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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA’s upcoming mission to Jupiter
can’t get much greener than this: a solar-powered, windmill-shaped
spacecraft.
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The robotic explorer Juno is set to become the most distant probe
ever powered by the sun.
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Juno is equipped with three tractor-trailer-size solar panels for
its 2 billion-mile journey into the outer solar system. It will be
launched Friday morning aboard an unmanned Atlas V rocket – barely
two weeks after NASA’s final space shuttle flight.
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The shuttle’s demise is giving extra oomph to the $1.1 billion
voyage to the largest and probably oldest planet in the solar
system. It’s the first of three high-profile astronomy missions
coming up for NASA in the next four months.
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Jupiter – a planet several NASA spacecraft have studied before – is
so vast it could hold everything else in the solar system, minus
the sun. Scientists hope to learn more about planetary origins
through Juno’s exploration of the giant gas-filled planet, a body
far different from rocky Earth and Mars.
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“Look at it this way – it is a new era,” said Jim Green, NASA’s
director of planetary science. “Humans plan to go beyond low-Earth
orbit. When we do that, it’s not like ‘Star Trek.’ It’s not ‘go
where no man has gone before.'”
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Plunging deeper into space will require robotic scouts first, he
said.
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Southwest Research Institute astrophysicist Scott Bolton, Juno’s
principal investigator, said it’s also important for people to
realize “NASA’s not going out of business.”
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“If we’re going to learn who we are and where we came from, and how
the Earth works, we’ve got to keep doing these science missions,
not just Juno,” Bolton said.
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NASA’s long-range blueprint would have astronauts reach an asteroid
by 2025 and Earth’s next-door neighbor Mars a decade later,
although there’s still uncertainty surrounding the rockets needed
for the job. A Juno success would be a good sign for future
solar-powered missions of all types.
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Jupiter may be just two planets over, but it’s far enough away to
be considered the outer solar system.
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It will take Juno five years to reach its target, five times
farther from the sun than Earth. No spacecraft has ever ventured so
far, powered by solar wings. Europe’s solar-powered, comet-chasing
Rosetta probe made it as far as the asteroid belt between the
orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
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Each of Juno’s three wings is 29 feet long and 9 feet wide,
necessary given that Jupiter receives 25 percent less sunlight than
Earth. The panels – folded for launch – emanate from the spacecraft
much like the blades of a windmill.
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At Jupiter, nearly 500 million miles from the sun, Juno’s panels
will provide 400 watts of power. In orbit around Earth, these
panels would generate 35 times as much power.
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The choice of solar was a practical one, Bolton said. No
plutonium-powered generators were available to him and his San
Antonio-based team nearly a decade ago, so they opted for solar
panels rather than develop a new nuclear source. They wanted to
avoid ballooning costs and possible delays connected with
developing new technologies.
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“It’s nice to be green, but it wasn’t because we were afraid of the
plutonium,” Bolton explained.
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Indeed, NASA’s six-wheeled, Jeep-size Mars rover named Curiosity,
due to launch in late November, will be powered by more than 10
pounds of plutonium. Despite safety efforts, there’s always the
question of public safety if an explosion occurred.
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NASA’s Grail mission – twin spacecraft to be launched next month to
Earth’s moon – employs solar panels.
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Eight robotic craft already have flown to or near Jupiter and its
many moons, as far back as the 1970s: NASA’s Voyagers and Pioneers,
Galileo, Ulysses, Cassini and, most recently in 2007, the
Pluto-bound New Horizons.
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Juno – named after the cloud-piercing wife of Jupiter, the Roman
god – will go into an oval-shaped orbit around Jupiter’s poles in
July 2016, after traveling 1.74 billion miles.
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The craft will fly within 3,100 miles of the dense cloud tops,
closer than any previous spacecraft. Any closer, and Juno would
feel the tug of the planet’s atmosphere, which in turn would alter
the spacecraft’s orbiting path and hamper its gravity
experiment.
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The spinning spacecraft will circle the planet for at least a year,
beaming back data that should help explain the composition of its
mysterious insides. Each orbit will last 11 days, for a total of 33
orbits covering 348 million miles.
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Nine instruments are on board, including JunoCam, a wide-angle
color camera, which will beam back images.
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Juno’s most sensitive electronics are inside a titanium vault to
protect against the incredibly harsh radiation surrounding the
planet. The radiation exposure will worsen toward the end of the
mission. “We’re basically an armored tank going to Jupiter,” Bolton
said.
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Scientists believe Jupiter was formed from most of the leftovers of
the sun’s creation. That’s why it’s so intriguing; by identifying
the planet’s contents, besides hydrogen and helium, astronomers can
better explain how the solar system came to be.
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“We want to know that ingredient list” for Jupiter, Bolton said.
“What we’re really after is discovering the recipe for making
planets.”
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For these answers, Juno will study Jupiter’s gravity and magnetic
fields, and turbulent, cloud-socked atmosphere, which can spawn 300
mph wind and hurricanes double the size of Earth. The experiments
will investigate the abundance of water, and oxygen, in Jupiter’s
atmosphere and help determine whether the planet’s core is solid or
gaseous.
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Once its work is done in 2017, Juno will make a kamikaze dive into
Jupiter. NASA doesn’t want the spacecraft hanging around and
crashing into Europa or other moons, possibly contaminating them
for future generations of explorers.
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—
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Online:
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NASA: “http://www.nasa.gov/juno” target=
“-blank”>http://www.nasa.gov/juno
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Southwest Research Institute: “text-decoration: none; color: #000066;” href=
“http://missionjuno.swri.edu/” target=
“-blank”>http://missionjuno.swri.edu
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