MADRID, 30 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The JunoCam on NASA’s Juno spacecraft failed to capture most of the images expected during the last flyby of Jupiter on January 22.
Data received from the spacecraft indicates that the camera experienced a problem similar to the one that occurred on its previous close pass of the gas giant last month, when the team observed a abnormal rise in temperature after turning on the camera to prepare for the flyby.
However, on this new occasion, the problem persisted for a longer time (23 hours compared to 36 minutes for the close pass in December), leaving the first 214 JunoCam images scheduled for the flyby unusable. As in the previous case, once the anomaly that caused the temperature increase disappeared, the camera returned to normal operation and the remaining 44 images were of good quality and usable.
The mission team is evaluating the JunoCam engineering data acquired during the last two flybys – the 47th and 48th of the mission – and is investigating the root cause of the anomaly and mitigation strategies. JunoCam will remain on for the time being and the camera continues to function in its nominal state, NASA reports in a statement.
JunoCam is a visible-light color camera designed to capture images of Jupiter’s cloud tops. It was included on the spacecraft specifically for public engagement purposes, but has proven important for scientific investigations as well. The camera was originally designed to operate in Jupiter’s high-energy particle environment for at least seven orbits, but it has survived much longer.
The spacecraft will make its 49th pass by Jupiter on March 1.