Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. 24/7 Space News .




EARTH OBSERVATION
Juno Gives Starship-Like View Of Earth Flyby
by Staff Writers
Pasadena CA (JPL) Dec 11, 2013


This cosmic pirouette of Earth and our moon was captured by the Juno spacecraft as it flew by Earth on Oct. 9, 2013. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech. View the animation here.

When NASA's Juno spacecraft flew past Earth on Oct. 9, 2013, it received a boost in speed of more than 8,800 mph (about 7.3 kilometer per second), which set it on course for a July 4, 2016, rendezvous with Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system.

One of Juno's sensors, a special kind of camera optimized to track faint stars, also had a unique view of the Earth-moon system. The result was an intriguing, low-resolution glimpse of what our world would look like to a visitor from afar.

"If Captain Kirk of the USS Enterprise said, 'Take us home, Scotty,' this is what the crew would see," said Scott Bolton, Juno principal investigator at the Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio.

"In the movie, you ride aboard Juno as it approaches Earth and then soars off into the blackness of space. No previous view of our world has ever captured the heavenly waltz of Earth and moon."

The cameras that took the images for the movie are located near the pointed tip of one of the spacecraft's three solar-array arms. They are part of Juno's Magnetic Field Investigation (MAG) and are normally used to determine the orientation of the magnetic sensors.

These cameras look away from the sunlit side of the solar array, so as the spacecraft approached, the system's four cameras pointed toward Earth. Earth and the moon came into view when Juno was about 600,000 miles (966,000 kilometers) away -- about three times the Earth-moon separation.

During the flyby, timing was everything. Juno was traveling about twice as fast as a typical satellite, and the spacecraft itself was spinning at 2 rpm.

To assemble a movie that wouldn't make viewers dizzy, the star tracker had to capture a frame each time the camera was facing Earth at exactly the right instant. The frames were sent to Earth, where they were processed into video format.

"Everything we humans are and everything we do is represented in that view," said the star tracker's designer, John Jorgensen of the Danish Technical University, near Copenhagen.

Also during the flyby, Juno's Waves instrument, which is tasked with measuring radio and plasma waves in Jupiter's magnetosphere, recorded amateur radio signals.

This was part of a public outreach effort involving ham radio operators from around the world. They were invited to say "HI" to Juno by coordinating radio transmissions that carried the same Morse-coded message.

Operators from every continent, including Antarctica, participated. The results can be seen in this video clip here. A four-minute video depicting the efforts of a few of the amateur radio operators who participated in the event can be seen here.

"With the Earth flyby completed, Juno is now on course for arrival at Jupiter on July 4, 2016," said Rick Nybakken, Juno project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

The Juno spacecraft was launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on August 5, 2011. Juno's launch vehicle was capable of giving the spacecraft only enough energy to reach the asteroid belt, at which point the sun's gravity pulled it back toward the inner solar system.

Mission planners designed the swing by Earth as a gravity assist to increase the spacecraft's speed relative to the sun, so that it could reach Jupiter. (The spacecraft's speed relative to Earth before and after the flyby is unchanged.)

After Juno arrives and enters into orbit around Jupiter in 2016, the spacecraft will circle the planet 33 times, from pole to pole, and use its collection of science instruments to probe beneath the gas giant's obscuring cloud cover. Scientists will learn about Jupiter's origins, internal structure, atmosphere and magnetosphere.

Juno's name comes from Greek and Roman mythology. The god Jupiter drew a veil of clouds around himself to hide his mischief from his wife, but the goddess Juno used her special powers to peer through the clouds and reveal Jupiter's true nature.

The Juno Earth flyby movie is available here. The music accompaniment is an original score by Vangelis.

.


Related Links
Juno at NASA
Juno at SWRI
Earth Observation News - Suppiliers, Technology and Application






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle








EARTH OBSERVATION
China-Brazil satellite fails to enter orbit
Beijing (AFP) Dec 09, 2013
A joint Chinese-Brazilian environmental monitoring satellite launched Monday from northern China failed to enter orbit, state media and experts said, in a rare setback for the country's ambitious space programme. The satellite, meant to be a key tool in Brazil's efforts to control Amazon rainforest deforestation and to monitor its huge agribusiness sector, blasted off from Taiyuan Satellite ... read more


EARTH OBSERVATION
Silent Orbit for China's Moon Lander

China's most moon-like place

LADEE Instruments Healthy and Ready for Science

China launches first moon rover mission

EARTH OBSERVATION
Bid to colonize Mars wins high-profile backing

MRO Reveals A More Dynamic Red Planet

Mars One spaceflight project 'can succeed'

Opportunity ascending Solander Point at rim of Endeavour Crater

EARTH OBSERVATION
Heat Shield for NASA's Orion Spacecraft Arrives at Kennedy Space Center

Space exploration can drive the next agricultural revolution

Global patent growth hits 18-year high

Facebook joins NYU in artificial intelligence lab

EARTH OBSERVATION
China moon rover enters lunar orbit: Xinhua

Turkey keen on space cooperation with China

China space launch debris wrecks villagers' homes: report

Designer: moon rover uses cutting-edge technology

EARTH OBSERVATION
New crew to run space station in March

Russian android may take on outer space operations at ISS

Repurposing ISS Trash for Power and Water

Russian spacecraft with advanced navigation system docks with ISS

EARTH OBSERVATION
Kazakhstan to end Proton missions in 2025

Russian Proton-M rocket launches Inmarsat-5F1 satellite

Basic build-up is being completed for Arianespace's Soyuz to launch Gaia

Third time a charm: SpaceX launches commercial satellite

EARTH OBSERVATION
Astronomers discover planet that shouldn't be there

Hot Jupiters Highlight Challenges in the Search for Life Beyond Earth

Astronomers find strange planet orbiting where there shouldn't be one

Hubble Traces Subtle Signals of Water on Hazy Worlds

EARTH OBSERVATION
Google opens first data centres in Asia

Berkeley Lab Researchers Create a Nonlinear Light-generating Zero-Index MetaMaterial

First Boeing-built Inmarsat-5 Global Xpress Satellite Sends Initial On-Orbit Signals

New setback for Canadian gold mine plan




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement