Juno Spacecraft to Orbit Jupiter Three More Years
NASA’s Juno spacecraft will orbit Jupiter an additional three years, according to mission leaders.
The billion dollar probe fell behind schedule as a result of technical problems that prevented scientists from speeding the spacecraft’s orbit as planned. Juno was supposed to be making an orbit every 14 days, but a valve problem kept them from firing the engines again, keeping the probe in its original 53 day orbit.
“You’re looking at a once in a generation or less mission,” said Scott Bolton, principal investigator and associate vice president at the Southwest Research Institute. “Maybe you can send a mission to Jupiter every 20 years, so once you have that investment and an idea and a design that actually works it’s incredibly valuable.”
Juno entered Jupiter’s orbit roughly two years ago. Since then, its been sending back detailed images of the planet’s Great Red Spot, its rarely seen poles and even peered beneath the giant planet’s clouds. To complete the mapping of Jupiter will take 34 orbits.
Read more: http://tpr.org/post/juno-spacecraft-orbit-jupiter-three-more-years
(Texas Public Radio)
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