JPL’s Juno Mission expected to arrive at Jupiter on Independence Day
Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Juno Mission to Jupiter principal investigator Scott Bolton talks about the primary goals of the expedition to Jupiter on media day at JPL in La Cañada Flintridge on Thursday, June 9, 2016.
Almost five years after launch, the Juno spacecraft, managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, is expected to arrive at planet Jupiter on July 4 to perform never-before-done experiments.
According to Juno principal investigator Scott Bolton of the Southwest Research Institute in Texas, the mission is to figure out Jupiter’s composition.
The scientists will be looking at “what went into Jupiter, what exactly is it made out of,” Bolton said during media day on the JPL campus in La Cañada Flintridge last week while standing next to a monitor showing video animations of the spacecraft.
1/7
Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Juno Mission to Jupiter principal investigator Scott Bolton talks about the primary goals of the expedition to Jupiter on media day at JPL in La Cañada Flintridge on Thursday, June 9, 2016. According to the press release, the mission’s principal goal is to improve the understanding of Jupiter’s formation and evolution. The spacecraft will investigate the planet’s origins, interior structure, deep atmosphere and magnetosphere. Additionally, this information will help understand the history of our solar system and provide new insight into how planetary systems form and develop in our galaxy and beyond, according the the press release. (Raul Roa / Staff Photographer)
2/7
Juno Mission to Jupiter JunoCam Operations Engineer Elsa Jensen talks about digital camera on board the spacecraft on media day at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge on Thursday, June 9, 2016. Jensen works at Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego. The camera is 1600 pixels by 1200 pixels and can create 2 megapixel images. It has a protective structure because of the extreme radiation around Jupiter. According to the press release, the mission’s principal goal is to improve the understanding of Jupiter’s formation and evolution. The spacecraft will investigate the planet’s origins, interior structure, deep atmosphere and magnetosphere. Additionally, this information will help understand the history of our solar system and provide new insight into how planetary systems form and develop in our galaxy and beyond, according the the press release. (Raul Roa / Staff Photographer)
3/7
Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Juno Mission to Jupiter planner Stuart Stephens talks to a member of the media net to a 1/4-size replica of the Juno spacecraft on media day at JPL in La Cañada Flintridge on Thursday, June 9, 2016. According to the press release, the mission’s principal goal is to improve the understanding of Jupiter’s formation and evolution. The spacecraft will investigate the planet’s origins, interior structure, deep atmosphere and magnetosphere. Additionally, this information will help understand the history of our solar system and provide new insight into how planetary systems form and develop in our galaxy and beyond, according the the press release. (Raul Roa / Staff Photographer)
4/7
Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Juno Mission to Jupiter visualization technology applications manager Kevin Hussey talks about how anyone will be able to follow via the internet the expedition to Jupiter as it happens, on media day at JPL in La Cañada Flintridge on Thursday, June 9, 2016. According to the press release, the mission’s principal goal is to improve the understanding of Jupiter’s formation and evolution. The spacecraft will investigate the planet’s origins, interior structure, deep atmosphere and magnetosphere. Additionally, this information will help understand the history of our solar system and provide new insight into how planetary systems form and develop in our galaxy and beyond, according the the press release. (Raul Roa / Staff Photographer)
5/7
Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Juno Mission to Jupiter principal investigator Scott Bolton talks about the three metal legos on board the spacecraft and the primary goals of the expedition to Jupiter on media day at JPL in La Cañada Flintridge on Thursday, June 9, 2016. According to the press release, the mission’s principal goal is to improve the understanding of Jupiter’s formation and evolution. The spacecraft will investigate the planet’s origins, interior structure, deep atmosphere and magnetosphere. Additionally, this information will help understand the history of our solar system and provide new insight into how planetary systems form and develop in our galaxy and beyond, according the the press release. (Raul Roa / Staff Photographer)
6/7
Juno Mission to Jupiter JunoCam Operations Engineer Elsa Jensen talks about digital camera on board the spacecraft on media day at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge on Thursday, June 9, 2016. Jensen works at Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego. The color camera is 1600 pixels by 1200 pixels and can create 2 megapixel images. It has protective structure because of the extreme radiation around Jupiter. According to the press release, the mission’s principal goal is to improve the understanding of Jupiter’s formation and evolution. The spacecraft will investigate the planet’s origins, interior structure, deep atmosphere and magnetosphere. Additionally, this information will help understand the history of our solar system and provide new insight into how planetary systems form and develop in our galaxy and beyond, according the the press release. (Raul Roa / Staff Photographer)
7/7
With a large crowd of visitors looking on from a second floor corridor, Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Juno Mission to Jupiter principal investigator Scott Bolton talks about the primary goals of the expedition to Jupiter on media day at JPL in La Cañada Flintridge on Thursday, June 9, 2016. According to the press release, the mission’s principal goal is to improve the understanding of Jupiter’s formation and evolution. The spacecraft will investigate the planet’s origins, interior structure, deep atmosphere and magnetosphere. Additionally, this information will help understand the history of our solar system and provide new insight into how planetary systems form and develop in our galaxy and beyond, according the the press release. (Raul Roa / Staff Photographer)
At a projected cost of about $1.1 billion over its life, the Juno spacecraft was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Aug. 5, 2011.
According to Bolton, Juno, a solar-powered spacecraft, is the first to go over the poles of Jupiter. Operating so far away from the sun required the spacecraft have three 34-foot solar array wings with more than 18,000 solar cells.
The 15-foot tall, 3,513-lb. spacecraft, with a total span of 66 feet, will see through the cloud layers and investigate how deep these features go, according to Bolton. Juno is a massive spacecraft, like an armored tank, which includes a radiation vault.
“Jupiter is really really hazardous. The vault is over 200 kilos of titanium to protect the spacecraft from radiation,” Bolton said.
Jupiter is a massive planet, about 1,000 times the size of Earth. “Jupiter has more mass than everything else in the solar system put together,” Bolton said.
Juno is carrying a color camera called JunoCam. This wide-field-of-view camera, according to JunoCam Operations Engineer Elsa Jensen, has a color sensor that is a “1,600 pixel by 1,200 pixel that creates 2 megapixel-size photos,” she said. The images will fill the field of view of the camera as the spacecraft skims within 3,100 miles above the planet’s clouds. That’s about the width of an orange rind relative to the surface of an orange, Jensen explained.
Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Juno Mission to Jupiter principal investigator Scott Bolton talks about the three metal Lego figures on board the spacecraft and the primary goals of the expedition to Jupiter.
(Raul Roa / Staff Photographer)
Bolton added the spacecraft is carrying some Lego-created mini figures made out of a special space-grade aluminum. Two represent Roman mythological gods Jupiter and Juno, the third depicts Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei.
Juno was the wife and sister of Jupiter in Roman mythology, and since Jupiter was often into mischief and did not want Juno to find out about it, according to mythology, he cast a veil of clouds around himself. Juno, being a powerful goddess could see right through those clouds “and so she just said I’m just going to use my powers and look right through those clouds. And I’m going to see what Jupiter is up to and I’m going to see the true nature of Jupiter. And that’s exactly what our spacecraft Juno does,” Bolton said. “It uses its powers, which are in the guise of science instruments and a special orbit, to see through those clouds and see the true nature of Jupiter to help us understand our history.”
The spacecraft’s goal is to understand origin and evolution of Jupiter; look for a solid planetary core, map the magnetic field, measure water and ammonia in deep atmosphere and observe auroras, according to the NASA Juno website.
“The stuff that Jupiter has more of is what we are all made out of,” Bolton said. “It’s what the Earth is made out of. It’s what life comes from. So whatever happened in the early solar system that allowed Jupiter to get this enrichment is actually the beginning of allowing all the planets to get these heavy elements and eventually leads to life.”
Raul Roa has been staff photographer with Times Community News for 11 years and a professional photojournalist for 26 years in Southern California. Roa was named Times Community News Photo Editor (Daily Pilot and TimesOC) in April 2021.
