Juno development, launch, and cruise, Including Earth flyby imaging Oct 9 2013 Options

[PhilHorzempa]

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

[Guest_vjkane2000_*]

Juno's camera has been quoted on their website as having a 15km resolution. Does anyone know at what distance that resolution occurs? Is it over the poles or a perijove?

[Lorne Ipsum]

Juno's camera has been quoted on their website as having a 15km resolution. Does anyone know at what distance that resolution occurs? Is it over the poles or a perijove?

Should be over the poles -- JunoCam's reason for existence (well, OK, aside from EPO value...) is for gathering polar mosaics. I don't think anybody's exactly sure (yet) whether or not JunoCam will even produce usable images at perijove, due to the radiation environment there.

Lorne

[Guest_vjkane2000_*]

Should be over the poles -- JunoCam's reason for existence (well, OK, aside from EPO value...) is for gathering polar mosaics. I don't think anybody's exactly sure (yet) whether or not JunoCam will even produce usable images at perijove, due to the radiation environment there.

Lorne

I recall that the Galileo probe found that radiation dipped as it came very close to the planet. I don't remember if 'very close' was above or below Juno's perijove. Also 'dipped' is relative. It might still be quite high relative to what the camera can handle.

I would love to see detailed images of the clouds up close. Assuming the radiation can be tolerated, there are a couple of potential issues. First, the craft will be moving very quickly. I don't know if the spacecraft's spin will act as a partial counter or make the problem worse. Second, will the spacecraft nadir be on the lit side of the terminator. Even if it is, the illumination will still be fairly dark.

One suggestion that these problems can be overcome is that the proposed Italian IR instrument would take pictures during close approach. If it can do it, then there is hope for JunoCam.

Net out of all this, as much as I want to see a high resolution image of the those belts and zones, I'm not holding my breath.