NASA is ready for missions at March and Jupiter a little more time to proceed with their investigations, though there is no guarantee that they will complete their extensive missions.
The Juno orbital mission at Jupiter will be extended four years and the Insight landing mission on Mars two based on each mission’s ‘exceptional science’, according to an independent NASA review panel quoted in a press release.
But there will be challenges associated with the mission expansions.
In photos: Juno’s amazing view of Jupiter
InSight’s power margins are likely to reach low levels during the proposed EM critique [extended mission], ” noticed the review paneland added that the spacecraft would likely have to implement power-saving measures to keep the mission running in late July 2021. Even given the measures, if dust accumulates outside a certain threshold, the lander’s solar panels may not draw enough power to continue the mission until the end of its expansion, in December 2022.
Similarly, there is no guarantee that Juno will continue its work in 2025 due to the intense radiation environment in which the spacecraft operates. That said, the review panel noted that Juno has sound instruments and power margins, making it possible to work beyond what its main mission was. Additional observations will contribute to the planning of the upcoming Europa Clipper mission to look at an icy moon of Jupiter, the panel noted.
New planetary science missions first come with a primary mission to their destination because they get a basic scientific mandate, timeline and budget. Every three years thereafter, NASA’s Division of Planetary Science must request a review to justify an extended mission. The proposals will be sent to panels of independent experts with backgrounds in science, operations and mission management, wrote Lori Glaze, director of planetary science, NASA. response to this year’s process in a letter dated Friday (January 8).
Conference presentations, journal publications, and other measures of scientific output are considered to evaluate the value of continuing a mission’s work, as well as practical aspects such as the available budget and the health of the spacecraft.
NASA has noted the value of allowing planetary missions to continue their work, as the costs of mission development, instrument building and launch of spacecraft have already been paid.
“Expanded missions take advantage of NASA’s large investments, enabling continued scientific activities at a cost much lower than developing a new mission,” NASA said. said in the press release. “In some cases, the extensions allow missions to acquire valuable datasets for long-term duration, while in other cases it is possible for missions to visit new targets, with entirely new scientific objectives.”
Juno will continue until September 2025 as long as the spacecraft’s health allows; since the spacecraft regularly operates in intense radiation zones around Jupiter, there is some uncertainty in predicting how long instruments and components will last in the penal environment.
‘The spacecraft Juno and his mission team have discoveries made “Jupiter’s inner structure, magnetic field and magnetosphere, and the atmospheric dynamics are much more complex than scientists previously thought,” NASA said in the same press release.
“The [extended] ‘mission will not only continue Jupiter’s most important observations, but also expand its investigations into the larger Jovian system, including Jupiter’s rings and large moons, with targeted observations and close flights planned for the moons Ganymede, Europe and Io,’ added the agency.
InSight faced numerous challenges in setting up a heat test tool called the ‘mole’ underground; the sin stops at the surface despite several tries. But the spacecraft was also extended until December 2022. Teams will continue to get the heat probe underground, but with a low priority, NASA said.
NASA noted that the mission could employ a weather station and a seismometer studying the inside of Mars; the latter tool has applications to understand how rocky planets like the earth evolved.
“Search and identify marsquakes, the mission team collected data demonstrating the robust tectonic activity of the Red Planet, and improving our knowledge of the planet’s atmospheric dynamics, magnetic field, and inner structure, “NASA said. InSight’s extensive mission will focus on the production of long lasting, high quality seismic data sets. “
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