This week, NASA’s space probe Juno entered Jupiter’s orbit after a journey lasting nearly five years, and like astronautics experts and enthusiasts around the globe, Skolkovo’s space cluster was watching with bated breath.
An artist's concept of Juno approaching Jupiter. The probe will orbit the planet until 2018, when it will crash into Jupiter. Photo: NASA.
“We’ve been looking at the progress of Juno with great interest,” said Ivan Kosenkov, an analyst at the space cluster.
Juno’s mission is to investigate the massive radiation belts of giant Jupiter – the single biggest planetary body in the solar system – to obtain information on both the planet’s interior and on how Jupiter was born, and on the evolution of the entire solar system.
“It’s a great example of a relatively low-cost interplanetary mission,” said Kosenkov of the $1.1 billion project. “It’s quite unique, as it uses solar panels for getting energy, which is unprecedented for a mission to the outer solar system.”
While solar arrays – such as those fitted on Juno – are frequently used on spacecraft orbiting Earth and within the inner solar system, for missions to the outer solar system and beyond, radioisotope thermoelectric generators have previously been used. Juno has three solar array wings that are the largest ever to be used on a planetary probe and whose use is the result of recent progress made in solar cell technology.
Kosenkov says watching how the spacecraft weathers what he described as “the hellish conditions of near-Jupiter space” will be of vital use to engineers.
“The radiation here is so strong that a human would get a lethal dose in less than three hours,” he said.
“But Juno will remain orbiting the gas giant till 2018, so we will be able to see whether the electronics protected by the hardened spacecraft structure will be able to keep the probe alive, getting and transmitting valuable data to Earth.”
Kosenkov said that the information obtained about the degradation dynamics of onboard electronics would help astronautical engineers to build new probes, more resilient to the harsh conditions of outer space.
A photo taken by Juno of Jupiter and four of its moons shortly before the probe prepared to enter the planet's orbit. Photo: NASA.
In addition to the practical lessons to be learned from NASA’s mission, space scientists are keen to see what data about the planet will be revealed by the mission.
Juno’s principal goal is to understand the origin and evolution of Jupiter, NASA says.
“With its suite of nine 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,” NASA said in a press release. The mission is also expected to shed light on how giant planets like Jupiter form, and “the role these titans played in putting together the rest of the solar system.”
Kosenkov said the key point of interest is the structure of Jupiter: “its magnetic field, its atmosphere, does it have a solid core after all?”
Jupiter’s 67 moons – the most of any solar planet – are also of immense interest, he said.
“Europa, particularly, seem to have a large ocean of liquid water under its ice crust. And probably there, hidden from the deadly radiation of Jupiter, warmed by the tidal force of the giant planet’s gravity, we may find life. Even if we do not, the icy moon could become a place to settle an outpost of human civilization someday, and that’s why after the mission, Juno will fall into the Jovian clouds, without landing on any moon – in order to avoid even the slightest possibility of contamination of it [the moons] by Earth bacteria,” said Kosenkov.
Juno was launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida on August 5, 2011 and arrived at Jupiter on July 4.
Russia will send its own probe – and a landing system – to Jupiter and another of its moons, Ganymede, in 2026, meaning they would arrive in 2032, TASS reported on Tuesday, citing a representative of the Lavochkin Research and Production Association, which makes interplanetary probes and other spacecraft. One of the key aims of the mission will to be look for signs of life on Ganymede, past or present, the report said.