Last week, I was invited to talk about NASA's Juno mission to Jupiter on AOTR The Jen and Rick Show, an Internet radio show on K98Talk. The links to the show are found below.
The episode file has been deleted during the archiving of old AOTR episodes.
AOTR Presents Jen and Rick Junos 5 Year trip to Jupiter and Hillary Skates
(First Aired on K98Talk, Tuesday, July 5, 2016)
In my preparation for the show, I realised that not many of my readers, or the listeners of the radio show, will necessary know why Jupiter is so important to astronomers and our understanding of our planet. As such, I've decided that I need put my PhD in Astronomy to good use and start a new blog series about Jupiter and what NASA is attempting to do with the Juno mission.
The outer planets have always held a level of mystic over astronomers and scientists. Here we have four gas giant planets, each of them with unknown structures. (Sorry, folks, this does not include Pluto. Besides, Pluto is not a planet anymore, but that will be the subject of a future post.) What is in the core of the planets? Why is there such diversity in the moons around these planets? Why is there a vast difference between the outer planets and the inner planets?
The only thing we know with any certainty is that the differences in our solar system is a result of what happened during the birth of our solar system. But here's the real issue. All our years of ground-based observations of Jupiter had led to assumptions that proved to be wrong by the Galileo mission during 1995 through 2003. We learned so much about Jupiter, but we also were left with more questions.
This image of Jupiter and its moons Io and Ganymede was acquired by amateur astronomer Damian Peach on Sept. 12, 2010, when Jupiter was close to opposition. South is up and the "Great Red Spot" is visible in the image. Ground-based astronomy will play a vital role in the success of NASA's Juno mission. (Image Credit: NASA/Damian Peach)
Jupiter is believe to be among the first of the planets formed in our solar system, with evidence that the cloud atmosphere has a similar composition to that found in the Sun. In fact, it is believed that if Jupiter had been 80 times bigger, it could have been a star too. But there are still too many things that we don't know about Jupiter. Is there any water in those cloud formations? Does Jupiter have a solid core? And what about the strong magnetic fields that surround the planet? It is these questions and others that Juno was sent to find the answers to.
Juno, named after the Roman goddess and wife of Jupiter, was launched on August 5, 2011. Nearly five years in space, and it successfully made insertion into Jupiter's orbit on July 4, 2016. As I write this post, Juno will be performing a series of start-up sequences, restarting the science instruments and running its systems through a series of calibration and operational tests. On August 27, 2016, Juno is expected to do another close pass of the planet, science instruments on and a preview of what we can expect of the future science orbits. It's an exciting, but nervous, wait.
The satellite itself is an instrument worth marveling about — its a system of firsts. Not only is Juno solar powered, the first solar-powered spacecraft to venture out so far from Earth, but it also has a number of components on-board that were 3D printed in Titanium, including the Titanium vault used for radiation shielding the science instruments. But one of the things that I mentioned during the radio show was its power consumption.
With all the instruments on-board, Juno was designed to operated on only 500W of power. You read that correctly, folk. Only 500W.(However, I may have said 5000W on the radio show, but still...) The average light bulb used for domestic purposes is a 50-60W bulb. Meaning that Juno uses the same power that it takes to light 10 bulbs. Many of us would struggle in a big way to power our homes on such low power consumption rates, yet NASA engineers and the team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory succeeded to design a complex system that could do just that.
WOw! fascinating! so great to hear you talk with enthusiasm about Juno’s mission. it’s always great to hear, first hand, from professional astronomers about current missions to our (albeit distant!) neighbouring planets. Jupiter, and the mythology surrounding him, has held my imagination hostage since i was a child, and i’ve written a few pieces of poetry and prose, inspired by this gaseous giant. Jupiter is one of my favourite planets – for many reasons, so much mystery yet to unravel. i look forward to the outcome of Juno’s mission. Remarkable too that it’s powered by solar cells and a mere 500W! Thanks for sharing your knowledge and this interview. So good! So much to learn too. Thank you, Judy.
You’re welcome. Astronomy, as a whole, has always been an interest to me. It’s probably why I did my PhD specializing in astronomical instrumentation.
oh my stars! astronomy has always been a fascination of mine – you are blessed to work in this field. it must be incredibly interesting – astronomical instrumentation? technological advances must be growing exponentially – you mention 3D printing in the construct of component parts of Juno. that in itself is of real interest to me. we’ve come a long way since the ’60s.
Technology has indeed progressed significantly over the years.
I no longer work in the field of astronomical instrumentation. Alas, I was unable to obtain funding. While I did work for a three years within medical imaging, I am now a full-time writer and freelance editor. Saying that, I do try to keep up to date the best I can with what it going on in the scientific world.
Thank you so much for your comments.
yes, i saw that you are writing a fantasy novel. that’s great! i would love to have the stamina to write a novel. i do have an idea, but the prospect of sussing out where to start, how to structure, bla bla, completely paralyzes me. i wish you all the very best with your novel… be sure to let me know when it is finished so i can purchase and read it. i love fantasy writing and i’ve written many fantasy pieces of prose and poem and been likened to Neil Gaiman, for which i was extremely flattered by. please, do let me know when there will be exerpts for reading… a little “amuse bouche” to whet our appetites. i just love the escape of fantasy and, like the universe, the infinite vastness of human imagination.
Don’t you worry. When things are progressing toward publication, all my readers will know. I want be able to contain my excitement. Thank you very much for your interest.
Good luck, Judy! i look forward to reading more about your progress – health & happiness, from Scotland x