We May Be Near End Of Life, For One Of Juno’s Four Cameras

Tomorrow, SWRI, JPL and NASA will begin receiving images from about 930 miles over Io's volcanic, squeezed and stretched surface, from Juno's cameras (all as we earlier reported).

But after 56 trips in close passes over the blistering radiation of Jupiter itself, one of the cams is showing degraded imaging processing capabilities, as well as some blank spot / striping. Indeed, this cam was only designed to function through eight passes, so it has exceeded design limits by a seven fold factor. Even so, now we may soon be down to three cams.

It is still a great triumph for space science -- and more of NASA's "dare mighty things" mantra in action. So, here is that bit:

. . .JunoCam was included on the spacecraft for the public’s engagement and was designed to operate for up to eight flybys of Jupiter. The upcoming flyby of Io will be Juno’s 57th orbit around Jupiter, where the spacecraft and cameras have endured one of the solar system’s most punishing radiation environments.

“The cumulative effects of all that radiation has begun to show on JunoCam over the last few orbits,” said Ed Hirst, project manager of Juno at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “Pictures from the last flyby show a reduction in the imager’s dynamic range and the appearance of ‘striping’ noise. Our engineering team has been working on solutions to alleviate the radiation damage and to keep the imager going. . . .”

Now you know -- and like Juno, I dare all of you to close your year out. . . in a gracefully elegant but meaningful style! Onward!

नमस्ते