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Today (6/24), at exactly 9:57 and 48 seconds a.m. PDT,
NASA's Juno spacecraft was 5.5 million miles (8.9 million kilometers) from its
July 4th appointment with Jupiter. Over
the past two weeks, several milestones occurred that were key to a successful
35-minute burn of its rocket motor, which will place the robotic explorer into
a polar orbit around the gas giant.
"We have over five years of spaceflight
experience and only 10 days to Jupiter orbit insertion," said Rick
Nybakken, Juno project manager from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in
Pasadena, California. "It is a great feeling to put all the interplanetary
space in the rearview mirror and have the biggest planet in the solar system in
our windshield."
On June 11, Juno began transmitting to and receiving
data from Earth around the clock. This constant contact will keep the mission
team informed on any developments with their spacecraft within tens of minutes
of it occurring. On June 20, the protective cover that shields Juno's main
engine from micrometeorites and interstellar dust was opened, and the software
program that will command the spacecraft through the all-important rocket burn
was uplinked.
One of the important near-term events remaining on
Juno's pre-burn itinerary is the pressurization of its propulsion system on
June 28. The following day, all instrumentation not geared toward the
successful insertion of Juno into orbit around Jupiter on July 4 will be turned
off.
"If it doesn't help us get into orbit, it is shut
down," said Scott Bolton, Juno's principal investigator from the Southwest
Research Institute in San Antonio. "That is how critical this rocket burn
is. And while we will not be getting images as we make our final approach to
the planet, we have some interesting pictures of what Jupiter and its moons
look like from five-plus million miles away."
The mission
optical camera, JunoCam, imaged Jupiter on June 21, 2016, at a distance of 6.8 million miles (10.9 million
kilometers) from the gas giant. In the image,
just to the right of center is Jupiter, with its distinctive swirling bands of
orange, brown and white. To the left of Jupiter (from right to left) are the planet's four largest moons -- Europa, Io,
Callisto and Ganymede. Juno is approaching over Jupiter's north pole, affording
the spacecraft a unique perspective on the Jovian system. Previous missions
that imaged Jupiter on approach saw the system from much lower latitudes,
closer to the planet's equator.
JunoCam is
an outreach instrument -- its inclusion in this mission of exploration was to
allow the public to come along for the ride with Juno. JunoCam’s optics were designed to acquire
high-resolution views of Jupiter’s poles while the spacecraft is flying much
closer to the planet. Juno will be getting closer to the cloud tops
of the planet than any mission before it, and the image resolution of the
massive gas giant will be the best ever taken by a spacecraft.
All of Juno’s
instruments, including JunoCam, are scheduled to be turned back on
approximately two days after achieving orbit.
JunoCam images are expected to be returned from the spacecraft for
processing and release to the public starting in late August or early
September.
"This image is the start of something
great," said Bolton. "In the future we will see Jupiter's polar
auroras from a new perspective. We will see details in rolling bands of orange
and white clouds like never before, and even the Great Red Spot.
The Juno spacecraft launched on Aug. 5, 2011, from
Cape Canaveral, Florida.
JPL manages the Juno mission for the principal
investigator, Scott Bolton, of Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio.
Juno is part of NASA's New Frontiers Program, which is managed at NASA's
Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for NASA's Science Mission
Directorate. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the spacecraft. The
California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, manages JPL for
NASA.