[X] My Assistant

[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?)

[Glenn Orton]

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?)

We may get some observations of satellites, but it's not the focus of the mission, and anything we obtain will probably not rival anything obtained by a previous mission regarding spatial resolution. I think the Juno engineers will consider 'finagling' a very low priority compared to making a successful plunge into the atmosphere to protect Europa from encounters with the Juno spacecraft. Our opportunities to get any observations of satellites is limited by our polar orbits, as has been noted already. In fact, our best continuous images of the Galilean satellites may be taking place right now with what we call the Approach Movie. This will be released on July 4.