The "Wow Factor" Optical Imaging Juno-Cam Has Lasted 7X Longer Than Expected -- In Harsh Radiation Field Plunges: Coming Up On 49th...

Well, by all accounts -- if this is its last hurrah -- it served very, very well. The camera that has provided most of the optical light images of Jupiter over the prior seven years. . . may finally be succumbing to the ravages of a radiation field about 50,000 times more intense than the one above Earth's cloud-tops. All these instruments are in a titanium bathtub for protection, but after the 47^th pass, it was noted that about 36 minutes of imagery went missing.

On the most recent 48^th pass, the camera was offline for about 23 hours, due to a temperature spike. In electronic imaging, the likely cause for such a spike would be. . . a short somewhere in its circuitry. And while there are redundant relays, we do know that intense radiation blasts will, over time, degrade even the backup circuits -- causing. . . yep, shorts.

To be clear, all of that analysis above is purely my. . . conjecture. So take it with a grain of salt. [But that lithe lil' copper clad spacecraft last tasted the oxygen of Earth on the morning of August 5, 2011 -- quite an engineering marvel, here nearly 12 years on.]

In any event, we should probably expect that it may acquire only a few images, on this record-breaking pass, due on March 1, 2023. Here's the story from NASA | JPL:

. . .[T]he issue persisted for a longer period of time (23 hours compared to 36 minutes during the December close pass), leaving the first 214 JunoCam images planned for the flyby unusable. As with the previous occurrence, once the anomaly that caused the temperature rise cleared, the camera returned to normal operation and the remaining 44 images were of good quality and usable.

The mission team is evaluating JunoCam engineering data acquired during the two recent flybys -- the 47^th and 48^th of the mission -- and is investigating the root cause of the anomaly and mitigation strategies. JunoCam will remain powered on for the time being and the camera continues to operate in its nominal state.

JunoCam is a color, visible-light camera designed to capture pictures of Jupiter’s cloud tops. It was included on the spacecraft specifically for purposes of public engagement but has proven to be important for science investigations also. The camera was originally designed to operate in Jupiter’s high-energy particle environment for at least seven orbits but has survived far longer.

The spacecraft will make its 49^th pass of Jupiter on March 1. . . .

If this is the end of those jaw-dropping images, we will be sad -- but we do have literally a thousand or more gorgeous close ups, to filter through. So that is some consolation. Smile. And, from the night it first reached a safe orbit some seven years ago, over the July 4 weekend in 2016:



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