Posted on 06/03/2005 7:07:02 PM PDT by Righty_McRight
CNN) -- NASA has unveiled preliminary details of a mission to Jupiter that would enable scientists to conduct their most in-depth study of the solar system's largest planet.
The $700 million "Juno" mission, part of NASA's New Frontiers Program, must be ready for launch by June 30, 2010, although it would take five years for the solar-powered probe to reach its destination.
Juno would be placed in a pole-to-pole orbit, enabling it to study the gas planet's intense magnetic field, investigate the existence of an ice-rock core and determine the amount of water and ammonia present in the atmosphere.
It would also study Jupiter's violent winds, which reach speeds of 600 kilometers an hour, and the planet's spectacular auroras.
"The Juno mission will provide the critical information needed to understand how the solar system's largest planet, Jupiter, formed several billion years ago," said Dr. David J. McComas of the Southwest Research Institute (SWRI), which will lead the mission.
SWRI will now conduct a preliminary design study to test the mission's financial and technical feasibility ahead of a final NASA review to determine whether the mission will go ahead.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Well Whoop-de-do
Who really cares about whats happening on Jupiter.
That $700 mil could hire a lot of border patrol teams and could build a lot of wall.
I think it would be more interesting to send a probe to Europa, or at least piggyback one on to this mission.
Thanks for the link. Lots of fascinating potential with this one, though I agree with the other poster that Europa is an even more interesting "target".
China had the same idea about the outside world before it became an unimportant and backward country for 100's of years
ping
They could save a lot of money by going to Jupiter, FL, instead. Of course the scientific payoff would be less.
Run like crazy!!
And why do we need to do this? Does it help us move towards establishing permanent colonies on the Moon and Mars?
No, its another inconsequential mission to keep those at NASA busy who believe space is their personal playground
In other news... Looking to upstage former astronaut and US Senator John Glenn, Barney Frank has volunteered to go to Uranus.
Actually we learn a great deal from our robotic missions. And no I do not look at space as "my personal playground" even though I have "flown" interplanetaries.
Yes we need this. We lost out badly with the supercolider back in the 90's. We need this science. I'm not involved whatsoever with this either.
If anything, we need better outer probes.
The Super Conducting Super Collider still hits me. No money gain or loss by me, but we could possibly have had access to anti-gravity creation with it by now if we spent the money. Science money and military is what our government is for.
Bravo!!!!!
We need to be focusing on manned Mars and Luna missions now. And probes for the outer realms for the next 50 years.
To me, it just shows how the Hubble was a platform for the Keyhole sats.. Just 4 or 5 Hubbles pointed down, that made the Hubble's maintenence last so long. If pure science is needed (and military, btw), we need moon bases with telescopes going both ways.
The pure science for the military is handled by DARPA, and doing it well.
Darpa does an amazing job, the black projects of stealthy hubbels is amazing. They can do real time video offset by many degrees too. All open info.
These Jupiter, Saturn, and even the old Viking and Voyager missions.. They're just civie versions of what we can do. The moroons that want to cut their sunk costs need to be slapped. Not to mention that the successes we have on them prove our tech..
One of my passions since the 70's has been satellite photographs.
With the advent of computers, the quality, quantity, and clarity of outer space photos has been amazing.
All of it, from the space platforms, the cameras, and the computers are a direct result of NASA spending (and DARPA, of Course).
China had the same idea about the outside world before it became an unimportant and backward country for 100's of years
Not multicultural and open like the Romans, those Chinese.
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