. Solar Energy News .




.
JOVIAN DREAMS
NASA launches Juno mission to Jupiter
by Staff Writers
Washington (AFP) Aug 5, 2011

NASA on Friday launched the billion-dollar solar-powered spacecraft Juno on a five-year journey to Jupiter aiming to discover what makes up the solar system's biggest planet.

The unmanned satellite observatory was propelled into space aboard a 197-foot (60-meter) tall Atlas V rocket, blasting off from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 12:25 pm (1625 GMT).

"Ignition and liftoff on the Atlas V with Juno on a trek to Jupiter, a planetary piece of the puzzle on the beginning of our solar system," said a NASA television commentator.

Some 53 minutes later Juno separated from its carrier rocket, heading off solo into space.

The launch of Juno showed "NASA is still open for business and leading the world in space exploration," said NASA chief Charles Bolden, just over two weeks after the last ever shuttle flight landed back on Earth and the program was mothballed.

"The largest planet in our neighborhood is about to reveal its secrets, and everything Juno finds will help us understand more about the origins and evolution of our solar system. This is exciting stuff," Bolden wrote on the NASA website.

Once it arrives in July 2016, the spacecraft will orbit the poles of the gas giant, which has more than twice the mass of all planets in the solar system combined and is believed to be the first planet that took shape around the Sun.

Named after the wife of the Roman god Jupiter, the $1.1 billion spacecraft is NASA's first mission there since it launched Galileo in 1989, and it aims for 30 orbits over a period of one year.

Juno will get closer to Jupiter than any other NASA spacecraft and will be the first to undertake a polar orbit of the planet, said Scott Bolton, Juno principal investigator and scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas.

"One of the primary goals of Juno.... is (probing) the origin of Jupiter and the origin of our solar system," Bolton said Friday just before the launch.

"Juno is set up to learn about that early part of the solar system and learn how Jupiter formed, and by measuring the ingredients we are really looking for the recipe of planet formation."

NASA's Galileo, an orbiter and probe that launched 22 years ago, entered the planet's orbit in 1995 and plunged into Jupiter in 2003, ending its life.

Other NASA spacecraft -- including Voyager 1 and 2, Ulysses and New Horizons -- have done flybys of the fifth planet from the Sun.

Juno will spend the first two years of its mission going around the Sun, then will return for a flyby of Earth which will give a gravitational boost to accelerate Juno on a three-year path toward Jupiter.

When it gets there, Juno -- orbiting around 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles) above the gas giant -- will make use of a series of instruments, some of which were provided by European space agency partners Italy, Belgium, France and Denmark, to learn about the workings of the planet and what is inside.

Two key experiments will gauge how much water is in Jupiter and whether the planet "has a core of heavy elements at the center, or whether it is just gas all the way down," Bolton said at a press briefing last week.

Scientists also hope to learn more about Jupiter's magnetic fields and its Great Red Spot, a storm that has been raging for more than 300 years.

"One of the fundamental questions is how deep are the roots to that red spot? How does it maintain itself for so long?" said Bolton.

Juno is carrying a few toys as part of a campaign to raise awareness among young people about math and science.

Three 1.5 inch figurines made by LEGO toys are on board -- a likeness of the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei who discovered four of Jupiter's moons, the Roman god Jupiter and his wife Juno.

Back in 2003, when plans for Juno were being crafted, NASA briefly considered using some sort of nuclear fuel to power the spacecraft, but engineers decided it would be quicker and less risky to go with solar.

Juno is part of a series of new planetary science missions, to be followed by Grail, which is headed to the moon in September, and the Mars Science Laboratory set to take off in November.

"These missions are designed to tackle some of the toughest questions in planetary science, all about our origin and the evolution of the solar system," said Jim Green, director of the planetary science division at NASA headquarters in Washington.




Related Links
Jupiter and its Moons
Explore The Ring World of Saturn and her moons
The million outer planets of a star called Sol
News Flash at Mercury

.
Get Our Free Newsletters Via Email
...
Buy Advertising Editorial Enquiries






. Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle



JOVIAN DREAMS
NASA's Juno to circle Jupiter for 'planetary recipe'
Washington (AFP) July 29, 2011
The US space agency plans to launch next week a solar-powered spacecraft called Juno that will journey to the gassy planet of Jupiter in search of how the huge, stormy giant was formed. The $1.1 billion unmanned orbiter is scheduled for launch on August 5 - the start of a five-year odyssey toward the solar system's most massive planet in the hopes that it will be able to circle Jupiter for ... read more


JOVIAN DREAMS
Ethanol-loving bacteria accelerate cracking of pipeline steels

A new catalyst for ethanol made from biomass

Scientists find way to identify manmade biofuels in atmosphere

Growth slowing in EU biofuels market

JOVIAN DREAMS
Wearable device that vibrates fingertip could improve sense of touch

Bionic microrobot mimics the 'water strider' and walks on water

Taiwan's Foxconn to use one million robots by 2014

Robot seagull flies in Scotland

JOVIAN DREAMS
Scotland offshore wind farm ready to go

US fund Blackstone plans two big German wind farms

European wind power output tipped to treble by 2020: report

Estonian wind farm taps GE for turbines

JOVIAN DREAMS
University of Virginia researchers uncover new catalysis site

China auto sales up 2.2% in July

AviCoS replaces vehicle owner manuals

Honda to recall over 2m vehicles in US, China

JOVIAN DREAMS
Sudan grants China oil exploration licence

UN oil devastation report to be taken 'seriously': Shell

Fusion diagnostic developed at PPPL sheds light on plasma behavior at EAST

Vietnam slams China sea survey in disputed area

JOVIAN DREAMS
Pioneers get close-up view of miracle material graphene

Hydrogen may be key to growth of high-quality graphene

The wonders of graphene on display

City dwellers produce as much CO2 as countryside people do

JOVIAN DREAMS
Iraq power plans short-circuit

Boeing And Siemens Form Strategic Alliance for DOD Energy Modernization

Iraq PM moves to fire minister over power deals

Japan's power supply dilemma

JOVIAN DREAMS
Fungi helped destroy forests during mass extinction 250 million years ago

Genetic evidence clears Ben Franklin

Seeing the wood for the trees: New study shows sheep in tree-ring records

DR Congo entrusts forest management to Canada's ERA


Memory Foam Mattress Review
Newsletters :: SpaceDaily Express :: SpaceWar Express :: TerraDaily Express :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News
.

The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2011 - Space Media Network. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement