The Juno spacecraft reaches Jupiter – El Colombiano

At 10:53 pm the Juno spacecraft, which has been traveling almost five years through space, will be inserted into orbit around the planet on which it will develop its mission of 20 months:. Jupiter

Yes, the giant gaseous planet today to 869 million kilometers from us (150 million kilometers further than the time of release of the ship), that was the first that had formed near the Sun in the solar system and then migrated to their current position.

a giant 11 times bigger and 300 times more massive than Earth composed mostly of hydrogen and helium and perhaps for some, a failed star.

that will be the objective of Juno, the spacecraft the size of a basketball court ( about 15 meters wide by 28 long) that will beat one of the many new brands of its mission to approach only 4,667 kilometers of the upper clouds called Jovian planet.

approaching such a distance is not any little thing. Not in the case of Jupiter. For Juno find the data that persecutes have to approach and be in trouble, according to Scott Bolton , principal investigator of Juno in Soutwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas.

heavy Environment

the problems come from inside the planet. Under the clouds of ammonia and hydrogen sulfide is a layer of hydrogen at such a pressure that is liquid, metallic, and it is an electrical conductor, which added to the rapid rotation (his day is only 10 hours) generates a magnetic field surrounding the planet with ions, electrons, protons at nearly the speed of light, enough to destroy almost everything that comes close. Most radiation in the solar system.

“During the mission, Juno will be exposed to the equivalent of 100 million dental X-rays” in the words of Rick Nybakken , project manager at the jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of NASA in Pasadena.

a giant bombardment for a ship that will take 37 approaches (one every 14 days) and a distance of 560 million kilometers in the year and means surpass the mark set by Pioneer 11 in 1974, which came to 43,000 kilometers, radiation gradually pass your note receivable from the ship.

the orbit

to overcome the difficulties, navigational equipment devised an oval orbit. In each path it will approach from the north pole and quickly fall to a height under the radiation belt on its way south to the move away from the planet and its powerful magnetic field pole. Each close flyby will last for an Earth day

Juno is equipped to overcome the difficulties and reduce them. Bears a kind of safe titanium inside which is the main computer and the heart of several of its instruments. With a weight of 172 kilos, 800 times the breastplate reduce exposure to radiation. Without it, he would not survive the first flyby.

Despite the protection, radiation will do its job and that the mission will last only 20 months. “During his higher energy electrons penetrate the safe creating a shower of protons and other particles. This constant bombardment will cracking the atomic bonds in electronic devices, “he said Heidi Becker , head of the research group on radiation.

For what?

A journey of 2,800 million km route to the insertion now in orbit, counting outshone Earth to gain momentum, reaching speeds of 75 kilometers per second, has a large justification.

the goal is to improve understanding of how they formed and evolved Jupiter, for which investigate the interior in detail, as never before has been achieved, the deep atmosphere and the magnetosphere.

If you find a solid core, with heavy elements such as those formed Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars, or everything is gas.

you find out how much water it contains, therefore oxygen, and what the dynamics of the atmosphere and some features like the great red spot.

Turning Point

Today the ship will enter orbit. Last week unnecessary maneuver instruments were turned off to avoid interfering. A bad order at the time of ignition of the engines or restart the computer would spoil the mission.

An operation of high precision for a ship whose commands from Earth takes 48 minutes and 19 seconds. Maneuver started four days ago and that at time zero light engines for 35 minutes to go accommodating and be captured in an initial orbit of 53.5 days. Ignition in which spent nearly 800 of the 1,232 kilos of fuel holder (hydrazine and oxidizer).

The planet is pulling the ship to the point that reach speeds in excess of 250,000 kilometers per hour, demanding high wear braking.

There will be no pictures at that time. The camera will resume past work tomorrow.

So, the first spacecraft with solar energy through its panels of 60 square meters, that which left Earth on August 5, 2011 with an initial weight of 3,625 kilos to aboard an Atlas rocket, will reach the goal and will start 20 months of feverish activity, literally, until in February 2018 is directed to die crushed by the pressure of the largest planet in our solar system.