Jupiter-bound Juno undergoes testing. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LMSS
NASA’s next spacecraft that’s headed for giant Jupiter is currently undergoing testing at Lockheed Martin Space Systems near Denver.
Designed and built by the aerospace firm, Juno is on track for an August liftoff – dispatched on a five-year cruise to Jupiter. Its arrival date is July 2016.
The spacecraft is fully assembled and all instruments have been integrated. Juno has already been put through acoustics testing that simulates the environment the spacecraft will experience during launch.
Juno has now been sealed in a large thermal vacuum chamber, a way to expose to the probe to the extreme cold and vacuum conditions it will experience on its voyage to Jupiter.
That two-week-long test will simulate many of the flight activities the spacecraft will execute during the mission.
Juno job description
Arriving at Jupiter, Juno will take one year to complete orbiting of the planet 32 times. Juno will improve our understanding of our solar system’s beginnings by revealing the origin and evolution of Jupiter.
Also, Juno is designed to undertake these tasks:
- Determine how much water is in Jupiter’s atmosphere, which helps determine which planet formation theory is correct (or if new theories are needed).
- Look deep into Jupiter’s atmosphere to measure composition, temperature, cloud motions and other properties Map Jupiter’s magnetic and gravity fields, revealing the planet’s deep structure.
- Explore and study Jupiter’s magnetosphere near the planet’s poles, especially the auroras – Jupiter’s northern and southern lights – providing new insights about how the planet’s enormous magnetic force field affects its atmosphere.
Juno is being readied for shipment from Lockheed Martin to the Kennedy Space Center in early April, where it will undergo final preparations and launch.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the Juno mission for the principal investigator, Scott Bolton, of Southwest Research Institute at San Antonio, Texas.
Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, has constructed the spacecraft. The Italian Space Agency in Rome is contributing an infrared spectrometer instrument and a portion of the radio science experiment.
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By LD/CSE