Technological feat in exploring Jupiter

Yet again the technology and Science news recently have been focusing on Juno the spacecraft which has been circling the biggest and most mysterious planet in our solar system, Jupiter.  I was astounded by the complexity of what went into Juno spacecraft, the myriads of electronics and computer systems that enabled such impossible and extremely daring mission to venture so far into space, over half a billion kilometers from our home Earth.  This Juno spacecraft has become the most advanced technological marvel ever created by humankind, a fully independent robot with the ability to make decisions on how to handle conditions so foreign and alien to what we know and got accustomed to here in Earth, yet be able to communicate back to Earth for any special instructions and report back on the wonders of Jupiter.  It took five years to plan and build Juno spacecraft, and then another five years of flying to reach Jupiter, this is really a historical achievement.

The most dangerous aspect of Jupiter’s environment which poses the biggest risk on Juno spacecraft is the strong unyielding radiation emitted by the planet.  Jupiter has the strongest radiation in all the planets in our systems.  In comparison, Jupiter generates radiation 60 million times the amount generated by Earth, a very harsh environment for any electronics or equipment to survive.  Hence, a special vault was built with titanium weighing 180 kilograms to protect all the electronics from being burnt by this monstrosity of radiation.  The vault has been also designed to withstand high temperatures and harsh thermal conditions resulting from the radiation along with extreme cold since it is so far away from the Sun, an opposite set of forces yet very likely to be experienced both in deep space.

The communication with Juno spacecraft had to be engineered using NASA’s Deep Space Network Stations to be able to receive all the data sent.  This network is composed of series of huge radio antennas located around the globe on every major continent in order to be able to receive the signals regardless of the Earth’s rotational position.  It takes around 4 hours for the signal to reach earth, and many hours more to process the data and know what is going on there, and this can take days to develop the magnificent pictures taken of Jupiter.

And for the power source, Juno spacecraft uses three solar panels positioned in a symmetrical fashion around the core spacecraft.  Even though Juno spacecraft receives 25 times less sun power while near Jupiter compared to Earth, the solar panels used by Juno spacecraft are 50% more efficient and resistant to radiation, and they store electrical power in lithium-ion batteries for use when the spacecraft is not in direct contact with the sun.  Such improvement in solar power will undoubtedly change the economic feasibility of using sun as renewable source of energy on Earth.

When it comes to costs, some might be shocked to learn that Juno spacecraft has cost 1.1 billion US dollar to build.  However, this figure has to be compared with other information to make sense of it.  Two decades back, Galileo spacecraft (which was sent to Jupiter and other planets) cost 1.6 billion US dollar, and it did not have the data gathering and analysis capability of Juno spacecraft, as Juno is considered to be a laboratory able to conduct scientific analysis on the spot.  This is an evidence that building such spacecraft is getting more economic and more efficient.

With all the advanced technologies specially created for Juno spacecraft, it is without doubt that with time such technologies will be used here in Earth, on the everyday devices and equipment normal people use.  This is how the development and inventions on Earth in part happened, learning from space and how to venture into it.  The previous never-known-before information of Jupiter will shed lights into how our solar system was created, how the Earth got its water and how Jupiter has become what it is.  Such questions are mind boggling and mankind will be enlightened a bit more when they are answered.