New "Juno" Mission To Jupiter Announced

Riding with Robots writes "Today NASA announced it is officially proceeding with the Juno robotic mission to Jupiter. Scheduled to launch in August 2011 and reach the largest planet in 2016, the spacecraft will orbit the planet 32 times, skimming about 4,800 kilometers over the planet's cloud tops for about a year. The mission will focus on Jupiter's structure and evolution, and not on Europa or the other icy moons that may hide oceans under their surfaces — a disappointment if you ask me. Then again, all planetary missions so far have turned up amazing images and surprising scientific discoveries, and I doubt this expedition will be any different." We discussed NASA's deliberation of its short list a few days back.

Comments

Is Ellen Page really qualified?

[Anonymous Coward]

I mean... she's a fine actress, but is she a qualified astronaut?

Re:Is Ellen Page really qualified?

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

I mean... she's a fine actress, but is she a qualified astronaut?

I think I speak for all tax-payers when I say we'd be willing to waive that requirement in this case.

Re:Is Ellen Page really qualified?

[forkazoo]

I mean... she's a fine actress, but is she a qualified astronaut?

Rest assured, friend. I can think of one or two things she could do in zero gravity that would be *well* worth the tax money. And, for those things, she's more than qualified.

Re:Is Ellen Page really qualified?

[justinlee37]

Only the male ones.

Re:Is Ellen Page really qualified?

[Anonymous Coward]

Count me out ! I do not know who Ellen Page might be, but I say that no non-qualified astronaut should be allowed to fly without an instructor - perhaps Natalie Portman ???

Re:Is Ellen Page really qualified?

[Mercano]

Hey, she also played Kitty Pryde in the last X-Men movie. That qualifies her, right?

Re:Is Ellen Page really qualified?

[Anonymous Coward]

No, only Jean Grey is a qualified astronaut.

Disappointment Indeed

[Star Particle]

The mission will focus on Jupiter's structure and evolution, and not on Europa or the other icy moons that may hide oceans under their surfaces - a disappointment if you ask me.

... especially since we could be using those icy moons as giant particle detectors (PDF) for neutrinos and other cosmic rays.

Re:Disappointment Indeed

[Anonymous Coward]

Guys, guys ... look ... *a great light appears* ... NASA can run two missions in parallel ! I know, it's crazy!! Rocket science!

When can I book my tickets?

[Brian.Kirby]

I'm just waiting for the day that we can use Travelocity to compare prices on flights to Mars... I guess going to Jupiter would be okay, too, if I were able to rack up a lot of frequent flier miles.

It's...

[Anonymous Coward]

A non-aborted mission.

Shame

[sleeponthemic]

But obviously there are are a lot of technical, financial and logistical reasons that we'd just not be privvy to.

I'm sure they, like all of us want to go after the seeds of life.

Re:Shame

[narcberry]

Based on what we do (don't) know, I'd say we can learn a lot more from Jupiter than Europa.

Our understanding of Jupiter and other gas giants is really lacking. The only hope of discovery of any kind on Europa is life. But that is a really small chance, and therefore a very big gamble compared to the large set of questions we know will be answered by starting to explore Jupiter.

Re:Shame

[LithiumX]

...or just possibly NASA hasn't forgotten that their mandate includes far more more than chasing after the tantalizing hope of extraterrestrial life.

Most of the researchers there are certainly interested in the potential for life, but ultimately the "possible signs of life" banners are there to keep people interested. I'd love to see more of my tax dollars go towards probing every single body in this system - not to look for what may be useful decades or centuries later, but just to see what's there - which usually gives more interesting results.

Some day, maybe within our lifetimes, a probe will be sent to a nearby star, regardless of how many years such a mission would take. That mission will be expensive, and it will require public support. The ideal pitch is that it would be our very first foray to another star - a significant event in human history in itself. Judging by the past few decades, though, they'll have to resort to "Could There Be Life At Centauri" or similar talk. Sometimes it takes sci-fi dreams to get most people to support basic science.

Re:Shame

[khallow]

Ok, why can't the seeds of life be found on Jupiter? As I see it, if Jupiter has any sort of life, then it becomes the largest biosphere (probably several orders of magnitude larger than the Earth's) in the Solar System with a strong chance of intelligent life.

Re:Shame

[sbeckstead]

Yeah I want my tax dollars to go toward probing bodies in this system. I've already had mine probed last month.
But there are bodies I'd like to see probed starting with Angelina Jolie, maybe Alysa Milano, a few super models maybe.

Re:Shame

[overcaffein8d]

or juno?

Re:Shame

[moonbender]

I guess we ought to probe the sun for traces of life, then. I bet they wear shades, like, all the time.

Re:Shame

[khallow]

I detect unwarranted high levels of snark in this post. The Sun is too hot for chemical reactors and stable solid matter. Jupiter is not.

Re:Shame

[FlyingBishop]

The thing is, we're so damn close on the moons of Jupiter. All we need to do is break the fucking ice and take a look. Odds are, if there's life, there's something obvious, not just unicellular (though we can easily check for that.)

I'm sure that Jupiter has a lot to teach us, but the moons are just about the only place we've found that actually have a reasonable chance of supporting extra-terrestrial life. I sort of feel like clearing that up is the next step, then we can go back to poking things and seeing what turns up. We probed the moons, we have a sense that there may be something of interest there, we should act on that suspicion before moving on to something else.

Re:Shame

[CheshireCatCO]

What they're trying to answer is "How did our planets form?" It's hard to imagine any findings on Europa (even life) that would significantly out-weigh an answer to this question, although some would probably rival it in importance. But given that this mission can almost certainly address the questions it's being sent up to answer and given that the technological hurdles of studying Europa properly are so high, this is a much more sensible mission to send at the moment, in my view.

Re:Shame

[MorePower]

That wouldn't work, even with shades the sunlight would be too bright. Plus it would be too hot.

Obviously all life on the sun would have to be nocturnal.

Re:Shame

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, the problem with that is that the bright part of the sun always faces the earth, so we'll have to send a satellite or probe to check the other side of the sun.

Re:Shame

[qazsedcft]

The question is not about temperature, but radiation. Jupiter emits high levels of radiation. So high actually, that even on the surface of Io radiation levels are lethal to life.

Re:Shame

[khallow]

Ok, that's a reasonable concern. My understanding is that the radiation is mostly due to some combination of the solar wind with Jupiter's magnetic field and the cloud of particles thrown out by Io's volcanos. But for anything in Jupiter's atmosphere (particularly near the equatoral regions), it'd probably be heavily shielded from that radiation by the atmosphere.

Re:Shame

[VeNoM0619]

Great idea, where do we send your check?

Re:Shame

[sbeckstead]

Wow this went from a 3 funny to a -1 off topic. Somebody takes his NASA a bit too seriously. Lighten up out there NASA shouldn't be a sacred cow.

Re:Shame

[slashtivus]

The mission to gather observable planetary spectrum from other star systems was eliminated a few years back.

That is a crying shame.

If we could observe some spectra that indicated very high probability for life forms on another planet it would be a very exciting thing. It would even offer us a possibility to have a potential target for a such a mission that you suggest.

I'd like to see at least that much in my lifetime.

Re:Shame

[tehcyder]

I'd love to see more of my tax dollars go towards probing every single body in this system

Fnarr fnarr.

Re:Shame

[qazsedcft]

The radiation is not just due to interaction with the solar wind. Jupiter emits more radiation than the radiation received from the Sun. As a result Jupiter looses mass just like a star. The Wikipedia article on Jupiter has some info about this.

Re:Shame

[aqk]

Ok, why can't the seeds of life be found on Jupiter?

Forget Jupiter! Let's spend more time investigating that mysterious Europe!

Re:Shame

[khallow]

From the current version of the Wikipedia article for Jupiter:

In spite of this, Jupiter still radiates more heat than it receives from the Sun. The amount of heat produced inside the planet is nearly equal to the total solar radiation it receives. This additional heat radiation is generated by the Kelvin-Helmholtz mechanism through adiabatic contraction. This process results in the planet shrinking by about 2 cm each year. When it was first formed, Jupiter was much hotter and was about twice its current diameter.

I bolded the relevant parts. First, it's heat radiation not hard radiation. Second, Jupiter isn't shedding mass. It is shrinking because it is cooling down.

Where does it go next?

[WiglyWorm]

32 orbits is not very much, and it seems a shame to just let it get flung in to deep space. You'd think they could do a burn and stick it into a permanent orbit somewhere to get some long(er) term studies done.

Re:Where does it go next?

[techno-vampire]

It's only going to have so much fuel, and it may need all of it to get the 32 orbits you're complaining about. Once that's gone, there's no more maneuvering. And, of course, we'll still be able to get data back as it drifts out of the Jovian system. It's not like it's going to go dead the moment that last orbit ends, you know.

Re:Where does it go next?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not just fuel. The radiation from Jupiter is very intense and gets worse the closer you get.

Re:Where does it go next?

[umberto unity]

That's not how orbits work. After the 32nd orbit, Juno will enter its 33rd orbit. Orbits are inertial, and only require fuel for station-keeping. On this orbit, however, no orbital perturbations will cleverly keep Juno out of the worst of Jupiter's tremendous magnetic fields, which trap cosmic rays, solar wind particles, and other ionizing radiation, and so Juno's electronics will begin to degrade. No longer able to speak to us, Juno will keep orbiting until the orbital trajectory itself begins to degrade and it spirals down into the planet to burn up in the atmosphere.

Re:Where does it go next?

[Fourpole]

It is probable that NASA would decide to deorbit the spacecraft at the end of mission by sending it in to Jupiter's atmosphere, rather than just let the orbit degrade. This was done to Galileo to prevent any contamination of Jupiter's moons, particularly Europa.

Re:Where does it go next?

[AtariKee]

"It is probable that NASA would decide to deorbit the spacecraft at the end of mission by sending it in to Jupiter's atmosphere, rather than just let the orbit degrade. This was done to Galileo to prevent any contamination of Jupiter's moons, particularly Europa."

And Io. And this deorbit was particularly interesting considering that one cancelled mission plan would have maneuvered Galileo through a volcanic plume on Io.

Juno...

[owlnation]

... or what the spiders call "Phase III" of the Grand Plan.

Excellent. Arthur C Clarke no doubt approves.

[ElAurian]

Close-up, high-resolution views of Jupiter's clouds... if there are any large gasbag-like organisms down there, this mission might see them.

Re:Excellent. Arthur C Clarke no doubt approves.

[Eccles]

I'd say there are some large gasbags here on earth...

Dude! Weren't you paying attention?

[denzacar]

The message was:

All these worlds
are yours except
Europa
attempt no
landings there
use them together
use them in peace

Re:Dude! Weren't you paying attention?

[aqk]

WHAT???

What are you, one of them effete Europaens?

Do not attempt to tell an AMERICAN space agency what they can and cannot do!

Re:Dude! Weren't you paying attention?

[denzacar]

WHAT???

What are you, one of them effete Europaens?

Do not attempt to tell an AMERICAN space agency what they can and cannot do!

Why so upset?

Is it because of outsourcing to India?

Oh and, you misspelled Europeans.
And fucking.

Re:Dude! Weren't you paying attention?

[aqk]

Oh and, you misspelled Europeans.
And fucking.

I most certainly did NOT mis-spell "Europaens", dear child.

I have been corresponding with them for years.
They most certainly wish that Earthlings such as you would concentrate on Juno and leave their cherished Europa alone!

Europaens have a strong sense of irony and facetiousness, something that... umm, many of us Earthling do not seem to possess.

As to whether I misspelled "f**king", I am totally puzzled. We do not use that word in polite society here.
Or on Europa, for that matter.

Now go back to Europe and leave Europa alone, you miscreant!

Hopefully Obama will reverse this

[93 Escort Wagon]

I know the Bush administration can be rather heartless; but sending pregnant teenagers into space? I just pray the first mission isn't scheduled until after January 20th.

Re:Hopefully Obama will reverse this

[MisterCIA]

I know the Bush administration can be rather heartless; but sending pregnant teenagers into space? I just pray the first mission isn't scheduled until after January 20th.

The Vice President is the chairman of the board for NASA. The current VP is our old friend Dick Cheney. I think that may be a slight clue.

Re:I just took a massive shit

[Anonymous Coward]

how do you keep thin ones from breaking apart?

Important rule

[sisko]

All these worlds
are yours except
Europa
attempt no
landing there
use them together
use them in peace

Re:Important rule

[Tubal-Cain]

Too soon. The Chinese landed on Europa before that message, remember?

You should've gone to China, you know

[cylcyl]

'cause I hear they give away babies like free iPods. You know, they pretty much just put them in those t-shirt guns and shoot them out at sporting events.

Well of course not Europa

[Anonymous Coward]

Attempt no landing there.

Use of all

[dj245]

"Then again, all planetary missions so far have turned up amazing images and surprising scientific discoveries, and I doubt this expedition will be any different."

Not all planetary missions have turned up amazing images. Roughly half of the Mars missions failed to reach the planet and become operational. So those didn't complete anything at all amazing. Even of the ones that did, I doubt you could say that ALL of them resulted in amazing images and surprising discoveries. Unless, of course, you count "This didn't work lets try something else" as an amazing image and discovery.

Re:Use of all

[Ogive17]

I'd say NASA's track record looks pretty good, especially over the past decade.

Not News

[CheshireCatCO]

Er, not to deflate the coolness of this mission (and it is a damn cool mission), but Juno was selected in 2005. All that this is saying is that it hasn't been derailed, although their wording obscures this. See the mission website.

Once again, NASA's press office shows that it's keen on issuing a hyped release about any old thing.

How about getting Weather satellites in orbit

[musterion]

before going to Jupiter. Space exploration is all well and fine, but they are dropping the ball on the weather satellites.

Really interesting spacecraft design and mission

[wisebabo]

So I took a few seconds to RTFA and I found (or didn't find):

It uses SOLAR PANELS to power this thing all the way to Jupiter. That'll beat the previous record holder (I think the DAWN mission to Vesta and Ceres) for use of solar power away from the sun. TFA says that other than a 10 min period in earth's shadow during a flyby it will always be in sunlight.

1) So does that mean it will be in a sun synchronous polar orbit at Jupiter? Won't that compromise the data collection opportunities it has? (It'll never be able to look "straight down" with the sun at its back).

I couldn't find any details about how it intends to enter and then adjust its jupiter-centric polar orbit. I see no mention of using gravity assist WITHIN the jupiter system using any of the galilean satellites to reduce the amount of delta V for insertion (and adjustments). Is this because they are going into a polar orbit and won't be in the plane of the satellite's orbits? Nor did I see any mention of some fancy aero-braking (like the Mars orbiters use). (Of course I guess ion drives (like those used in DAWN) wouldn't be practical because the probe would have to "linger" too long in Jupiter's radiation belts while it slowly shed velocity).

2) So will they be using some standard chemical propellents with a long storage time (like Cassini)? Will a large part of the spacecraft be fuel or does its "unique highly elliptical" orbit not require too much delta V to enter?

Anyway, sounds like a cool mission, that won't cost too much or take too long to get there (uses solar power so no expensive nukes, uses 1 gravity assist and a medium size Atlas booster). Hopefully the camera has a high enough resolution to take a picture of Medusa! (Please see Arthur C. Clarke's "Meeting with Medusa").

YEAH

[Straygrub]

Oh hell yes. Juno we're going to Jupiter?!

Misleading summary

[Jiro]

The way this summary is written implies that NASA's selection of missions in the other article has something to do with Juno. It doesn't. New Frontiers missions are picked periodically. Juno was picked in 2003; NASA still hasn't picked one of the current batch yet.

Oh no

[docbombay]

If this is the level of Slashdot humor now, I can only pray that there's never a NASA mission to Uranus.

Re:Oh no

[tehcyder]

Why what's wrong with Uranus?

Re:Really interesting spacecraft design and missio

[Anonymous Coward]

1) So does that mean it will be in a sun synchronous polar orbit at Jupiter? Won't that compromise the data collection opportunities it has? (It'll never be able to look "straight down" with the sun at its back).

Do you think a 767 at cruising altitude casts a significant shadow on the surface of the Earth? At these kinds of distances the effect is too diffused to even notice.

Piggy-back drones?

[Anonymous Coward]

AINARS but... why not piggy back some smaller drones on the main ship they're sending to jupiter?
they could then deploy this "drones" as they pass by the jovian moons

I think it should be possible, maybe difficult, but it will certainly be cheaper and quicker than sending several individual missions.

Because of the chemistry we know

[aepervius]

Granted we have a sample only of 1 in the BIOchemistry statistic (earth) and we might lack som knowledge on high pressure H chemistry with other elements, but we can define what are the minimum to be needed to have life : a semi permanent structure to hold the building blocks/building plans (read : something similar to DNA) to reproduce similar constructs, a way to exchange energy with the environment, a preserved separation (cellular walls) and so on. Note that I exclude under such definition polymere globule which can grow / split but it can be debatable. That does not sound compatible with our small sample of life. Granted we could be deadly wrong due to our lack of knowledge in that P/T domain of H and other elements.

As for having a biosphere larger than earth youa re already SPECULATING on your own using the earth sample size. Who is saying that life form on jupiter if it EVER existed would not be simple organism miles long ? In such a case the biosphere of jupiter would indeed be comparatively small to earth. And again you speculate on on having a strong chance of *intelligent life* Beside nice s.f. books what can you give as evidence if ever life happens on jupiter there would be a greater chance of there having intelligent life ? Too much space odyssey books ? I hate it to break it to you, but A.C. Clark was not writing documentary books, you know....

Re:Because of the chemistry we know

[khallow]

Granted we have a sample only of 1 in the BIOchemistry statistic (earth) and we might lack som knowledge on high pressure H chemistry with other elements, but we can define what are the minimum to be needed to have life : a semi permanent structure to hold the building blocks/building plans (read : something similar to DNA) to reproduce similar constructs, a way to exchange energy with the environment, a preserved separation (cellular walls) and so on. Note that I exclude under such definition polymere globule which can grow / split but it can be debatable. That does not sound compatible with our small sample of life. Granted we could be deadly wrong due to our lack of knowledge in that P/T domain of H and other elements.

I'm unclear what your complaint is here. I don't see anything in the Jupiter environment that inherently prohibits one of these conditions.

As for having a biosphere larger than earth youa re already SPECULATING on your own using the earth sample size. Who is saying that life form on jupiter if it EVER existed would not be simple organism miles long ? In such a case the biosphere of jupiter would indeed be comparatively small to earth. And again you speculate on on having a strong chance of *intelligent life* Beside nice s.f. books what can you give as evidence if ever life happens on jupiter there would be a greater chance of there having intelligent life ? Too much space odyssey books ? I hate it to break it to you, but A.C. Clark was not writing documentary books, you know....

I'm speculating based on the relative sizes of Jupiter and Earth. Jupiter happens to be a lot bigger. The intelligence angle is based on a couple of assumptions. First, that a larger biosphere means more reproduction of some sort per unit time which in turn (part 2 of the assumption) means faster evolution. Second, that similar conditions would exist to encourage the development of intelligence.

the fall from JIMO

[heroine]

Quite a fall from the JIMO mission. Disappointing they had to downgrade to this tried & true orbiter, but U need to fund mortgage bailouts.

Re:I just took a massive shirt

[Anonymous Coward]

The topic is JUPITER! Not Uranus!