Juno Gave NASA Controllers Fairly the Scare Throughout Latest Jupiter Flyby

For almost a decade, a big probe has braved the cruel Jovian atmosphere to deliver us mesmerizing, close-up views of Jupiter and its moons. However typically, the gasoline large will get the most effective of it. The Juno mission lately went into an sudden protected mode throughout a scheduled flyby of Jupiter, briefly powering down its science devices.

Juno was making its 71st shut strategy to Jupiter when it entered its precautionary standing twice on April 4 because it was flying by the gasoline large, NASA lately revealed. It’s not clear precisely what could have triggered Juno to enter protected mode, however the house company believes it could have occurred because the spacecraft flew via Jupiter’s radiation belts.

Mission operations reestablished knowledge transmission with Juno and the information indicated that the spacecraft first went into protected mode at 5:17 a.m. ET, which was about an hour forward of its scheduled flyby. Juno entered protected mode once more round 45 minutes after perijove, or its shut strategy to Jupiter. Throughout protected mode, nonessential capabilities on the spacecraft are suspended. Juno powered down its science devices whereas holding its communication and energy administration methods on. The spacecraft rebooted its laptop, and pointed its antennas towards Earth for communication.

Protected mode is activated when the spacecraft detects an anomaly. Though the staff continues to be ready to investigate the information to determine precisely what went improper, early indications means that Juno was flying via Jupiter’s radiation belts when its protected mode was activated.

Jupiter’s magnetic area is 20,000 occasions stronger than Earth’s and the strongest of all of the planets within the photo voltaic system. The planet’s magnetosphere traps charged particles after which speeds them up like a particle accelerator, in line with the European Space Agency. The best fluxes of energetic particles are discovered within the doughnut-shaped belts round Jupiter’s equator, its radiation belts.

Juno boasts a titanium radiation vault to dam high-energy particles from impacting the spacecraft, however that’s typically not sufficient. The spacecraft went into protected mode 4 occasions since arriving at Jupiter in 2016.

After reestablishing communication with Juno, the staff is working to transmit the information collected earlier than and after it entered protected mode because the spacecraft conducts flight software program diagnostics, in line with NASA.

Juno is scheduled for an upcoming flyby of Jupiter on Might 7, throughout which it’s set to hold out a detailed strategy of the Jovian moon Io at a distance of about 55,300 miles (89,000 kilometers). Hopefully the spacecraft manages to maintain its science devices turned on this time.