New video makes NASA's next Jupiter mission look like a blockbuster
A spacecraft speeding toward Jupiter for a mission that will ultimately end in a fiery plunge into the giant planet now has a dramatic trailer to match.
NASA's Juno spacecraft, which launched to space in 2011, will make it to Jupiter on July 4, flying within 2,900 miles of the tops of the largest planet in the solar system's clouds, according to the space agency.
"At this time last year our New Horizons spacecraft was closing in for humanity’s first close views of Pluto,” Diane Brown, Juno program executive at NASA said in a statement. “Now, Juno is poised to go closer to Jupiter than any spacecraft ever before to unlock the mysteries of what lies within.”
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Juno is designed to stare deeply at Jupiter, figuring out exactly what's going on in the huge planet's thick atmosphere and even investigate its structure, auroras and magnetosphere, NASA said.
The new trailer walks space fans through what will be Juno's intense attempt at getting into orbit around Jupiter.
The radiation environment surrounding the huge planet would fry the circuitry inside any average spacecraft in orbit around Jupiter, but Juno has a special orbit and some helpful technology -- including a "titanium vault" designed to protect its flight computer -- that will hopefully keep it functioning for the 20 months of its mission.
"Over the life of the mission, Juno will be exposed to the equivalent of over 100 million dental X-rays," Rick Nybakken, Juno's project manager, said in the statement.
"But, we are ready. We designed an orbit around Jupiter that minimizes exposure to Jupiter’s harsh radiation environment. This orbit allows us to survive long enough to obtain the tantalizing science data that we have traveled so far to get.”
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Miriam Kramer worked as a staff writer for Space.com for about 2.5 years before joining Mashable to cover all things outer space. She took a ride in weightlessness on a zero-gravity flight and watched rockets launch to space from places around the United States. Miriam received her Master's degree in science, health and environmental reporting from New York University in 2012, and she originally hails from Knoxville, Tennessee. Follow Miriam on Twitter at @mirikramer.
