NASA’s Juno explorer launches on five-year journey to Jupiter
NASA’s spacecraft Juno lifted off Friday in an incandescent arc over the Atlantic Ocean, the start of a five-year, 1.7-billion mile trip to Jupiter that scientists believe will unlock some of the secrets behind the origin of the solar system.
NASA’s spacecraft Juno lifted off Friday in an incandescent arc over the Atlantic Ocean, the start of a five-year, 1.7-billion mile trip to Jupiter that scientists believe will unlock some of the secrets behind the origin of the solar system.
Juno launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida aboard an Atlas V rocket, soaring into warm, blue skies. The craft then conducted two “burns” — bracketing a scheduled coast at 17,500 mph — to set it on the right trajectory.
Juno’s massive solar panels, configured like the spokes of a Ferris wheel, unfurled without a hitch, said Scott Bolton, the mission’s principal investigator and the director of space science at San Antonio’s Southwest Research Institute.
“We are on our way,” said Jan Chodas, an engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge and the Juno project manager.
Liftoff was briefly delayed — first to deal with a leak in a helium system that was part of the rocket’s steering system, then to shoo away a boater who had drifted too close to the launch pad. But the operation still took place at one of the first moments in a 22-day launch window that opened Friday morning.
“It was a little tense there for a few minutes. But when it went, it went perfect,” Bolton said shortly after the launch.
Bolton said he raced onto the roof of a building at the Cape Canaveral complex to watch the launch and feel its vibration in his chest.
Scientists have dreamed of exploring Jupiter at this level of detail for more than 40 years.
“It’s so exciting to know that we are on our way to go uncover these incredible mysteries,” Bolton said.
By the fall of 2017, Juno is expected to have completed 34 elliptical, polar orbits around Jupiter. The result, scientists believe, will be enormous leaps in the understanding of Jupiter — and, as a result, in understanding the building blocks of the solar system, and Earth.
Scientists believe the craft will produce the first comprehensive mapping of Jupiter’s gravitational and magnetic fields, and answer a long-standing debate over whether there is a solid core inside Jupiter’s swirling bands of gas. Juno is also expected to yield the first solid reading of water and oxygen on Jupiter.
After the sun formed from a giant, collapsing cloud of gas and dust, the majority of the elements that did not wind up in the sun wound up in Jupiter, the largest and oldest planet in the solar system.
Because of its sheer size and gravitational pull, Jupiter has retained most of its original features. Contained inside the gassy giant, scientists believe, is a recording of sorts of the birth of the planets — “the recipe for planet-making,” Bolton has said.
“With the launch of the Juno spacecraft, NASA began a journey to yet another new frontier,” NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said. “The future of exploration includes cutting-edge science like this to help us better understand our solar system and an ever-increasing array of challenging destinations.”
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory is managing the $1.1-billion mission.
In addition to a host of complex instruments, Juno’s payload includes Lego figurines representing Jupiter, the Roman god; Juno, his wife; and Galileo Galilei, the Italian scientist who began sketching his telescope observations of Jupiter and its moons in the winter of 1610.
According to some versions of mythology, Jupiter covered the world with a thick layer of clouds to hide his extracurricular activity from his wife. But Juno outsmarted him and was able to see through the clouds.
Similarly, scientists believe the clouds of gas encircling Jupiter hide all manner of cosmic secrets. And Juno — the spacecraft, that is — will be able to “see” through those clouds for the first time, scientists believe.
Juno’s launch comes during a bustling period in robotic space exploration, particularly deep-space missions.
NASA’s Dawn spacecraft recently arrived into orbit around the protoplanet Vesta, the first prolonged encounter with an object in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
Next month, twin spacecraft will lift off to fly in coordinated orbits around the moon. That project is expected to yield the most complete gravitational map of the moon and also help scientists understand the origins of Earth.
Then, this fall, the new Mars rover, Curiosity, is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral, and is expected to continue the search for water and evidence of life.
