Presentation toNASA Nationwide

Steve LevinJuno Project Scientist

6/16/2011

Juno Mission OverviewSalient Features:• First solar-powered mission to Jupiter• Eight science instruments to conduct gravity,

magnetic and atmospheric investigations, plus a camera for education and public outreach

• Spinning, polar orbiter spacecraft launches in August 2011

– 5-year cruise to Jupiter, arriving July 2016– About 1 year at Jupiter, ending with de-

orbit into Jupiter in 2017• Elliptical 11-day orbit swings below radiation

belts to minimize radiation exposure• 2nd mission in NASA’s New Frontiers Program

Science Objective: Improve our understanding of giant planet formation and evolution by studying Jupiter’s origin, interior structure, atmospheric composition and dynamics, and magnetosphere

Principal Investigator: Scott Bolton

Southwest Research Institute

Partner Institutions

Launch DetailsAtlas V 551 from Kennedy Space CenterLaunch period: Aug. 5 – 26, 2011 (22 days)Mass at launch: 3625 kg

Flight Path

Launch8/5/2011

EarthFlyby

10/9/2013

Deep SpaceManeuvers9/7-11/2012

Jupiter Orbit Insertion7/5/2016

Why Juno?Jupiter is by far the largest planet in the solar system, and we’ve been studying it for hundreds of years. Yet we still have major unanswered questions about this giant planet…

• How did Jupiter form?

• How is the planet arranged on the inside?

• Is there a solid core, and if so, how large is it?

• How is its vast magnetic field generated?

• How are atmospheric features related to the movement of the deep interior?

• What are the physical processes that power the auroras?

• What do the poles look like ?

Juno Science Objectives

OriginDetermine the abundance of water and place an upper limit on the mass of Jupiter’s solid core to decide which theory of the planet’s origin is correct

InteriorUnderstand Jupiter's interior structure and how material moves deep within the planet by mapping its gravitational and magnetic fields

AtmosphereMap variations in atmospheric composition, temperature, cloud opacity and dynamics to depths greater than 100 bars at all latitudes

MagnetosphereCharacterize and explore the three-dimensional structure of Jupiter's polar magnetosphere and auroras.

Suite of instruments will collect data on:

- Jupiter’s Gravity Field - Jupiter’s Magnetic Field - Deep Atmosphere - Aurora/Magnetosphere

Gravity Science (JPL, ASI)

Magnetometer— MAG (GSFC)

Microwave Radiometer— MWR (JPL)

Jupiter Energetic Particle Detector— JEDI (APL)

Jovian Auroral Distributions Experiment— JADE (SwRI)

Plasma Waves Instrument— Waves (U of Iowa)

UV Spectrometer— UVS (SwRI)

Infrared Camera— JIRAM (ASI)

Visible Camera— JunoCam (Malin)

The orbit is the key…

Probing the deep interior from orbitJuno maps Jupiter from the deepest interior to the atmosphere using microwaves, and magnetic and gravity fields.

Mapping Jupiter’s gravityTracking changes in Juno’s velocity reveals Jupiter’s gravity (and how the planet is arranged on the inside).

Precise Doppler measurements of spacecraft motion reveal the gravity field.

Tides provide further clues.

Jupiter’s magnetic field lets us probe deep inside the planet.

Juno’s polar orbit provides complete mapping of planet’s powerful magnetic field.

Mapping Jupiter’s magnetic field

Juno’s Microwave Radiometer measures thermal radiation from the atmosphere to as deep as 1000 atmospheres pressure (~500-600km below the visible cloud tops).

Determines water and ammonia abundances in the atmosphere all over the planet

Sensing the deep atmosphere (Pt1)

Synchrotron radio emission from the radiation belts makes this kind of measurement impossible from far away on Earth

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Microwave Radiometerinvestigates deep atmospheric structure

Sensing the deep atmosphere (Pt2)

Gravity science investigates deep structure of belts and zones

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Jupiter’s magnetosphere near the planet’s poles is a completely unexplored region!

Exploring the Polar Magnetosphere

Juno’s investigation will provide new insights about how the planet’s enormous magnetic force field generates the aurora.

Spacecraft & Payload

T-Minus 49 days to launch…

See missionjuno.swri.edu for updated countdown time

http://missionjuno.swri.edu

http://www.nasa.gov/juno

For more information…

Supplemental materials

Juno Science ObjectivesJuno will improve our understanding of the history of the solar system by investigating the origin and evolution of Jupiter.

To accomplish this goal, the mission will investigate Jupiter’s Origin, Interior, Atmosphere and Magnetosphere.

What we learn from Juno also will vastly improve our general knowledge of how giant planets form and evolve, shaping the evolution of planetary systems everywhere.

Many ways of seeing Jupiter

The Galileo mission dropped a probe into Jupiter’s atmosphere in 1995 and showed us our planetary formation theories were wrong!

Haven’t we already been to Jupiter? Why go back? (Pt1)

This meant that Jupiter might have formed from the collision of many asteroid-sized pieces of water-ice. These icy planetesimals could have carried in the other, more volatile, elements trapped within the ice. Colder ice would carry more volatiles, so Jupiter’s water content will tell us whether or not Jupiter formed farther from the Sun and drifted in to it’s current location.

If Juno does not find a lot of water in Jupiter, then the icy planetesimal theory is wrong and we’ll need a whole new way to understand Jupiter’s formation.

Haven’t we already been to Jupiter? Why go back? (Pt2)

• Over what period in the early solar system did gas giants form, and how did birth of Jupiter and its gas-giant sibling, Saturn differ from the “ice giants” Uranus and Neptune?

• What is the history of water and other volatile compounds across our solar system?

There are some big unanswered questions relevant to giant planets…

•How do processes that shape the present character of planetary bodies operate and interact?

•We see a lot of giant planets around other stars. What does our solar system tell us about development and evolution of extrasolar planetary systems, and vice versa?

Where Does Juno Fit?

Juno Mission Timeline

Juno’s orbit at Jupiter

Juno’s orbit at Jupiter

Juno’s orbit deliberately avoids the four large Galilean moons.

What about the moons?

Why go all that way and not visit Europa?

To accomplish its science objectives, Juno orbits over Jupiter’s poles and passes very close to the planet.

This carries the spacecraft repeatedly through the hazardous radiation belts and limits the length of the mission.

Radiation

Orbits 1, 16 and 31 pictured

Why crash a perfectly good spacecraft into Jupiter?

It’s a trick question! After 33 orbits and 15 months at Jupiter, Juno will have received a dose of radiation equal to 100 million dental x-rays!

Eventually radiation damage would render Juno uncontrollable, so the spacecraft is sent into Jupiter in a controlled way so there’s no possibility it will impact the icy moons.

End of mission

Images of Juno[Include choice photos relevant to the audience; see

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/feature/juno and http://mediaarchive.ksc.nasa.gov/search.cfm?cat=230]

Trajectory (i.e., Juno’s Flight Plan)

Key datesMission phases

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Launch of LCROSS & LRO, June 2009 GAVRT students at launch events

• In the 2009-2010 school year 7,089 students ran the GAVRT telescopes and collected radio astronomy data.

• 50 schools in 16 US States, Puerto Rico•3 foreign countries.

• 1,747 were students participating in the GAVRT program that supported the NASA LCROSS mission.

Goldstone Apple Valley Radio Telescope (GAVRT) Project

Spacecraft tracks

Education and Science• Students contribute to Juno science - Modeling the radiation environment - Providing context for Microwave Radiometer data• Juno science lessons (in and out of the classroom)• Juno scientists participate in GAVRT teacher training• Juno scientists in the (GAVRT) classroom• Future plans (Junocam)

The Juno/GAVRT Connection

page.

GAVRT data help us understand Jupiter’s radiation belts

Synchrotron Beaming Curve (GAVRT Data)

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GAVRT data provide context