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Forum: Satellites - Robotic Probes
Topic: NASA's Juno to look into Jupiter's atmosphere

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Message to Edit: HTML is ON UBB Code is ON Smilies Legend	Originally posted by Robert Pearlman on 12-13-2016 08:47 AM NASA release <blockquote><font size="+0">[b]NASA Juno Mission Completes Latest Jupiter Flyby[/b]</font> NASA's Juno mission completed a close flyby of Jupiter on Sunday, Dec. 11, its latest science orbit of the mission. Seven instruments and the spacecraft's JunoCam were operating during the flyby to collect data that is now being returned to Earth. Juno is currently in a 53-day orbit, and its next close flyby of Jupiter will occur on Feb. 2, 2017. At the time of closest approach (called perijove), Juno was about 2,580 miles (4,150 kilometers) above the gas giant's roiling cloud tops and traveling at a speed of about 129,000 mph (57.8 kilometers per second) relative to the planet. "This will be the first time we are planning to operate the full Juno capability to investigate Jupiter's interior structure via its gravity field," said Scott Bolton, principal investigator of Juno from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, before the perijove. "We are looking forward to what Jupiter's gravity may reveal about the gas giant's past and its future." Mission managers decided not to collect data with the Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) instrument during this flyby, to allow the team to complete an update to the spacecraft software that processes JIRAM's science data. A software patch allowing JIRAM's operation is expected to be available prior to the next perijove pass in February. The spacecraft team continues to weigh its options regarding modifications of Juno's orbital period — how long it takes for the spacecraft to complete one orbit around Jupiter. At present, Juno's orbital period is 53.4 days. There had been plans to perform a period reduction maneuver with the spacecraft's main engine on Oct. 19 to reduce the orbital period to 14 days. The team made the decision to forgo the maneuver in order to further study the performance of a set of valves that are part of the spacecraft's fuel pressurization system. "We have a healthy spacecraft that is performing its mission admirably, and we are able to obtain great science every time we fly by," said Rick Nybakken, project manager for Juno from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "What we do not want to do is add any unnecessary risk, so we are moving forward carefully."</blockquote>
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