Tuesday, December 31, 2013

The Junocam camera in the Juno Observatory


 I refer to:
http://www.msss.com/all_projects/junocam.php

"...Junocam will acquire 3-color (red, green, blue) images of Jupiter during Juno’s first seven orbits around the giant planet. The data will be processed and studied by students as part of the Juno Education and Public Outreach effort.

 Junocam will support the Juno Mission’s Education and Public Outreach program. The camera, derived from the MSL MARDI instrument, is designed to acquire red-, green- and blue-wavelength images of Jupiter’s polar regions and lower-latitude cloud tops during Juno’s first seven orbits around the planet. These images, of approximately 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) per pixel resolution, will be used by students to create the first color images of the jovian poles, as well as high resolution views of lower-latitude cloud belts. After the required, seven orbit design life, Junocam will continue to operate as long as possible in the harsh jovian radiation environment.

The Juno mission to Jupiter is a project led by Principal Investigator Scott Bolton of the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), San Antonio, Texas. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, is managing the project, and Lockheed Martin Space Systems of Denver, Colorado, is building the spacecraft..."

Image of South America taken by Junocam as Juno flew by the Earth on October 9 2013 below

 The Earth and the Moon below
 I refer to:
http://www.earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=82713

"...In October 2013, NASA’s Juno spacecraft flew past the Earth to steal some energy for a ride to Jupiter. Along the way, it also stole some glimpses of home.

To reach the outer planets in our solar system, mission planners usually chart a path that sends a spacecraft toward other small planets or the asteroid belt before falling back toward Earth by gravity. The technique allows the spacecraft to use natural gravity and momentum to increase its speed relative to the Sun and slingshot toward the outer solar system. In the case of Juno, the spacecraft received a boost in speed of more than 3.9 kilometers per second (8,800 miles per hour)......The composite view of the Earth and Moon was captured by low-resolution cameras that were designed to track faint stars and orient spacecraft sensors. The cameras are located near the tip of one of Juno’s solar-array arms and are part of the spacecraft’s Magnetic Field Investigation. Earth and the Moon came into view when Juno was about 966,000 kilometers (600,000 miles) away. Note how the Moon’s position relative to Earth changes because the Moon was moving and the spacecraft was approaching both....Juno was launched from Kennedy Space Center on August 5, 2011. It is scheduled to arrive at Jupiter on July 4, 2016."