Fwd: Juno Suffers Glitch After Earth Flyby

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From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: October 10, 2013 7:12:44 AM GMT-06:00
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: Juno Suffers Glitch After Earth Flyby

 

 

Juno goes into safe mode during Earth flyby
BY STEPHEN CLARK
SPACEFLIGHT NOW
October 9, 2013

NASA's Juno spacecraft went into safe mode Wednesday as it flew by Earth to gain speed on its five-year journey to Jupiter, but the mission's lead scientist said the flyby achieved its objective of putting the probe on the correct course toward the solar system's largest planet.

Artist's concept of Juno flying past Earth. Credit: NASA/JPL
 
The Jupiter-bound probe flew about 350 miles over the Indian Ocean near South Africa at 3:21 p.m. EDT (1921 GMT), and all data indicate the spacecraft obtained the predicted gravity boost from the flyby, according to Scott Bolton, Juno's principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio.

But the spacecraft, stretching the size of a basketball court with its solar panels extended, experienced a fault some time during the flyby, going into a safe mode to protect the probe's systems and instruments while engineers on the ground scramble to diagnose the problem.

Bolton said Juno is designed to downlink data at a slower rate than normal during a safe mode, but telemetry from the spacecraft shows all its systems and instruments are fine.

The solar-powered spacecraft zoomed over the Indian Ocean on the night side of the Earth, putting the probe's expansive solar arrays in eclipse for the first time since its launch in August 2011.

Juno also passed out of range of ground antennas around the time of closest approach, and a European Space Agency ground station in Perth, Australia, acquired the first radio signals from Juno a few minutes later.

"When we came out of the eclipse, we realized that the spacecraft was in safe mode," Bolton said. "What we do know is that all the subsystems and instruments are nominal and behaving OK."

Juno was programmed to collect data during the flyby with its science payload. The research activities - considered a bonus by the Juno science team - included gathering observations of the Earth's magnetic field and auroras and snapping a series of images of Earth with the spacecraft's primary camera.

See our flyby story for more details

"This did not affect the main purpose of the flyby, which was to put Juno on the right course to Jupiter," Bolton said.

Bolton said ground controllers see some indications Juno gathered data and images during the flyby, but it may take more time to confirm whether the craft took the images as planned. If the imagery was collected, it could take extra time recover the information from the probe's on-board computer while engineers focus their work on putting Juno back into its normal operating mode.

Juno is set to arrive in orbit around Jupiter on July 4, 2016, beginning a one-year science mission studying the gas giant's crushing atmosphere, powerful magnetic field and enigmatic core. Juno's discoveries could help scientists unravel how Jupiter, likely the solar system's oldest planet, formed and evolved in the early solar system.

© 2013 Spaceflight Now Inc.

 

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Jupiter-bound Juno races toward Earth flyby

10/09/2013 11:12 AM 

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

Returning to its starting point after a two-year billion-mile loop out beyond the orbit of Mars, NASA's Juno probe raced toward Earth Wednesday for a velocity-boosting flyby, using the planet's gravity to fling the spacecraft on to distant Jupiter.

The centerpiece of a $1.1 billion science mission, the solar-powered Juno spacecraft was launched atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., on Aug. 5, 2011.

Even though Atlas 5 boosted the spacecraft to an Earth-escape velocity of 25,000 mph -- 7 miles per second -- Juno did not have the energy to head directly to its target.

A computer graphic showing NASA's Juno spacecraft in orbit around Jupiter. Arrival is expected on July 4, 2016. (Credit: NASA)

Instead, the spacecraft was launched on a trajectory that carried it beyond the orbit of Mars and into the asteroid belt before the sun's gravity finally began pulling the craft back into the inner solar system.

In September 2012, carefully planned rocket firings altered the probe's course slightly and set up Wednesday's gravity-assist flyby of Earth. After covering 994 million miles since launch, close approach was expected at 3:21 p.m. EDT (GMT-4) when Juno was expected to pass about 350 miles above South Africa.

"Even a large rocket couldn't provide enough propulsion to get us all the way to Jupiter, so we are flying by the Earth for a gravity-assist that will provide about 70 percent of the initial boost provided by the Atlas V 551 rocket," Scott Bolton, Juno principal investigator, said in a statement. "The gravity assist essentially provides as much propulsion as second rocket launch."

The flyby was set up to increases Juno's velocity, relative to the sun, from 78,000 mph to around 87,000 mph, according to the Southwest Research Institute.

Tim Gasparrini, Juno program manager for Lockheed Martin Space Systems, said a direct trajectory to Jupiter would have required about 50 percent more fuel than Juno could carry.

"Had we not chosen to do the flyby, the mission would have required a bigger launch vehicle, a larger spacecraft and would have been more expensive," he said in a company statement.

During the approach to Earth and its departure from the Earth-moon system, Juno's instruments will be calibrated and put to work.

"While we are primarily using Earth as a means to get us to Jupiter, the flight team is also going to check and calibrate Juno's science instruments," Bolton said.

"As another bonus, Juno is approaching the Earth from deep space, from the sunlit side. Juno will take never-before-seen images of the Earth-moon system, giving us a chance to see what we look like from Mars or Jupiter. We plan to release a movie of this unique perspective of the Earth-Moon system shortly after the flyby."

The Juno mission is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., which is operated for NASA by the California Institute of Technology.

While more than 90 percent of NASA's civil service workforce have been furloughed in the ongoing government shutdown, JPL is not directly affected and key NASA personnel remain on the job to protect operational spacecraft.

If all goes well, Juno will reach its target on July 4, 2016, braking into an elliptical orbit around Jupiter's poles five years and 1.7 billion miles after launch.

Using a suite of sophisticated instruments, the four-ton spacecraft will study Jupiter's turbulent atmosphere in unprecedented detail to learn more about how the huge world evolved, whether it has a solid core and what its constituents imply about the nature of the solar nebula that coalesced 4.5 billion years ago to form the solar system.

The titanium-armored spacecraft also will map out Jupiter's magnetic field and radiation belts, absorbing the equivalent of 100 million dental X-rays over the course of 33 orbits -- one year.

"What we're really going after are some of the most fundamental questions of our solar system -- how Jupiter formed, how it evolved, what really happened early in the solar system that eventually led to all of us and the terrestrial planets," Bolton told reporters shortly after launch. "These are really basic questions, who are we, where did we come from, how did we get here?

"We're kind of going after this recipe of how planets are made. We're getting the ingredients of Jupiter, we're going to understand what the structure is like inside, how was it built, and that will give us guidance as to what happened in that early time that eventually led to us."

© 2011 William Harwood/CBS News 

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NASA diagnosing Jupiter-bound craft after flyby

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FILE - This 2010 artist's rendering depicts NASA's Juno spacecraft with Jupiter in the background. NASA's Jupiter-bound spacecraft will swing by Earth for one last visit Wednesday Oct. 9, 2013 before speeding to the outer solar system. Wednesday's flyby allows the Juno spacecraft to gather the momentum it needs to arrive at Jupiter in 2016. (AP Photo/NASA/JPL, File)

ALICIA CHANG 

 

LOS ANGELES (AP) — NASA engineers were troubleshooting why the Jupiter-bound spacecraft ran into some problems after successfully zipping past Earth to boost its speed toward the outer solar system.

Despite the snag, the team said Wednesday Juno was on track to arrive at the giant gas planet in 2016.

"We did not plan for this," said project manager Rick Nybakken of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages the $1.1 billion mission.

After the Earth rendezvous, engineers noticed that Juno returned little data, a sign that something was wrong. NASA later learned that Juno had entered safe mode, a state that spacecraft are programmed to go into when they sense there's a problem.

Up until Wednesday when Juno whipped around Earth in a momentum-gathering flyby, the spacecraft had been in excellent health. While in safe mode, it can communicate with ground controllers, but its activities are limited.

Previous missions to the outer solar system have used Earth as a gravity slingshot since there's no rocket powerful enough to make a direct flight. The Galileo spacecraft buzzed by Earth twice in the 1990s en route to Jupiter, the solar system's largest planet located 484 million miles from the sun.

Launched in 2011, Juno flew beyond the orbit of Mars, Earth's closest planetary neighbor, before looping back toward our home planet for a quick visit. Wednesday's rendezvous increased Juno's speed from 78,000 mph relative to the sun to 87,000 mph — enough momentum to cruise past the asteroid belt to Jupiter, where it should arrive in 2016.

During the swing past Earth, Juno snapped pictures of our home planet and the moon. The solar-powered, windmill-shaped spacecraft slipped into Earth's shadow as planned, but engineers were puzzled when it emerged. At closest approach, it hurtled 350 miles above the ocean off the coast of South Africa.

NASA said skywatchers with binoculars or a small telescope might have seen it streak across the sky, weather permitting. Ham radio operators around the globe were encouraged to say "Hi" in Morse code — a message that might be detected by Juno's radio.

By space mission standards, Juno's Earth rendezvous was low-key compared with the Curiosity rover's nail-biting landing on Mars last year, which drew crowds. Since flybys have been executed before, project managers predicted a smooth flight.

The unexpected problem causes "a moderate level of concern," Nybakken said.

Despite a government shutdown that has prevented NASA from updating its website or tweeting, the space agency's missions continue to operate. Earlier this week, NASA's newest spacecraft, LADEE, slipped into orbit around the moon.

Since the 1970s, spacecraft have circled or flown past Jupiter including the Voyagers, Pioneers, Galileo, Ulysses, Cassini and, most recently, the New Horizons barreling toward Pluto. Missions have beamed back stunning views of Jupiter's trademark Great Red Spot, a raging hurricane-like storm, and its many moons.

Juno promises to inch closer to Jupiter than previous spacecraft, orbiting the planet for at least a year and studying its cloud-covered atmosphere and mysterious interior to better understand how the giant planet formed.

 

Copyright © 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. 

 

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NASA Jupiter Probe Suffers Glitch After Earth Flyby

By Mike Wall, Senior Writer   |   October 09, 2013 09:11pm ET

On Oct. 9, 2013, the Juno spacecraft will fly past the Earth for a gravity-assist boost that will slingshot the probe onward to Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI View full size image

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A NASA spacecraft bound for Jupiter went into a precautionary safe mode today (Oct. 9), shortly after completing a speed-boosting flyby of Earth.

NASA's Juno probe detected an anomalous condition and went into safe mode this afternoon after slingshotting around Earth to gain momentum for the long trip to the solar system's largest planet, according to media reports. While Juno's handlers are still trying to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it, they're hopeful that the problem won't threaten the $1.1 billion mission.

"We believe we are on track as planned to Jupiter," Juno project manager Rick Nybakken, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., told the Associated Press. He described his level of concern as "moderate."

The Juno mission launched in August 2011 and is slated to arrive at the Jovian system in July 2016. The probe is so heavy — about 8,000 pounds (3,267 kilograms) — that its Atlas 5 rocket couldn't send it all the way to Jupiter by itself, so mission planners devised the Earth flyby to finish the job.

The flyby, which was highlighted by a close approach that brought Juno within just 347 miles (558 kilometers) of Earth at 3:21 p.m. EDT (1921 GMT), was designed to boost the probe's speed from 78,000 mph (126,000 km/h) to 87,000 mph (140,000 km/h), mission officials said.

Once Juno enters orbit around Jupiter, it will study the gas giant's atmosphere, gravitational field and magnetic field with nine science instruments over the course of a full Earth year. Scientists hope the probe's observations reveal insights about Jupiter's formation, structure and composition, including whether or not the planet possesses a solid core.

While the main purpose of today's flyby was to give Juno a speed boost, mission officials also planned to check out the spacecraft's science gear during the maneuver.

The Juno team was also planning to take pictures of the Earth-moon system. The probe returned surprisingly little data during the flyby, the AP reported.

 

Copyright © 2013 TechMediaNetwork.com All rights reserved.

 

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NASA's Jupiter Bound Juno Mission Swings By Earth

Mark Carreau 2:21 AM on Oct 10, 2013

NASA's $1.1 billion Juno mission spacecraft whipped around the Earth with cameras rolling on Oct. 9, picking up new velocity with a gravity assist to complete a five-year journey to Jupiter, where the orbital probe will place the giant planet's atmosphere and structure under new scrutiny.

The pass took the four ton probe 350 miles over the southern tip of South Africa at 3:21 p.m., EDT, accelerating Juno to 87,000 miles per hour with respect to the sun.

 

"The maneuver went just fine," Scott Levin, the Juno project scientist from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said during a post flyby appearance on Slooh.com. "The spacecraft is on the way to Jupiter as expected."

 

NASA's Juno spacecraft rushes past the Earth for a gravity assist to hasten its journey to Jupiter in this artist's illustration. Photo Credit/NASA/JPL/SWRI

 

Levin, however, did not address reports of a problem that placed the spacecraft in safe mode as it encountered the Earth.

Despite the problem, ``we believe we are on track as planned to Jupiter,'' said project manager Rick Nybakken of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages the $1.1 billion mission, according to the Associated Press.

Safe mode reflects a spacecraft issue that requires intervention from ground based flight control teams. During safe mode, the spacecraft's function is restricted while ground control teams sort the issue out, then send commands returning the probe to normal operations.

Launched Aug. 5, 2011 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., Juno followed a looping trajectory through the inner solar system that provided enough energy to reach the asteroid belt.  The mission trajectory permitted the probe to be pulled back by the sun's gravity toward the Earth with a pair of spacecraft maneuvers for the significant Oct. 9 gravity assist.

Lockheed Martin Space Systems, of Denver, Colo, builder of the spacecraft, is responsible for day to day operations. The Juno mission was developed by JPL, which was permitted to provide overall mission management during the U. S. government shutdown but constrained from hosting news briefings or issuing mission statements using NASA websites. Levin spoke with Slooh.com from Denver, where he was attending an astronomy conference.

 

Juno is equipped with nine instruments to probe the big planet's atmospheric structure and whether it hosts a solid core. Findings may help explain the early phases of planet formation throughout the solar system. 

Copyright © 2013, Aviation Week, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved.

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NASA's Juno probe Gets Gravity Speed Boost during Earth Flyby But Enters 'Safe Mode'

by Ken Kremer on October 9, 2013

The first color reconstruction of the Moon from Juno's Junocam imager by Adam Hurcewicz. The moon images were collected prior to Juno's flyby of Earth on Oct. 9, 2013 and entering safe mode.

Developing story - NASA's Juno-bound Jupiter orbiter successfully blazed past Earth this afternoon (Oct. 9) and gained its huge and critical gravity assisted speed boost that's absolutely essential to reach the Jovian system in 2016.

However, Juno's project manager Rick Nybakken told me moments ago that the Juno spacecraft unexpectedly entered 'safe mode' during the fly by maneuver and the mission teams are assessing the situation.

But the very good news is "Juno is power positive at this time. And we have full command ability," said Nybakken in an exclusive phone interview with me.

"After Juno passed the period of Earth flyby closest approach at 12:21 PM PST [3:21 PM EDT] and we established communications 25 minutes later, we were in safe mode," Nybakken told me. Nybakken is the Juno mission project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, CA.

Furthermore, the Earth flyby did place the $1.1 Billion Juno spacecraft exactly on course for Jupiter as intended.

"We are on our way to Jupiter as planned!"

"None of this affected our trajectory or the gravity assist maneuver – which is what the Earth flyby is."

Juno's closest approach was over South Africa at about 500 kilometers (350 miles).

"Juno hit the target corridor within 2 km of the aim point," Nybakken elaborated to Universe Today.

Juno needs the 16,330 mph velocity boost from the Earth swingby because the Atlas V launcher was not powerful enough to hurtle the 8000 pound (3267 kg) craft fast enough on a direct path to Jupiter.

And the team is in full radio contact with the probe. Safe mode is a designated protective state.

"Prior to the eclipse, which was a few minutes earlier than closest approach, the spacecraft was 'nominal'. When we came out of the eclipse Juno was in safe mode," Nybakken stated.

"We are going through safe mode diagnostics steps right now."

"We have established full uplink and downlink. And we have full command ability of the spacecraft."

First JunoCam image of the day! Taken at 11:07 UTC when Juno was 206,000 Kilometers from the Moon.

The spacecraft's power situation and health is as good as can be expected.

"Juno is power positive at this time and sun pointed and stable. So we are very pleased about that," Nybakken explained.

I asked if Juno had ever entered 'safe mode' before?

"We have never been in safe mode before. We are in a safe, stable state."

"We are investigating this," said Nybakken.

Credit: NASA/JPL

Today's (Oct. 9) Earth flyby is the only time the spacecraft experiences an eclipse period during Juno's entire five year and 1.7 Billion mile (2.8 Billion km) trek to Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system.

When it finally arrives at Jupiter on July 4, 2016, Juno will become the first polar orbiting spacecraft at the gas giant.

NASA's Juno spacecraft blasted off atop an Atlas V rocket two years ago from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL, on Aug. 5, 2011 on a journey to discover the genesis of Jupiter hidden deep inside the planet's interior.

Juno soars skyward to Jupiter on Aug. 5, 2011 from launch pad 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 12:25 p.m. EDT. View from the VAB roof. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com

The science team had also hoped to use the on board JunoCam imager to make a cool and unprecedented movie of Earth as it approached from the sunlit side – showing the passage as though you were a visitor from outer space.

I had an inkling that something might be amiss this afternoon when no images of Earth appeared on the Juno mission website.

So I asked the status.

"We don't know yet if any images of Earth were collected. We hope to know soon."

Juno flew past the Moon before the gravity assist slingshot with Earth. And it did manage to successfully capture several lunar images. See the images herein.

Read more about Juno in my flyby preview story – here.

Note: Due to the continuing chaos resulting from the US government partial shutdown caused by gridlocked politico's in Washington DC, NASA public affairs remains shut down and is issuing no official announcements on virtually anything related to NASA! This pertains to Juno's flyby, LADEE's lunar arrival on Oct. 6, MAVEN's upcoming launch in November, Cygnus at the ISS, and more!

Stay tuned here for continuing Juno, LADEE, MAVEN and more up-to-date NASA news.

Ken Kremer

NASA's Juno Jupiter-bound space probe will fly by Earth for essential speed boost on Oct 9, 2013. Credit: NASA/JPL

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