Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Juno Gears Up For Jovian Radiation


The spacecraft Juno, which will blast off for Jupiter in August of next year, has just gotten a slick new Titanium suit.

Juno needs the Titanium armor because Jupiter has an enormously powerful radiation belt that will fry most anything that comes along. Previous missions to Jupiter have had to be careful to avoid the radiation belt so as not to destroy sensitive onboard equipment, but as Juno's mission is partly designed to learn more about the magnetosphere, the radiation will be unavoidable.

Juno is part of the New Frontiers program, a series of medium-cost science missions. The New Horizons spacecraft, which will rendezvous with Pluto in 2015, is the first New Frontiers mission.

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