because they were discovered by Galileo Galilei in 1609.

On July 4, at 8:18 p.m. PDT, Juno will fire its main engine, beginning a 35-minute burn that will place it into orbit around Jupiter.

arrow3.gif  Read more: NASA

 

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Come on Juno.... youre nearly there now ....be healthy

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It's great to be here - to witness these exciting times in Space exploration.

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NASA and Apple Just Released the Best Experience for Stoners Since Planet Earth

In a press conference today at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Mission Juno team played a recording of what it sounds like to get closer than ever to Jupiter. It was a high-pitched, sort of soothing “ooowwweee” drone, and then boom: You hit some sort of sound wall, and it’s suddenly much deeper, a hard, throttling bass. It was like a huge wave crashing over you — which is essentially what’s happening.

https://theringer.com/nasa-and-apple-musics-video-is-stoner-heaven-460676d236e3#.h76ljbgbx

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Juno's Final Approach to Jupiter

After five years traveling through space to its destination, NASA's Juno spacecraft will arrive in orbit around Jupiter today, July 4, 2016. This video shows a peek of what the spacecraft saw as it closed in on its destination before instruments were turned off. Watch our noon EDT Pre-Orbit Insertion Briefing on NASA Television for more: https://www.nasa.gov/nasatv or http://youtube.com/nasajpl/live

Credit: NASA Jet Propuslion Laboratory

Source: NASA/JPL YouTube Channel

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NASA’s Juno Hours From Gas Giant Jupiter

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MISSION STATUS REPORT

After almost five years and 1.7 billion million miles (2.7 billion kilometers), NASA's Juno mission is about to enter into orbit around the biggest planetary inhabitant in our solar system -- Jupiter.  Approaching the massive planet from above, Juno will be within 300,000 miles of Jupiter by 2:14 p.m. PDT (5:14 p.m. EDT). A minute later, Juno will cross the orbit of Jupiter’s innermost Galilean moon (Io), at 2:15 p.m. PDT (5:15 p.m. EDT). Juno closes the distance between it and the gas-giant world to 200,000 miles (322,000 kilometers) by 4:17 p.m. PDT (7:17 p.m. EDT) and is only 100,000 miles (161,000 kilometers) away by 6:03 p.m. PDT (9:03 p.m. EDT).

arrow3.gif  Read more: NASA

 

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Just read this

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The 35-minute orbit insertion burn - timed to to start at 03:18 GMT (04:18 BST) on Tuesday - is sure to jangle the nerves of everyone here in mission control at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California.

If the engine fails to fire at the right time or for an insufficient period, this $1.1bn (£800m) venture will simply fly straight past Jupiter and into the oblivion of deep space.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-36700048

 

 

Come on Juno...you can do it baby....

 

 

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Edited by seeder
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1 hour ago, seeder said:

Come on Juno...you can do it baby.....

I bet NASA are on tenterhooks.....fingers crossed all goes well.

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