So... Juno. Have you guys heard about this? I've been too busy to post about it, but man, the Juno project has been really exciting.
Here's the rundown:
Nasa sent a badass advanced probe named Juno, to survey Jupiter in ways we've never been able to before. There were some very advanced methods used that almost eclipse the awesomeness of the Mars landing.
First, take a moment to appreciate the humor in naming the probe "Juno." The God Jupiter had many mistresses, and many of Jupiter's moons are named after his mistresses. Jupiter was always trying to hide that fact. Juno was Jupiters wife, who constantly suspected him of cheating. So NASA sent basically sent Jupiter's wife to check up on him and his mistresses.
Anyway.. so NASA launched Juno back on August 5th, 2011. Here's the actual path Juno has taken in the 5 years since, taking advantage of both Earth's gravity for slingshotting off into space, and Jupiter's close pass to Earth this year:
Here's an actual photo taken on Juno's approach, showing Jupiter and several moons:
NASA's Juno spacecraft obtained this color view at a distance of 6.8 million miles (10.9 million kilometers) from Jupiter, on June 21, 2016.
Here's the rundown of how it happened. The approach was very difficult to plan for:
Quote:
NASA's Juno mission, launched nearly five years ago, will soon reach its final destination: the most massive planet in our solar system, Jupiter. On the evening of July 4, at roughly 9 p.m. PDT (12 a.m. EDT, July 5), the spacecraft will complete a burn of its main engine, placing it in orbit around the king of planets.
During Juno's orbit-insertion phase, or JOI, the spacecraft will perform a series of steps in preparation for a main engine burn that will guide it into orbit. At 6:16 p.m. PDT (9:16 p.m. EDT), Juno will begin to turn slowly away from the sun and toward its orbit-insertion attitude. Then 72 minutes later, it will make a faster turn into the orbit-insertion attitude.
At 7:41 p.m. PDT (10:41 p.m. EDT), Juno switches to its low-gain antenna. Fine-tune adjustments are then made to the spacecraft's attitude. Twenty-two minutes before the main engine burn, at 7:56 p.m. PDT (10:56 p.m. EDT), the spacecraft spins up from 2 to 5 revolutions per minute (RPM) to help stabilize it for the orbit insertion burn.
At 8:18 p.m. PDT (11:18 p.m. EDT), Juno's 35-minute main-engine burn will begin. This will slow it enough to be captured by the giant planet’s gravity. The burn will impart a mean change in velocity of 1,212 mph (542 meters a second) on the spacecraft. It is performed in view of Earth, allowing its progress to be monitored by the mission teams at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver, via signal reception by Deep Space Network antennas in Goldstone, California, and Canberra, Australia.
After the main engine burn, Juno will be in orbit around Jupiter. The spacecraft will spin down from 5 to 2 RPM, turn back toward the sun, and ultimately transmit telemetry via its high-gain antenna.
Juno starts its tour of Jupiter in a 53.5-day orbit. The spacecraft saves fuel by executing a burn that places it in a capture orbit with a 53.5-day orbit instead of going directly for the 14-day orbit that will occur during the mission's primary science collection period. The 14-day science orbit phase will begin after the final burn of the mission for Juno’s main engine on October 19.
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And they ****in nailed it. Again.
Much more info on Juno:
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/juno/main/index.html