Juno Extended Mission, Perijove 34-76 |
Juno Extended Mission, Perijove 34-76 |
Sep 2 2020, 08:05 PM
Post
#1
|
|
Senior Member Group: Moderator Posts: 3241 Joined: 11-February 04 From: Tucson, AZ Member No.: 23 |
At today's Outer Planet Assessment Group (OPAG) meeting, Scott Bolton gave a presentation on Juno, providing an update on the mission and providing more information on its extended mission proposal. The proposal has been sent to NASA and they expect a final decision later this year.
The proposed extended mission starts where the current one ends at perijove 34 in June 2021 and continues through orbit 76 in September 2025. The continued northward progression of the perijove latitude, and continued lower altitude of the ascending node, is going to enable a lot of great science both at Jupiter (higher resolution views of Jupiter's poles) and of its satellites. Most excitingly for me, Juno will perform several flybys of the Galilean satellites. This includes a 1000-km encounter with Ganymede next June during PJ34, a 320-km encounter with Europa in late 2022, and TWO Io flybys in early 2024 at an altitude of 1500 km. There are also a number of "Voyager-class" encounters with Ganymede, Europa, and Io between mid-2021 and mid-2025. The PDF for Scott Bolton's presentation can be found on the page for the OPAG meeting: https://www.lpi.usra.edu/opag/meetings/opag2020fall/ -------------------- &@^^!% Jim! I'm a geologist, not a physicist!
The Gish Bar Times - A Blog all about Jupiter's Moon Io |
|
|
Sep 2 2020, 09:37 PM
Post
#2
|
|
Senior Member Group: Moderator Posts: 3241 Joined: 11-February 04 From: Tucson, AZ Member No.: 23 |
And it won't just be eye candy with the Galileans. For example, the Europa encounter will allow for mapping of one hemisphere with the MWR at 100-200 km resolution. That instrument can probe to a depth of 10 km allow for the direct detection of lakes within the Europan ice sheet. The Io encounters will include JunoCAM imaging sure, but also JIRAM mapping of Io's hotspots with resolutions down to 355 m/pixel as well as gravity science and magnetometer measurements, which when combined with future IVO passes, will provide some strong constraints on the state of Io's lower lithosphere and upper asthenosphere.
For Jupiter, with closer passes over the poles, they will be able to do better 3D mapping of the atmosphere below the north polar cyclones as they will be able to do repeated passes over the same part of Jupiter. -------------------- &@^^!% Jim! I'm a geologist, not a physicist!
The Gish Bar Times - A Blog all about Jupiter's Moon Io |
|
|
Sep 3 2020, 05:52 AM
Post
#3
|
|
Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2530 Joined: 20-April 05 Member No.: 321 |
I'm curious if the Europa imagery could be sufficient to determine the rate of rotation of the shell/surface, which is not synchronous with the core. It's known that the rotation rate of the shell relative to the core is very slow, and the baseline between Voyager 2 and Galileo was not sufficient to measure visibly any rotation. The time from Galileo to Juno imaging would be, once again, about 20 years, but the resolution of Juno imaging would be higher than that of Voyager 2. Getting any measurement of that rotation, even to first order, could tell us a lot about the dynamics of the shell, in which the major linea represent cracking along stress lines that must have taken place when the shell was oriented very differently with respect to Jupiter. But since then, has it undergone ~0.25, ~1.25, ~2.25, etc. full rotations?
|
|
|
Lo-Fi Version | Time is now: 23rd September 2024 - 10:08 AM |
RULES AND GUIDELINES Please read the Forum Rules and Guidelines before posting. IMAGE COPYRIGHT |
OPINIONS AND MODERATION Opinions expressed on UnmannedSpaceflight.com are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of UnmannedSpaceflight.com or The Planetary Society. The all-volunteer UnmannedSpaceflight.com moderation team is wholly independent of The Planetary Society. The Planetary Society has no influence over decisions made by the UnmannedSpaceflight.com moderators. |
SUPPORT THE FORUM Unmannedspaceflight.com is funded by the Planetary Society. Please consider supporting our work and many other projects by donating to the Society or becoming a member. |