NASA going green with solar-powered Jupiter probe

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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: 

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“-blank”>http://missionjuno.swri.edu

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