Space Mission: What’s Up with Juno?

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Image from “Where is Juno” earlier today showing its approximate location in relation to other bodies in the solar system. (NASA)

Are we witnessing the slow blinding of the Juno spacecraft? NASA is having trouble receiving images from the spacecraft’s solar-powered JunoCam. As a result, of the 258 images recently obtained by NASA, only 44 were usable. NASA is still investigating this issue and hopes to come up with a way to mitigate it.

Launched in August 2011, Juno has been a reliable workhorse studying the secrets of Jupiter while also capturing amazing images of the planet and its 80+ moons since it entered into Jovian orbit on July 4, 2016. Its extended mission was supposed to last until September 2025, harvesting additional data to assist NASA’s upcoming Europa Clipper mission as well as the European Space Agency’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) mission.

While Juno has numerous scientific instruments that are still plugging away producing key data on Jupiter and its surroundings, the images were an important link between the mission and the public. The images shown below are just a small sample of what has been sent back (click here for more). It will be a sad day when we can no longer see the Jovian neighborhood in this way.

Image (Credit): The shadow of the moon Io on Jupiter. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS)
Image (Credit): The surface of Jupiter’s moon Ganymede. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS)
Image (Credit): Jupiter’s south pole. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/John Landino)

Space Quote: Getting Ready for Mars

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): The surface of Mars. (NASA)

“The space domain is critical to modern commerce, scientific discovery, and national security. The ability to accomplish leap-ahead advances in space technology through the DRACO nuclear thermal rocket program will be essential for more efficiently and quickly transporting material to the Moon and eventually, people to Mars.”

–Statement by Dr. Stefanie Tompkins, director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), regarding its partnership with NASA on the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO) program to design and develop a nuclear thermal rocket engine that can bring a crewed mission to the Red Planet. It’s another encouraging step as we eventually move from the Moon to Mars.

Update on Artemis III

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Arstist’s rendering of SpaceX Starship human landing system design. (SpaceX)

The other week, NASA revealed an update on the Artemis III mission to the Moon in 2025. Now that Artemis I was a success and Artemis II is being readied, Artemis III is becoming much clearer on the horizon. The plan focuses on the first crew to land on the surface, noting that future missions will be involved in building the Gateway lunar space station.

While the Space Launch System (SLS) will get the crew into orbit on Orion, SpaceX has been chosen to bring this first crew to the moon. However, SpaceX will first need to test this human landing system on the Moon without a crew.

The landing site is likely to be on the Moon’s South Pole involving two astronauts who will take the SpaceX human landing system to the surface. They will conduct their research work in Axiom space suits.

It all may have become routine back in the 1970s, but NASA is demoing everything all over again to ensure new systems and new parties are up to par for this return to the Moon. The world is watching again, particularly China. We need to be perfect in this overdue first step back into human space travel.

You can view all of the parts of the mission in the graphic below.

Image (Credit): Artemis III mission map. (NASA)

Space Mission: Ongoing Problems with Lucy’s Sails

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Artist’s rendering of Lucy near an asteroid. The two large discs are the solar arrays. (Southwest Research Institute)

NASA’s Lucy spacecraft continues to face some engineering issues as it travels away from Earth after the first of two flybys before it can reach the Trojan asteroids where it will begin its survey. While the earlier problems with deploying its solar array continue, the matter will most likely need to be resolved in 2024 when the spacecraft is closer to Earth again. Fortunately, the array is 98 percent deployed, so there is no risk to the 12-year mission at this time.

NASA will keep all of us posted. You can read more about the solar array issues here.

Image (Credit):  Lucy’s orbital path (shown in green). (NASA)

A Day in Astronomy: The Start of the Pluto Mission

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Artist’s rendering of NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft. (NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI)

On this day in 2006, NASA launched the New Horizons spacecraft from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The objective of the mission was to explore Pluto and the Kuiper Belt. In 2015, the spacecraft spent six months studying Pluto and its moons. New Horizons is now on an extended mission exploring other parts of the Kuiper Belt.

Here is last year’s mission summary from NASA:

New Horizons flew past Pluto in 2015 and the Kuiper belt object (KBO) Arrokoth in 2019. In its second extended mission, New Horizons will continue to explore the distant solar system out to 63 astronomical units (AU) from Earth. The New Horizons spacecraft can potentially conduct multi-disciplinary observations of relevance to the solar system and NASA’s Heliophysics and Astrophysics Divisions. Additional details regarding New Horizons’ science plan will be provided at a later date.

Image (Credit): Pluto as seen by the New Horizons spacecraft (with enhanced color). (NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI)