New Delhi:
Juno has successfully completed another milestone and has entered into the second phase of the orbit. After reaching to the farthest point into Jupiter’s orbit, spacecraft is now falling back.
Moreover, NASA scientists have switched off all the equipment which will be reactivated once the Juno makes its entry into the largest planet of our solar system. It will freely fall towards Jupiter.
This spacecraft was launched by NASA on 5 August 2011, it reached Jupiter’s surface after almost 5 years that will be completed on July 4.
Scott Bolton, Juno’s Principal Investigator at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, said “For five years we have been focussed on getting to Jupiter. Now we are there, and we are concentrating on beginning dozens of flybys of Jupiter to get the science we are after”.
The mission is set in such a way that the spacecraft has to complete its one round around the planet by 27th of August at 2,600 miles above the planet.
The spacecraft’s science instruments were turned off during orbit insertion to simplify spacecraft operations during the flawless manoeuvre that allowed Jupiter’s gravity to capture Juno into orbit. “We’re in an excellent state of health, with the spacecraft and all the instruments fully checked out and ready for our first up-close look at Jupiter,” said Rick Nybakken, Juno project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.
The “get the science” mission starts today, the science instruments will start working and will collect all the parameters of the giant planet. The information collected by it will help the scientists of NASA to know the planet better.
