All Hail Juno, Our Record-Breaking Solar-Powered missary to Jupiter

Juno broke the interplanetary distance record for solar - powered space vehicle on Wednesday dayspring . The Jupiter explorer is close to half a billion miles from the Sun , setting a new monetary standard for using solar power for cryptical blank geographic expedition .

The spacecraft cut through the record - breaking 493 million miles from the Sun at 2 pm ET on Wednesday . This is the farthest any solar - powered explorer has guess into deep space , which is usually occupied entirely by robot running on radioisotope thermoelectric generators ( RTGs ) . The former record - bearer is the European Space Agency ’s still - officiate Rosetta spacecraft when it first wiretap comet 67P / Churyumov - Gerasimenko in October 2012 . Before that , no solar powered workmanship had even made it past the asteroid belts .

Now Juno is going to keep push the record further , out to Jupiter . Once it reaches the flatulency monster , the explorer will be do as a substantiation of concept for a newfangled , more effective solar might system of rules . At up to 517 million miles from the Sun , the spacecraft is bask in only 1/25th of the sunshine we receive on Earth . But what the panel get , they use well — Juno has a 28 percent conversion rate turning sunlight into powerfulness .

Starship Test 9

Juno ’s solar power arrays are so bounteous , they were nearly too heavy to set in motion in 2011 . The spacecraft has three 30 - foot - longsighted solar array with 18,698 single solar cells . While they ’ll only generate 500 watts of tycoon out by Jupiter , they ’re freehanded enough that they ’d engender 14 kilowatts here on Earth .

Yet they ’re just barely enough to keep the ballistic capsule full in operation at distant Jupiter . If we require to utilise solar baron to search planets even further away , we ’re go to need dear technology to make more efficient , light panel that can be even declamatory , pair with more powerful rockets .

Why pack a trial impression - of - concept solar power system onto an combat-ready solar arrangement explorer ? Juno ’s principal investigator , Scott Bolton of the Southwest Research Institute , thinks it fits the theme :

Lilo And Stitch 2025

Juno is all about pushing the edge of technology to help us learn about our origin . We use every known technique to see through Jupiter ’s cloud and bring out the secrets Jupiter holds of our solar system ’s early story . It just seems proper that the Lord’s Day is helping us study about the origin of Jupiter and the other planet that orbit it .

Juno made a close flyby of Earth last year , and will be arriving at Jupiter on July 4 2016 . During its 16 calendar month of principal science performance , it will be skimming to within 3,100 miles of the Jovian clouds every two week . The objective is to learn more about how the natural gas giant formed , its structure , atmosphere , and magnetosphere .

[ NASA ]

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