NASA’s Jupiter-bound Juno spacecraft is again in the news. In January NASA’s Juno mission to Jupiter has broken the record to become humanity’s most distant solar-powered emissary. The previous record-holder was the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft.
In the end of June 2016 NASA’s Juno Spacecraft Enters Jupiter’s Magnetic Field. NASA’s Jupiter-bound Juno spacecraft has entered the planet’s magnetosphere (the largest structure in the solar system), where the movement of particles in space is controlled by what’s going on inside Jupiter. Juno is already gaining valuable data as the transition from the solar wind into the magnetosphere proved to be unexpectedly complex. This unusual boundary structure will itself be the subject of scientific investigation.
Juno is on course to swing into orbit around Jupiter on July 4.
More information on the Juno mission is available at: http://www.nasa.gov/juno
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Tomi Engdahl says:
ESA’s Jupiter-bound Probe Hits Antenna Snag
https://hackaday.com/2023/05/01/esas-jupiter-bound-probe-hits-antenna-snag/
That’s precisely where the European Space Agency (ESA) currently finds themselves with their Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) spacecraft. The April 14th launch from the Guiana Space Centre went off without a hitch, but when the probe’s 16 meter (52 foot) radar antenna was commanded to unfurl, something got jammed up. Judging by the images taken from onboard cameras, the antenna has only extended to roughly 1/3rd its total length.