Juno, On 47th Dip Near Jupiter, Took A Shot Of Radiation And Lost Comms; Had To Reboot, But Now Delivering All Data Again, Normally.

As longer term readers well-know, we've covered this wildly successful in situ mission for almost six full years now, and over eleven and a half, since liftoff from Earth. The copper clad lithe and long legged craft is now veering out, away into the dark -- after her 47^th close encounter. Amazing!

But being anywhere very near Jupiter, on these close dips, is to dive into an inferno of radioactivity -- driven by the magnetosphere of Jupiter -- over 1,000 times more powerful than that found surrounding Earth (this is due both to its vast size, and extremely fast rate of rotation around its axis).

So -- the mission team knew, even with all critical instruments loaded into titanium buckets for shielding, and many redundant systems, there could be degradation later in the mission. That is likely what the team just saw, on December 17, when Juno dropped data, and had to be rebooted in safe mode. But all is once again performing 5 by 5, tonight -- thus:

. . .[A]s the solar-powered orbiter was sending its science data to mission controllers from its onboard computer, the downlink was disrupted.

The issue -- an inability to directly access the spacecraft memory storing the science data collected during the flyby -- was most likely caused by a radiation spike as Juno flew through a radiation-intensive portion of Jupiter’s magnetosphere. Mission controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and its mission partners successfully rebooted the computer and, on Dec. 17, put the spacecraft into safe mode, a precautionary status in which only essential systems operate.

As of Dec. 22, steps to recover the flyby data yielded positive results, and the team is now downlinking the science data. There is no indication that the science data through the time of closest approach to Jupiter, or from the spacecraft’s flyby of Jupiter’s moon Io, was adversely affected. The remainder of the science data collected during the flyby is expected to be sent down to Earth over the next week, and the health of the data will be verified at that time. The spacecraft is expected to exit safe mode in about a week’s time. Juno’s next flyby of Jupiter will be on Jan. 22, 2023. . . .

Now you know -- and here at almost 10 pm local, it is time for a Sky Harbor airport pickup! Woot!

नमस्ते