NASA's Juno probe unexpectedly shuts down briefly en route to Jupiter

NASA's Juno probe takes one last swing past Earth to pick up energy for the five-year trip to Jupiter. It's not clear what impact a 20-minute lapse into 'safe mode' had on the mission.

|
JPL/NASA/AP/File
This 2010 artist's rendering depicts NASA's Juno spacecraft with Jupiter in the background. NASA's Jupiter-bound spacecraft swung by Earth for one last visit on Wednesday, before speeding to the outer solar system.

NASA's Juno spacecraft buzzed Earth on Wednesday to enter the final leg of its 1.74-billion-mile trip to Jupiter – but not without giving mission managers an adrenaline rush as it sped on its way.

The craft, launched in August 2011, is slated to arrive at Jupiter in early July 2016. It flitted past Earth some 347 miles above the planet's surface Wednesday, taking advantage of Earth's gravity to put it on the right trajectory and give it the final burst of energy it needed to complete the five-year trip.

But 10 minutes after its close encounter with Earth, Juno unexpectedly shut down all nonessential systems. The condition, known as safe mode, occurred when Earth eclipsed the sun from Juno's perspective for about 20 minutes. This deprived the spacecraft of power from its solar panels. As designed, the craft quickly switched to battery power. But Juno also entered safe mode.

At this point, it's unclear what impact this has had on plans to use the Earth flyby to adjust the science instruments on the craft – a brief throat-clearing for the research tools that underpin this $1.1 billion mission. Some 29 sensors channel data into nine instruments.

During the flyby, the craft was to have snapped images of Earth and – atmospheric conditions willing – was to have received a repeated "Hi" in Morse code from amateur-radio operators around the world.

Safe mode still allows the craft to communicate with the ground and provide data on the status of its systems. So far, the craft looks healthy, according to Guy Webster, a spokesman for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. The JPL is overseeing mission operations.

Mission controllers are still downloading engineering data as well as the images Juno took of Earth during the flyby. Once the data are in hand, engineers will pore over it for clues to Juno's glitch.

Once Juno arrives at Jupiter it will take up an orbit that carries it over the planet's poles. Its suite of nine instruments are designed to give scientists with the $1.1 billion mission deeper insights into the structure of the planet's interior as well as into its atmosphere and the influence the giant planet's magnetic field wields on its atmosphere and wider space environment.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to NASA's Juno probe unexpectedly shuts down briefly en route to Jupiter
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2013/1010/NASA-s-Juno-probe-unexpectedly-shuts-down-briefly-en-route-to-Jupiter
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe