Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Space
  3. News

Juno performs longest-ever propulsive maneuver in a race against the sun

By

NASA’s Juno mission, launched in 2011, has collected a wealth of information about Jupiter since it arrived in 2016. It has discovered unexpectedly storm-free poles, learned about the planet’s complex weather system, observed bizarre geometric storms, and captured some truly beautiful images. And this week the craft it pulled off a feat of precision engineering, performing its longest propulsive maneuver in a race against the setting sun.

The dramatic intervention was necessary because, like many spacecraft, Juno is solar powered. The mission was originally intended to end in 2018, but the craft entered a different orbit than planned, so its mission was extended to 2021. This extra time put the craft at risk of being trapped by an eclipse, as on its previous path it would have had to spend 12 hours in transit across the planet’s shadow with any direct sunlight. That would have drained its batteries completely and ended the mission.

This illustration depicts Juno in an elliptical, polar orbit around Jupiter. NASA

So the NASA researchers came up with a solution to change the orbital velocity of the craft by 126 mph using its reaction-control thrusters. The maneuver lasted for 10.5 hours, which is five times longer than the system had been used for before. It used up 160 pounds of fuel and allowed the craft to avoid the deadly shadow that was chasing it down.

Recommended Videos

“With the success of this burn, we are on track to jump the shadow on November 3,” Juno’s principal investigator, Scott Bolton of the Southwest Research Institute, said in a statement. “Jumping over the shadow was an amazingly creative solution to what seemed like a fatal geometry. Eclipses are generally not friends of solar-powered spacecraft. Now instead of worrying about freezing to death, I am looking forward to the next science discovery that Jupiter has in store for Juno.”

Please enable Javascript to view this content

These kinds of creative adjustments are necessary due to the inherent uncertainties of space exploration, according to the researchers. “Pre-launch mission planning did not anticipate a lengthy eclipse that would plunge our solar-powered spacecraft into darkness,” Ed Hirst, Juno project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, explained in the statement. “That we could plan and execute the necessary maneuver while operating in Jupiter’s orbit is a testament to the ingenuity and skill of our team, along with the extraordinary capability and versatility of our spacecraft.”

Editors’ Recommendations

Topics
Georgina Torbet
Georgina Torbet
Space Writer
Georgina has been the space writer at Digital Trends space writer for six years, covering human space exploration, planetary…
Hear the sounds of Jupiter’s moon, Ganymede, as captured by the Juno spacecraft
This JunoCam image shows two of Jupiter's large rotating storms, captured on Juno’s 38th perijove pass, on Nov. 29, 2021.

NASA's Juno spacecraft is famous for the beautiful images of the planet Jupiter it captures with its JunoCam instrument. But recently, the Juno scientists have released something different: An audio track that Juno captured while passing by Jupiter's moon Ganymede.

Audio of Juno’s Ganymede Flyby

Read more
NASA probe becomes first in history to ‘touch’ the sun
The sun.

A NASA probe has “touched” the sun, making it the first human-made object ever to perform such a feat.

The space agency described the achievement as “one major step" for its probe and "one giant leap for solar science.”

Read more
Solar Orbiter to perform its riskiest flyby before heading to the sun
Artist's impression of ESA's Solar Orbiter

The European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter is on a mission to study the sun, but to get there it has to perform a series of flybys of other planets including Earth. This week, the Orbiter will perform its riskiest flyby, dipping through the smattering of space debris that surrounds Earth before whipping away toward the sun.

Solar Orbiter will reach its closest point to Earth on Saturday, November 27 at 6:30 a.m. ET (3:30 a.m. PT), when it will be within 286 miles of the planet's surface over North Africa and the Canary Islands. That's only a little above the orbit of the International Space Station, demonstrating just how close the spacecraft will come to us, and it will have to pass through two rings of space debris in both geostationary orbit and low-Earth orbit.

Read more