NASA Juno Probe ‘Jumps’ Jupiter’s Shadow To Avoid Freezing To Death

The Juno spacecraft NASA launched to explore Jupiter recently completed a special maneuver so it can avoid the giant planet’s shadow. If the spacecraft ended up passing through Jupiter’s shadow, it would have most likely died.

Juno is currently preparing to fly close to Jupiter on Nov. 3. In preparation for the spacecraft’s voyage, NASA decided to execute a propulsive maneuver using Juno’s reaction-control thrusters.

The move increased Juno’s orbital velocity to 126 miles per hour. The entire maneuver lasted for 10.5 hours and consumed about 160 pounds of the spacecraft’s fuel. Although it may sound a bit excessive, the maneuver was a necessary operation to ensure that Juno’s mission carries on.

According to NASA, if the maneuver wasn’t executed, the spacecraft would end up cruising through Jupiter’s shadow for a total of 12 hours. Since the spacecraft is solar-powered, the lack of sunlight would deplete its batteries. Once this happens, Juno will not be able to keep its temperature from dropping. If it freezes, NASA may not be able to wake it up again even if it’s no longer in the planet’s shadow.

Fortunately for Juno and NASA, the additional boost worked, which means the spacecraft will completely miss the shadow as it approaches Jupiter.

“With the success of this burn, we are on track to jump the shadow on Nov. 3,” the head investigator for Juno at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio said in a statement.

“Jumping over the shadow was an amazing creative solution to what seemed like a fatal geometry,” he added. “Eclipses are generally not friends of solar-powered spacecraft. Now instead of worrying about freezing to death, I am looking forward to the next science discovery that Jupiter has in store for Juno.”

Ed Hirst of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the project manager for Juno praised the team behind the spacecraft for coming up with the maneuver to save the mission. If it wasn’t carried out, the spacecraft, which has been observing Jupiter since 2016, would have most likely died in space.

“Pre-launch mission planning did not anticipate a lengthy eclipse that would plunge our solar-powered spacecraft into darkness,” he said. “That we could plan and execute the necessary maneuver while operating in Jupiter’s orbit is a testament to the ingenuity and skill of our team, along with the extraordinary capability and versatility of our spacecraft.”