Juno- Satellite Observations Options

[Ken Arromdee]

I know this mission is not meant to study any Jovian satellites, but is Juno going to, by chance, pass near enough to any satellites (particularly small, not well imaged satellites) that it could take any useful pictures of them? (Or will it be possible to finagle the final de-orbit burn to send it past a satellite for this purpose?)

[volcanopele]

The reference trajectory for Juno has been updated (spk_ref_231110_251016_231110.bsp). This includes the updated Io encounters in 2024 and 2025 that Scott Bolton mentioned at OPAG back in May, though some of the distances have been adjusted since that presentation. Here is that update. First table has the encounters through PJ58 which are unchanged, and then the post-PJ58 encounters.

[StargazeInWonder]

I did a little math on the possibility of a worthwhile Amalthea image – for favorable geometry to occur by happenstance without planning for it is rather unlikely, even if Juno's orbit eventually spends a few orbits intersecting the equatorial plane of Jupiter near the semimajor axis of Amalthea's orbit. I wonder if there's been any checking of the possibility.