For the second flyby in a row, a key digital camera finding out Jupiter has struggled to snap photographs as common.
NASA’s Juno spacecraft launched in 2011 and arrived at Jupiter in 2016; since then, it has made almost 50 flybys of the most important planet in our solar system and caught helpful glimpses of Jupiter’s massive moons, every an odd world in its personal proper. However throughout the spacecraft’s most up-to-date flyby, on Jan. 22, the digital camera was in a position to seize solely about one-fifth of the deliberate photos.
A similar issue occurred on the previous flyby, in December; mission personnel consider that the digital camera glitch stems from the digital camera reaching an unusually excessive temperature and are persevering with to troubleshoot the problem, in response to a statement.
Associated: Jupiter’s true colors pop in new images from NASA’s Juno mission
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 response to a statement on the time. Juno bounced again easily and many of the information reached Earth safely, however JunoCam struggled early within the flyby.
The digital camera had been directed to seize 90 photos throughout the December flyby, however the first 4 photographs turned out badly. The mission staff decided that when JunoCam turned on, temperatures rose sufficient to intrude with pictures and the instrument had cooled off by the top of these first 4 photos.
However now, the problem appears to have recurred, this time for longer — 23 hours moderately than 36 minutes, in response to NASA. This time, the glitch left 214 photos unusable, with solely 44 first rate photos returned after the instrument cooled sufficiently.
“The mission staff is evaluating JunoCam engineering information acquired throughout 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 interim and the digital camera continues to function in its nominal state.”
Juno’s subsequent flyby will happen on March 1.
Mission personnel thought-about launching Juno with out a digital camera onboard, for the reason that spacecraft’s science objectives did not require such an instrument, however the company determined so as to add JunoCam as a public outreach undertaking. The colour digital camera snaps photographs of the tops of Jupiter’s dynamic clouds, with the general public suggesting the place to goal and processing the collected photos.
And JunoCam wasn’t assured to final even this lengthy, in response to NASA: It was designed to outlive simply seven passes by the harmful surroundings surrounding Jupiter.
Juno itself can be working past its main mission, which resulted in July 2021; it’s at the moment anticipated to proceed so long as September 2025.
E-mail Meghan Bartels at mbartels@space.com or observe her on Twitter @meghanbartels. Observe us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
