Juno science team proposes fly-bys of Jupiter’s moons
The Juno science team has proposed doing fly-bys of three of Jupiter’s moons, should NASA extend the mission beyond ’21.
Juno’s five-year primary mission phase ends in July 2021, and mission managers have proposed an extension that would continue operations until September 2025. The spacecraft’s additional orbits around Jupiter will bring Juno closer to the planet’s moons, allowing for a more diversified set of scientific targets.
…The moon flybys would begin in mid-2021 with an encounter with Ganymede, Jupiter’s largest moon, at a distance of roughly 600 miles (1,000 kilometers), according to Bolton.
After a series of distant passes, Juno would swoop just 200 miles (320 kilometers) above Europa in late 2022 for a high-speed flyby. Only NASA’s Galileo spacecraft, which ended its mission in 2003, has come closer to Europa.
There are two encounters with Jupiter’s volcanic moon Io planned in 2024 at distances of about 900 miles (1,500 kilometers), according to the flight plan presented by Bolton last month.
The extended mission would also allow scientists to get a better look at Jupiter’s north pole.
NASA will decide on the extension by the end of the year. From a cost and scientific perspective, it makes perfect sense to extend this mission for as long as possible. Compared to launching a new mission, extending an active one is far cheaper. It is also already in place.
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The Juno science team has proposed doing fly-bys of three of Jupiter’s moons, should NASA extend the mission beyond ’21.
Juno’s five-year primary mission phase ends in July 2021, and mission managers have proposed an extension that would continue operations until September 2025. The spacecraft’s additional orbits around Jupiter will bring Juno closer to the planet’s moons, allowing for a more diversified set of scientific targets.
…The moon flybys would begin in mid-2021 with an encounter with Ganymede, Jupiter’s largest moon, at a distance of roughly 600 miles (1,000 kilometers), according to Bolton.
After a series of distant passes, Juno would swoop just 200 miles (320 kilometers) above Europa in late 2022 for a high-speed flyby. Only NASA’s Galileo spacecraft, which ended its mission in 2003, has come closer to Europa.
There are two encounters with Jupiter’s volcanic moon Io planned in 2024 at distances of about 900 miles (1,500 kilometers), according to the flight plan presented by Bolton last month.
The extended mission would also allow scientists to get a better look at Jupiter’s north pole.
NASA will decide on the extension by the end of the year. From a cost and scientific perspective, it makes perfect sense to extend this mission for as long as possible. Compared to launching a new mission, extending an active one is far cheaper. It is also already in place.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
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Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
They give a good list of science purposes. I especially like studying Io more, the by far most interesting body in the Solar system, given that we forget the aliens hysteria. I think that collecting more data about Europa before the Europa Clipper is finalized is a strong argument for NASA.
This repurposing of space probes, and telescopes, has become the standard,
Budget committee:
“- Okay okay, we will fund a mission to Europa (for example), but not a dime for anything else!”
Then ten years later when the primary mission is nearing completion
“- Oh, by some coincidence, we’ve just found out that our probe’s set of instruments, and its orbital mechanics, also happen to be very useful for studying Io…”
Cannot wait to see…
It’s a shame Juno doesn’t have more and better cameras… IIRC the camera it does carry was only added as an afterthought.
The mission scientists are interested in the raw data from JUNOs other instruments, but I recall thinking before the launch.. “why the heck are you flying a Jupiter orbiter and not having ALSO the capability to take great photos?
The pretty pictures not only give great science return, but also engage your tax payers ( and the rest of the world!) to give support to NASA.
It is essential that a publicly funded project gives VISIBLE returns to the public, along with a spreadsheet full of gravitational permutations describing the solid hydrogen core of a distant star.
( I apply this reasoning to the ESA also, I know I don’t own a dog in this race regarding NASA)
@Lee Stevenson
Because Juno’s science aims concerned Jupiter’s inner properties. The scientists concerned with that don’t care about a camera. A camera adds weight, consumes power, could disturb the real instruments and whatnot. The public could fill their bath tub, put drops of ink into it and pull the plug to see what Jupiter looks like.
A bit exaggerated, but it’s as if you were going by car from Kansas to Oregon and I asked you to bring this sofa to my friend there. The scientists who finally got their key career mission funded don’t care much about me or my friend and don’t want to deal with the sofa. But my impression is that their science has been surprisingly confused by Jupiter, and that they at least can brag about having brought the sofa. Now looking for something else to turn their instruments on hoping to find something publishable that doesn’t undo their entire pre-Juno theoretical work about Jupiter.