NASA's Juno Probe Set to Study Jupiter
A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket blasts off carrying NASA's Juno mission at Kennedy Space Center, on August 5, 2011. Four lightning protection towers surround the rocket.
This still image from a Juno mission animation shows how the spinning spacecraft might look during deployment of its giant solar arrays. Solar array deployment takes place just a few minutes after Juno separates from its launch vehicle upper stage booster.
Earth (on the left) and the moon (on the right) were seen by NASA's Juno spacecraft on Aug. 26, 2011, when the spacecraft was about 6 million miles (9.66 million kilometers) away. The photo was taken by the spacecraft's onboard camera, JunoCam.
The Juno spacecraft passes in front of Jupiter in this artist's depiction.
Three LEGO figurines representing the Roman god Jupiter (right), his wife Juno (middle) and Galileo Galilei (left) as shown here will fly to Jupiter on NASA’s Juno spacecraft.
The Juno spacecraft, folded up and awaiting encapsulation in the rocket fairing. The 13-foot-long magnetometer boom, wrapped in bright thermal blankets, is in the foreground atop a stack of folded solar arrays. One of the twin magnetometers is mounted in the middle of the boom, and the other is mounted at the outermost end. Next to each magnetometer sensor is a pair of rectangular hoods, or light baffles, peeking out from under the thermal blankets; these define the fields of view for the two star cameras, which determine the orientation of each magnetometer sensor with great accuracy.
Technicians at Astrotech's payload processing facility in Titusville, Fla. stow solar array #2 against the body of NASA's Juno spacecraft.
In preparation for launch of NASA's Juno mission, a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket is rolled to the pad at Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral.
In preparation for launch of NASA's Juno mission, a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket is rolled to the pad at Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral.
In preparation for launch of NASA's Juno mission, a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket is rolled to the pad at Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral.
A look at the Juno science instruments NASA will use to explore the largest planet in our solar system.
Juno spacecraft is being prepped for Jupiter at Lockheed Martin Space Systems. Bunny-suited Jack Farmerie, Lockheed Martin's lead spacecraft technician on the Juno project (left) and SPACE.com reporter Leonard David.
Inside the Vertical Integration Facility at Space Launch Complex 41, the Juno spacecraft, enclosed in an Atlas payload fairing, is in position on top of its Atlas launch vehicle. The spacecraft was prepared for launch in the Astrotech Space Operations' payload processing facility in Titusville, Fla. The fairing will protect the spacecraft from the impact of aerodynamic pressure and heating during ascent and will be jettisoned once the spacecraft is outside the Earth's atmosphere. Juno is scheduled to launch Aug. 5 aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
An artist's concept of the NASA planned Juno mission to Jupiter, which is slated for launch in August 2011.
Technician inspects Juno's vault – a titanium box that will enclose key spacecraft components, shielding them from Jupiter's intense radiation fields.
In this picture, workers are readying the propulsion module for NASA's Juno spacecraft bound for Jupiter. Assembly began April 1, 2010, in Denver, Colo. Launch is set for August 2011.
NASA's Juno probe is seen orbiting Jupiter in an artist's impression. Juno will carry several instruments, including the Jovian Infra-Red Auroral Mapper (JIRAM), which will probe the planet's atmosphere and the auroras generated by interaction between the atmosphere and intense radiation trapped by the giant planet's magnetic field. The detailed structure of Jupiter's atmosphere is key to understanding the processes that formed both our solar system, and planets around other stars.
Jupiter is probably the best place in the solar system to study how the magnetic fields of planets are generated. The Juno spacecraft will make the five-year, 400-million-mile voyage to Jupiter and orbit the planet, collecting data for more than one Earth year.
This infographic details NASA's Juno Jupiter probe and its instruments.
