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The Planetary Society Blogs - Emily Lakdawalla: Juno's first taste of science from Jupiter
When the US space agency's latest probe to Jupiter tries to enter into orbit around the planet on Tuesday, it will be relying on a British rocket engine.
The Juno satellite is rapidly bearing down on the gas giant after a five-year journey from Earth.
It must slow itself to get captured by the gravity of the giant world.
This all-or-nothing job will be performed by its Leros-1b engine built by Moog-ISP in Westcott, Buckinghamshire.
"The atmospheric pressure at Earth is about one bar; at the centre of Jupiter it is 80 million bar," explained mission team-member Fran Bagenal from the University of Colorado. "That's like a thousand elephants, one on top of the other, with the bottom elephant standing on a stiletto."
New unit of pressure, the Elephant/Stiletto...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-36700048
N.
Could even be The Evil Greenback's henchman...
http://danmacgregor.wikia.com/wiki/Stiletto_Mafiosa
This Fourth of July, NASA’s solar-powered Juno spacecraft will arrive at Jupiter after an almost five-year journey. News briefings, photo opportunities and other media events will be held at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, and air live on NASA Television and the agency’s website.
In the evening of July 4, Juno will perform a suspenseful orbit insertion maneuver, a 35-minute burn of its main engine, to slow the spacecraft by about 1,212 miles per hour (542 meters per second) so it can be captured into the gas giant’s orbit. Once in Jupiter’s orbit, the spacecraft will circle the Jovian world 37 times during 20 months, skimming to within 3,100 miles (5,000 kilometers) above the cloud tops. This is the first time a spacecraft will orbit the poles of Jupiter, providing new answers to ongoing mysteries about the planet’s core, composition and magnetic fields.
NASA TV Events Schedule
For all media briefings, reporters may ask questions by phone by contacting Gina Fontes at 818-354-9380 or [email protected]. All times are Eastern.
Thursday, June 16
2 p.m. -- Mission status briefing at NASA Headquarters in Washington
Thursday, June 30
1 p.m. -- Mission overview news briefing at JPL
2 p.m. -- Mission outreach briefing at JPL
Monday, July 4 – Orbit Insertion Day
Noon -- Pre-orbit insertion briefing at JPL
10:30 p.m. -- Orbit insertion and NASA TV commentary begin
Tuesday, July 5
1 a.m. -- Post-orbit insertion briefing at JPL
To watch all of these events online, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv
http://www.ustream.tv/nasa
http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2
I think the burn you see in the animations is off, it may be based on Juno's original Jupiter orbit plan.
Engine shutdown! Mission control confirms Juno's main engine has turned off right on time.
Actually they reported a 1 second difference between the predicted and actual burn times...