NASA / JPL-Caltech / SRRI / MSSS / John Landino
NASA has announced that it will expand the targets of its two interplanetary explorers over the past decade – launching an old spacecraft orbiting Jupiter and Insight Lander on the surface of Mars.
The old extension means the spacecraft will now operate in the Jovian system until 2025. This will effectively transform the spacecraft into a full-fledged Jovian System Explorer with a mission to study Jupiter, complete with Jupiter’s many moon-filled flybies and its rings system.
Behind the internal solar system on the surface of Mars, the Insight mission will now run during December 2022. During these additional two years, the lander will continue to operate its seismometer to identify Mars, as well as continue to collect detailed information about the weather. On the surface.
After determining that both missions had performed exceptionally well to date, an independent review panel recommended the expansion of both at NASA. “Senior review has recognized that these two planetary science missions are likely to bring new satisfaction and raise new questions about our solar system,” said Lori Glaze, director of the Department of Planetary Science at NASA’s headquarters in Washington.
Excited about Juno
For us, the extended old mission is the most tedious. After its unveiling in 2011, Juno entered a polar orbit around Jupiter in July, 2016. Since then, he has completed more than 30 orbits around the largest planet in the Solar System, studying Jupiter’s formation and magnetic field. It has also survived exceptionally harsh radiation environments.
The expansion suggests that scientists and engineers believe the spacecraft is healthy enough to continue working and that it could double the number of orbits in the Jupiter system. Over the next five years, the spacecraft will adjust its orbit as it tries to fly closer to some of Jupiter’s most interesting moons.
As part of a research project presented by Juno’s chief investigator, Scott Bolton, the spacecraft will move within 320 kilometers of Europa by the end of 2022 and within 1,500 kilometers of twice-volcanically active ion within 1,000 kilometers of Ganymede’s surface this summer. 2024.
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Three whirls of white oval known as “string of pearls” appear near the top of the image. Each alternating light and dark atmospheric band is wider than Earth and the rage around Jupiter is hundreds of kilometers per hour.
NASA / JPL-Caltech / SRRI / MSSS / Gerald Exist / Sean Doran
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Close-up of an enhanced color image of Jupiter’s clouds obtained by NASA’s old spacecraft.
NASA / SWRI / MSSS / Gerald Exist / Sean Doran
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An image of the crescent-shaped Jupiter and the iconic Great Red Spot.
NASA / JPL-Caltech / SRRI / MSSS / Roman Takachenko
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NASA’s old spacecraft crashed into the upper part of Jupiter’s atmosphere on February 2, when the image was destroyed at an altitude of about 14,500 km from the top of the giant planet’s revolving cloud.
NASA / JPL-Caltech / SRRI / MSSS / Roman Takachenko
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Jupiter’s south pole at an altitude of 52,000 km. The elliptical features are cyclones, with a diameter of 1,000 km.
NASA / JPL-Caltech / SRI / MSSS / Betsy Asher Hall / Gervasio Robles
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This image highlights a white oval hurricane on Jupiter moving in just one south direction.
NASA / JPL-Caltech / SRI / MSSS / Jason Major
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This advanced color image of a mysterious dark spot on Jupiter reveals Jovian’s “galaxy” with stormy storms.
NASA / JPL-Caltech / SRRI / MSSS / Roman Takachenko
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Jupiter’s face? By rotating the image 180 degrees and directing it from the south, two white oval storms turn into eyeballs, and Jupiter’s “face” is revealed.
NASA / JPL-Caltech / SRI / MSSS / Jason Major
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A nearby location of bright clouds dripping over Jupiter’s southern tropics.
NASA / SWRI / MSSS / Gerald Exist / Sean Doran
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Near the pole, the organized instability of Jupiter’s stripes and zones, in clusters of disorganized filamentary structures, air currents that look like huge tangled wires.
NASA / JPL-Caltech / SRRI / MSSS / Gabriel Fiset
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Periwave and Pass: This sequence of enhanced color images shows how quickly the geometry of NASA’s old spacecraft changes when it is zoomed by Jupiter.
NASA / SWRI / MSSS / Gerald Ixted / Sean Doran
With this flyby, Juno will be able to study surface changes on Ganymede from Voyager and Galileo missions and investigate the 3-D formation of Ganymede’s magnets et spheres. Coming so close to Europe, Juno should be able to identify areas where the lunar ice shell is thick or thin and confirm the presence of Earth’s liquid water. In creating multiple flyovers near Ioan, Juno will observe short-term changes in volcanic activity, which developed dramatically between Voyager and Galileo over the months.
Extended missions actually cost a fraction of the cost of building and launching most interplanetary spacecraft – often over billion 1 billion – so it’s like a bonus for solar system research.
