Processing on NASA’s Juno spacecraft proceeds with the spacecraft getting placed directly into its payload fairing last July 18, 2011. The payload fairing functions as a protective cocoon which will shield Juno from the elements throughout the first 205 seconds of the spacecraft’s ascent to orbit. The encapsulation procedure is anticipated to take about 4 days.
Last Friday, July 15, the Juno group utilized a procedure referred to as gamma-ray radiography to examine solder connections leading to a heater element aboard one of Juno’s two magnetometers. The final results of the inspection suggested there was an ample amount of solder connecting wire leads to the heater, allowing it to function successfully throughout its mission.
The Juno spacecraft carries two redundant Flux Gate Magnetometer instruments which will measure Jupiter’s powerful magnetic environment. Lab testing of heaters comparable to ones on Juno, developed to help keep the Flux Gate Magnetometer instruments warm in space, had indicated a small possibility that wire connections may possibly not run as anticipated. As a precaution, NASA as well as Juno mission personnel had made the decision to examine the Juno heater elements and, if needed, fix solder joints connecting the heaters’ electrical wires to their mounting surfaces to make certain mission good results.
“This test gave us confidence that our magnetometer will work as advertised in just about the harshest environment you could find in the solar system,” stated Scott Bolton, Juno’s principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio.
The launch period for Juno opens Aug. 5 and extends through Aug. 26. For an Aug. 5 liftoff, the launch window opens at 8:34 a.m. PDT (11:34 am EDT) and continues to be open through 9:43 a.m. PDT (12:43 p.m. EDT).
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., deals with the Juno mission for the principal investigator, Scott Bolton, of Southwest Research Institute at San Antonio, Texas. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, is developing the spacecraft. The Italian Space Agency in Rome is contributing an infrared spectrometer device along with a portion of the radio science experiment. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
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