NASA's Juno Blasts Off To Investigate Jupiter

coondoggie writes "NASA shot its 4-ton Juno spacecraft into the cosmos today with the ultimate goal of learning everything we can about the largest planet in our solar system, Jupiter. Juno, once described as a flying armored tank, will take five years to reach its destination, slated to arrive at Jupiter in August 2016." NASA has an explanation of the steps involved in getting Juno through the launch, and an animated film explaining the mission. The mission website has streaming video of Juno's progress, and NASA's press kit explains the goals and the spacecraft in detail (PDF).

A pedant writes

[00_NOP]

If it wasn't in the cosmos until today, where was it?

Re:

[Bob the Super Hamste]

As long as we are complaining about semantics, what size of cannot did they use to shoot it?

One small step for man...

[hedgemage]

One giant leap for LEGOkind.
http://idle.slashdot.org/story/11/08/04/1420201/NASA-Sends-Lego-Figures-to-Jupiter [slashdot.org]

Re:

[camperdave]

There were Lego pieces sent to Mars as well; aboard the MER rovers Spirit, and Opportunity. They have been on shuttle launches, and aboard the ISS. Lego has a long history of going into space.

Re:

[SnarfQuest]

Since we no longer have any way to get people into space, this is the only way they can claim anything like manned space flight. Even if the new "men" are "action figures" (don't call them dolls). These "action figures" will soon gain enough "rights", that they will be able to lay claim on any planets they land on.

Re:

[John Bresnahan]

When I was a kid, I had a G. I. Joe "action figure" with a Mercury capsule and a space suit. It seems that he would be ready to go right now!

Although, considering what that toy is worth today, I would never consider blasting it into space.

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

This is a good mission

[JoshuaZ]

This is the first major mission to Jupiter since Galileo which was launched in 1989. Unlike Galileo this won't be focusing on the moons as much (which is sort of too bad since they are some of the most interesting things about Jupiter since they might harbor life.) Also, as TFA discusses, this has a lot of stuff to help deal with the high radiation which hasn't been used before. Seeing how exactly that technology works will help out a lot with future probes to high radiation or high magnetic field environments. One other nice thing about this is that we might get more information about the core which is currently hypothesized to be metalic hydrogen because the hydrogen is just under such high pressure that it becomes a solid, and that's freaking awesome.

Re:This is a good mission

[Hatta]

Juno a lot about this mission.

Re:

[Brett Buck]

Also, as TFA discusses, this has a lot of stuff to help deal with the high radiation which hasn't been used before. Seeing how exactly that technology works will help out a lot with future probes to high radiation or high magnetic field environments.

We already know that, we have been launching rad-hard spacecraft for 3 decades now. They used a good approach - brute force shielding. That allows them to use relatively weak but high-performance parts (and presumably, less expensive parts). Titan

Re:

[MightyMartian]

Anonymous Coward gets lost in own navel!

Godspeed!

[arcite]

Truly amazing that we, the only sentient life-forms we know of in the known universe, can conquer the nearly insurmountable forces and vastness of space, to discover the unknown. Restores my faith in humanity just a little bit!

Juno objects.

[rpresser]

I'm sure the ancient Roman goddess of the heavens just loves being called a flying armored tank.

Re:

[cyberchondriac]

I'm sure the ancient Roman goddess of the heavens just loves being called a flying armored tank.

-and probably the first time Juno has probed the depths of Jupiter, not the other way around..

Re:

[xevioso]

Zing! He'll be appearing here till Sunday, folks; be sure to try the steak!

The Juno web site at SWRI is terrible

[cruff]

It seems to be only (or mostly) Flash based crap.

Re:

[Zorpheus]

It is cheaper that way, since a smaller rocket can be used when launching the probe at a slower speed. Also the Voyagers weighted only 722kg, while Juno weighs 3625kg. The higher mass decreases the speed, unless a much larger rocket is used.

Re:

[jadrian]

Still, the way you put it, doesn't sound like a technological or engineering challenge, but mere budget. So I have to wonder how much costs would have to increase to get there in 1/4 of the time.

Re:

[Convector]

The Pioneers and Voyagers didn't have to stop. Juno's going into orbit, and that's easier if it's not zipping along at breakneck speed. Going into orbit is always much more difficult than flying by.

Re:

[VanessaE]

The Voyager probes only had to go about half way around the solar system before reaching Jupiter, and they basically traveled directly to each of the planets they visited. Voyager 1 went off into the void after its Jupiter flyby, while Voyager 2 used Jupiter and Saturn to slingshot itself toward Uranus and Neptune before leaving the solar system. In both cases, they were programmed to achieve solar escape velocity by the time their flybys were done, using however much fuel was necessary for the job.

In con

Oh great

[elrous0]

Juno, once described as a flying armored tank,

I just hope it doesn't crash-land back on earth. Steve Austin is getting way too old to fight shit like this.