For the second flyby in a row, a key digicam learning Jupiter has struggled to snap photographs as regular.
NASA’s Juno spacecraft launched in 2011 and arrived at Jupiter in 2016; since then, it has made almost 50 flybys of the biggest planet in our solar system and caught precious glimpses of Jupiter’s massive moons, every a wierd world in its personal proper. However in the course of the spacecraft’s most up-to-date flyby, on Jan. 22, the digicam was in a position to seize solely about one-fifth of the deliberate photographs.
A similar issue occurred on the previous flyby, in December; mission personnel consider that the digicam glitch stems from the digicam reaching an unusually excessive temperature and are persevering with to troubleshoot the difficulty, in line with a statement.
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Shortly after the Dec. 14 flyby, Juno skilled a reminiscence problem that despatched the spacecraft into secure mode, delaying the transmission of information to Earth, in line with a statement on the time. Juno bounced again easily and a lot of the information reached Earth safely, however JunoCam struggled early within the flyby.
The digicam had been directed to seize 90 photographs in the course of the December flyby, however the first 4 photographs turned out badly. The mission staff decided that when JunoCam turned on, temperatures rose sufficient to intervene with images and the instrument had cooled off by the tip of these first 4 photographs.
However now, the difficulty appears to have recurred, this time for longer — 23 hours slightly than 36 minutes, in line with NASA. This time, the glitch left 214 photographs unusable, with solely 44 respectable photographs returned after the instrument cooled sufficiently.
“The mission staff is evaluating JunoCam engineering information acquired in the course of the two latest flybys — the forty seventh and forty eighth of the mission — and is investigating the basis reason for the anomaly and mitigation methods,” NASA officers wrote. “JunoCam will stay powered on in the intervening time and the digicam continues to function in its nominal state.”
Juno’s subsequent flyby will happen on March 1.
Mission personnel thought of launching Juno with out a digicam onboard, because the spacecraft’s science targets did not require such an instrument, however the company determined so as to add JunoCam as a public outreach challenge. The colour digicam snaps photographs of the tops of Jupiter’s dynamic clouds, with the general public suggesting the place to goal and processing the collected photographs.
And JunoCam wasn’t assured to final even this lengthy, in line with NASA: It was designed to outlive simply seven passes by means of the damaging atmosphere surrounding Jupiter.
Juno itself can be working past its main mission, which led to July 2021; it’s presently anticipated to proceed so long as September 2025.
Electronic mail Meghan Bartels at mbartels@space.com or comply with her on Twitter @meghanbartels. Observe us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
