A look inside the Juno Mission to Jupiter

Juno, the second mission within the New Frontiers Program, is a Jupiter polar orbiter mission designed to return high-priority science data that spans across multiple divisions within NASA´s Science Mission Directorate. Juno´s science objectives, coupled with the natural constraints of a cost-capped, PI-led mission and the harsh environment of Jupiter, have led to a very unique mission and spacecraft design. The mission and spacecraft design accommodates the required payload suite of instruments in a way that maximizes science data collection and return, maintains a simplified orbital operations approach, and meets the many challenges associated with operating a spin-stabilized, solar-powered spacecraft in Jupiter´s high radiation and magnetic environment. The project´s efforts during the preliminary design phase have resulted in an integrated design and operations approach that meets all science objectives, retains significant technical, schedule and cost margins, and has retired key risks and challenges. As a result, Juno has been authorized to proceed with the detailed design phase and work toward an August 2011 launch.