Juno Extended Mission, Perijove 34-76 |
Juno Extended Mission, Perijove 34-76 |
Sep 2 2020, 08:05 PM
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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 |
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Feb 21 2021, 02:56 AM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1276 Joined: 25-November 04 Member No.: 114 |
Can anyone confirm if the Europa distant flyby is happening or not later this year?
I'm starting to worry it's not happening anymore because it's not mentioned anywhere except in 1 youtube video talking about the mission extension. There are no details for any of the encounters Ganymede/Europa/Io or planned science planned for each encounter. I've tried to google any details and find nothing. |
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Feb 21 2021, 04:52 AM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2542 Joined: 13-September 05 Member No.: 497 |
I'm starting to worry it's not happening anymore because it's not mentioned anywhere... Just chill. What makes you think the broad descriptions of the extended mission linked to upthread are not happening? They are happening. The first Ganymede encounter isn't until June and some of us are a little busy working on other things just at the moment. -------------------- Disclaimer: This post is based on public information only. Any opinions are my own.
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Feb 21 2021, 04:44 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 715 Joined: 22-April 05 Member No.: 351 |
Just chill. What makes you think the broad descriptions of the extended mission linked to upthread are not happening? They are happening. The first Ganymede encounter isn't until June and some of us are a little busy working on other things just at the moment. The extended mission including the satellite encounters is approved. NASA's managers and the Juno team are negotiating the amount of funding and hence the depth of the science investigations. Per the most recent OPAG meeting about two weeks ago, NASA asked the Juno and InSight teams to propose different levels of funding representing different levels of operational complexity and scientific goals. For both missions, NASA's managers selected the medium level, meaning that not everything that could be done would be done. The ongoing discussions are about which observations will be done (and hence the final level of budget that NASA will provide the mission team). -------------------- |
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Feb 21 2021, 05:00 PM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3648 Joined: 1-October 05 From: Croatia Member No.: 523 |
For both missions, NASA's managers selected the medium level, meaning that not everything that could be done would be done. I wasn't aware of that, my assumption based on reading between the lines on Juno mission extension a few weeks ago was that the high level was approved. I don't have the Juno proposal on hand right now, could you elaborate on what kind of Europa science would be lost with this medium level? -------------------- |
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Feb 21 2021, 06:41 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 715 Joined: 22-April 05 Member No.: 351 |
I wasn't aware of that, my assumption based on reading between the lines on Juno mission extension a few weeks ago was that the high level was approved. I don't have the Juno proposal on hand right now, could you elaborate on what kind of Europa science would be lost with this medium level? In both the verbal comments during the Juno OPAG update and in the discussions during the OPAG 'town halls' (time periods for questions and open discussion), the medium level of support was brought up. The PI said that in the medium budget level submitted, the funds covered only the planning and navigation necessary for the spacecraft to physically arrive at the encounter locations but not science. HOWEVER, it was made clear by both the PI and NASA's managers that this was the starting point and they were actively negotiation the level of science (and presumably additional funding) that would be performed. No details were provided, which is appropriate given that the discussions were in place. My takeaway: We aren't likely to get every bit of science from all the encounters with the moons and rings (or probably the Jupiter observations) that would be theoretically possible. However, we will get significant science, presumably the scientifically most important observations. NASA does plan to support adding additional scientists to the mission in part to support the new range of observations. I'll note that reduced levels of operations and hence scientific observations compared to a theoretical maximum are normal in extended missions. While operations become more efficient with experience, NASA can't keep the operations funding levels at what they were in prime missions. NASA has a budget for all extended missions and needs to spread it across all the missions in that category. One other tidbit was that the PI stated that there probably could be opportunities to examine the small inner moons if NASA decides to fund the work needed to examine orbital options. (As a side note for my personal opinion, I suspect that NASA will prioritize the Europa observations highly since they can be used to plan Clipper observations. Io, I suspect, will get the second priority because there are no approved missions to improve observations over Galileo, while Ganymede will get lots of love from JUICE. But all of this is speculation.) -------------------- |
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