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Juno Jupiter Probe Won't Move Into Shorter Orbit After All (space.com)
NASA announced today that their Juno spacecraft will not move into a closer orbit around Jupiter as originally planned. "Juno slipped into a highly elliptical, 53-Earth-day-long orbit around Jupiter when it arrived at the giant planet on July 4, 2016," reports Space.com. From their report: The probe was supposed to perform an engine burn in October to reduce its orbital period to 14 days, but an issue with two helium valves postponed that maneuver. The engine burn has now been canceled, meaning Juno will stay where it is through the end of its mission. "During a thorough review, we looked at multiple scenarios that would place Juno in a shorter-period orbit, but there was concern that another main engine burn could result in a less-than-desirable orbit," Rick Nybakken, Juno project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, said in a statement. "The bottom line is, a burn represented a risk to completion of Juno's science objectives." But Juno should still be able to accomplish its mission goals in the longer orbit, NASA officials said. In fact, the 53-day path will allow the probe to perform some "bonus science" in the outer regions of Jupiter's magnetosphere, they added.
I hope they didn't permanent cancel it. Once the science objectives are completed, they should attempt this maneuver. Juno doesn't have a good imager, so closer the better. Would have been nice to get some 3D close ups of the clouds.
Attempt no landings on Europa.
It's Manna time! Gimme mah Basic Incomes and a free Burger, G.
Better and Better!
Now that it doesn't matter anymore, did this question get settled yet? It's too bad Hillary started this rumor, if it's not true...
Voyagers and the like did way better in 1977.
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
It's more a question of 2017 accounting. If the project plan calls for 100 experiments, the spacecraft is designed for 100 experiments not 101.
Of course, the spacecraft doesn't explode immediately when it's done the mission, but it runs of fuel, things start to break down, etc. So, often, it's time to crash it for one last chance to get something out of it.
But I think it's too bad. Maybe 10% more money could get 100% more science...
Finish what you started!
Phase 1 - DEPORT
Phase 2 - ?
Phase 3 - End Mankind
I'll bet that kind of thinking is what got the Apollo 13 astronauts back to Earth alive. Doing more science instead of less is just a bonus.
But it was on the far side of the Moon, right?
Like Werner Von Braun?
That's not my department, says Werner Von Braun!
Wow! I thought a bottle of Irish whiskey made me stupid. What's your excuse?
I left myself wide open for that one . . . ;^D
These morons are just aching to bring about the so-called "end times". They're the reason MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) is no longer a viable nuclear arms control strategy.
Bill Maher offered to donate money to charity if Trump showed his birth certificate. Trump did, and Bill Maher did not pay up. As for a forged birth certificate for the average person, I bet that could be done by a decent spy agency. Obama wrote some book in the 90s, and the promo touted him as a Kenyan born.
Werner Von Braun is the type of person H-1b was intended for. von Braun also had over 1 decade of work experience under the most advanced rocket group at the time.
So if they aren't going to be using the main engine for a major trajectory shift, does this mean that more fuel is available for the thrusters?
In my long (non) professional career of following of various space programs, it always seems that the limiting factors to a mission is 1) the availability of fuel for the thrusters (for minor course corrections, attitude control/dumping of momentum) and 2) how many reaction wheels are still working (although there have been creative solutions such as using sunlight pressure for attitude control). If Juno's thrusters same the same fuel (and fuel tank!) as the main engine then perhaps it now has access to a much larger supply and can conceivably last a long long time. :)
Of course, Juno's limiting factor WAS the intense radiation it was going to have to have faced but perhaps the new orbit has reduced that substantially. In fact, if there IS a lot more fuel available, perhaps it can use the fuel (once the primary mission is over) to get it out of the high radiation regions (perhaps by some creative gravity assists from the Galilean moons) and perform a multi-year "tour" of the Jovian system. This would possibly make up for the scientific tragedy that befell the Galileo probe when its high gain antennae didn't open and the data rate dropped by (three? more?) orders of magnitude. It'd be fantastic to get some really good pictures of Europa (life!) and Io (volcanoes!).
Or just put it in a relatively distant parking orbit around Jupiter and (because it's solar powered) let it monitor the Jovian system for (hopefully) decades
I should have checked the breaking news first, Russia is now on that list after a spectacularly pointless bit of dick waving by Pence. Russia is going to be held to account for ... what exactly? Did Pence lose his notes?
That's not my department, says Werner Von Braun!
Wow! An homage to Tom Lehrer's album "That Was the Year That Was." One of my all-time favorite albums even to today. Intelligent, accurate, and entertaining. Some of the most artfully done political and social satire EVER.
Thank you for making my day.
If only he were around now to do something about Trump.
An effective "democracy" creates the illusion the people have a say in their government.
If only he were around now
He's not dead. He just gave up political satire after Henry Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Have gnu, will travel.
If only he were around now
He's not dead. He just gave up political satire after Henry Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Oh yeah. That probably really discouraged him. Thanks for the follow-up.
An effective "democracy" creates the illusion the people have a say in their government.
Unfortunately, at the rate we're going the next selection is likely to be "We'll all go together when we go".
A. You read it out loud, with an accent Improvise the rest.
"Juno, Jupiter Probe won't come closer, after all."
Then read the proper translation: "You know, Jupiter probe won't come closer, after all. Bastards!
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
It seems kind of silly to insist Voyager is objectively better because it inspired people, as if a copy of Juno in the 70s would have not. People around here like to insist that some minor difference in the technology of space probe images would have made drastic difference in the inspiration ability of the resulting images. The impact of the images have more to do with the times they are published and novelty, than say a wide angle lens at 70,000 km vs narrow angle at 350,000 km, or filter wheel vs. consumer color cameras as argued in another recent comment thread.
They have real scientists and engineers working on this, they do not require, need or want any input from a bunch of basement dwelling geeks with no real understanding of science. :)
No way close to accurate. Galileo took much better images of Jupiter despite the jamming of the antennae. And cassini without a doubt has taken images of Saturn and all it's moons so much better than Voyager it is not even plausible that the opposite is true.
Voyager was amazing, but it was only a flyby mission lucky enough to enjoy a once in a lifetime alignment of all the outer planets.