Juno development, launch, and cruise, Including Earth flyby imaging Oct 9 2013 |
Juno development, launch, and cruise, Including Earth flyby imaging Oct 9 2013 |
Apr 3 2006, 09:57 PM
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#1
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Member Group: Members Posts: 172 Joined: 17-March 06 Member No.: 709 |
I thought that it was time to start a new thread devoted to the JUNO Jupiter
Orbiter mission. This New Frontiers Mission #2 seems to be a "stealth" project with little information available on the Web. In fact, the official NASA JUNO web site is quite pitiful. It contains the minimal amount of information on what seems to be an intriguing mission, in terms of both science and engineering. Does the UMSF community have information on this mission that has not been widely seen before? Another Phil |
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Jul 18 2006, 06:39 PM
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#2
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Member Group: Members Posts: 220 Joined: 13-October 05 Member No.: 528 |
I had a chance to talk to one of the engineers on the project at the JPL open house in May. It was fascinating stuff, particulalry the plan to use the radiometers to help determine if Jupiter's belt zones above and below the equator are linked to matching internal structures inside Jupiter.
It was so off the wall, I don't fully remember the specifics, and not even sure how to describe it properly. Essentially, there is a hypothosis that for each major atmospheric belt, there is a corresponding belt opposite the equator that is powered by the same internal dynamics. AKA ... if there is a belt at +33 degrees lattitude, then the belt at -33 degrees is part of the same structure. The belt at +42 degrees is connected to the belt at -42 degrees and so on. (I'm making up the numbers just for the example). I was also able to confirm my suspicion that not every orbit will be devoted to gravity mapping. I asked the guy and he confirmed that the high gain antenna has to be pointed directly at Earth during the Periapsis pass of the orbit, and when that is being done the vehicle rotation axis will be such that the Junocam and radiometers are not pointing at Jupiter. So there are dedicated orbits for the gravity mapping, and other orbits for the radiometry. He also said that just a single orbit would give them the data they need for the Radiometry experiment, but naturally they plan on at least 4-5 just to be sure their data is confirmed. Juno is a fascinating mission.... but I'm not entirely sure how to explain it to the general public. Even my eyes partially glaze over when you start talking about exploration of the polar magnetosphere, and I at least have some idea what that means. |
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Guest_AlexBlackwell_* |
Jul 18 2006, 09:07 PM
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#3
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Guests |
Juno is a fascinating mission.... but I'm not entirely sure how to explain it to the general public. Even my eyes partially glaze over when you start talking about exploration of the polar magnetosphere, and I at least have some idea what that means. It'll be interesting to see if a fields and particles mission like Juno can capture the public's attention, but I agree that it's a fascinating mission. I'm sure that JunoCam will help in the PR department, assuming it stays on the payload. |
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Jul 19 2006, 08:34 PM
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#4
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2173 Joined: 28-December 04 From: Florida, USA Member No.: 132 |
It'll be interesting to see if a fields and particles mission like Juno can capture the public's attention... I think that what is most likely to capture the public is the prospect of getting a description of what sits beneath the thick layers of gas and clouds. Solid? What size? Sharp transition from gas to solid? Is there a liquid layer? How deep? I hope these sorts of questions can be answered. They are the most interesting to me, and I think the public at large. |
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Guest_Richard Trigaux_* |
Jul 19 2006, 08:43 PM
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#5
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Guests |
I think that what is most likely to capture the public is the prospect of getting a description of what sits beneath the thick layers of gas and clouds. Solid? What size? Sharp transition from gas to solid? Is there a liquid layer? How deep? I hope these sorts of questions can be answered. They are the most interesting to me, and I think the public at large. How this could be answered? By radar? or by sismology? Is it possible to make sismology on Jupiter, from an orbiter, with enough sensitivity? I don't expect sound waves like on the sun, but perhaps tidal waves, produced mainly by Io. To detect them would require a very accurate position measurement of the orbiter. |
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Jul 19 2006, 09:45 PM
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#6
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2530 Joined: 20-April 05 Member No.: 321 |
How this could be answered? By radar? or by sismology? Is it possible to make sismology on Jupiter, from an orbiter, with enough sensitivity? I don't expect sound waves like on the sun, but perhaps tidal waves, produced mainly by Io. To detect them would require a very accurate position measurement of the orbiter. Measuring tidal bulges is sure to be a key part of the science: Amalthea and the Galileans will induce tidal bulges. When Juno passes over them, it will speed up relative to other perijoves. What happens when two bulges coincide? Note that it will happen on opposite sides of Jupiter simultaneously. I imagine this tells us about the upper reaches of Jupiter but not the depths. This will happen often, and every perijove, Juno will slice along a meridian located somewhere with respect to those five bulge-pairs. It'll get some interesting data every time. |
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