Posted on 08/09/2011 1:43:24 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
Explanation: Next stop: Jupiter. Last week included one of the few times in history that humanity launched something completely off the Earth, moving away so fast that it will never return. Well, almost -- Juno's planned trajectory actually brings it homeward bound in about two years, zipping by, this time using the Earth's gravity to pull it to an even higher speed, high enough to reach Jupiter. The above video depicts the launch of Juno aboard a Atlas V rocket. When the robotic Juno spacecraft reaches Jupiter in 2016, it will spend just over a year circling the Solar System's largest planet, using its unique cadre of instruments to probe the planet, sending back clues of its structure and origin. Then Juno will be instructed to dive into the thick atmosphere of the Jovian giant, taking as much data as it can before it melts.
(Excerpt) Read more at 129.164.179.22 ...
[Video Credit: NASA]
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Now that was neat!
I really hope the main antenna on this one works. Cassini would have been much neater (not that it wasn’t already) had the main dish deployed properly.
Not Cassini, Galileo. Wrong astronomer.
The slingshot techniques of getting probes to distant destinations is fascinating too.
Did the anti-nuke crowd show up the protest this one? I realize that Juno uses solar panels, but these people are not the brightest.
Oleg?
(Just Kiddin’ ya!)
Will the probe broadcast “Allahu Akbar” as it plunges into Jupiter ... I mean keeping with NASA’s muslim outreach program and all.
Off we go! Into the wild blue yonder! :)
Now we wait for five years...
You’re thinking of Galileo, but in either case the main dish on Juno does not deploy — it is a large, permanent structure on the spacecraft. Telemetry has already been returned, the solar panels have deployed, and the spacecraft is working nominally as of this morning.
I’ve got a bunch of nice pictures I took at the launch that I need to get online somewhere so I can link them here. It’s a shame I can’t post pictures directly to FR and cut out the middleman...
Eh, five years is nothing. The first two UV spectrographs we built here will take 10 (Rosetta) and 9.5 years (New Horizons) to reach their targets. LRO was the speed demon needing a whopping 4 days to reach the Moon.
The blurb says that Juno will reach Jupiter in 2016 and begin probing the planet and transmitting data. That’s all I meant.
The cat’s impatient, not me, LOL!
P.S. Five years may be nothing to you, but it could be the rest of my life. I am an old lady.
No offense intended — us astronomy types tend to think “long term.”
What the article doesn’t say is that Juno will fly by the Earth and Moon in 2013 and do observations on the way to Jupiter. Plus, there will be yearly checkouts. It won’t exactly be sitting idle for five years.
LOL! No offense taken. We old lady types are forgiving of you astronomy types.
The article does not mention the observations’ being made during the slingshot maneuver, but it makes sense that there is no point of leaving her mute and idle throughout her journey to her final destination.
There are hosting sites that will do the job. My all-time favorite was TinyPic, but that one has been A) taken over by another company and B) always removed pictures under the better safe than sorry rule if there was ANYONE who complained about them. Instead, TinyPic should have taken the, “if you don’t like the picture, then don’t view the picture, and btw, shove your present and future complaints up your ass” approach. IMHO. :’)
BTW, I agree wholeheartedly with you, it would be nice if FR would host photos, but with this crowd, it would open JimRob to copyright violation charges again. :’)
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