Juno Mission

[Horus]

On Monday July 4, the NASA Juno spacecraft will end its nearly 5 year-long trip through space to Jupiter the largest planet in our Solar System. It will be interesting to see if it survives its first pass into Jupiter's radiation belt which emits something like 20,000 Rads on the radiation scale which would fry just about anything.

[newcastle]

Jupiter's magnetosphere is truly phenomenal. If we could see it, if it was luminous, Jupiter would appear in our sky to be of a similar size to the Moon!

Of course it's the magnetosphere which traps the nasty radiation. The scientists who designed Juno were well aware of he potential danger and Juno's "brain" is shielded...but some of the measuring instruments may be vulnerable. Juno's orbital trajectory has been arranged to minimise exposure.

Good luck to the mission!

[BBLUX]

Let's just hope the guidance systems were programmed correctly. It would be a shame after 5 years of travel if it failed immediately it arrived.

[Horus]

Jupiter's magnetosphere is truly phenomenal. If we could see it, if it was luminous, Jupiter would appear in our sky to be of a similar size to the Moon!

Wow! that is scary, even at that distance away
And yes good luck to the mission, hope we get some interesting stuff back.