A few ongoing NASA missions – the Juno spacecraft in orbit around Jupiter and the InSight lander on Mars – have been extended to an external investigation.
According to an independent review panel, Juno as well as InSight have ‘produced exceptional science’ and both missions should be allowed to continue. according to to a NASA statement.
“The Senior Review confirmed that these two planetary science missions are likely to continue to bring new discoveries and raise new questions about our solar system,” said Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s planetary science division, in the statement.
The decision certainly should not have mattered, as the Juno and InSight missions were quite successful and both gathered valuable scientific data. What’s more, expanding these missions is much cheaper than developing new missions. And as NASA pointed out, “expansions allow valuable datasets to continue for a long time.”
Juno arrived at Jupiter in July 2016 where he has been working for the past four and a half years. The spacecraft is placed in a highly elliptical orbit that takes it far away from Jupiter, but during its period (the closest approximation) it comes within 4,184 kilometers of the gas giant’s cloud tops. Juno makes four perijoves in 2021, the first on February 21st.
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Juno took some of the most beautiful photos ever from Jupiter, and made important contributions to our understanding of the planet’s atmosphere, the inner structure (including shallow lightning and porridge hail), and magnetosphere.
With the expansion, Juno will be operational until 2025 – assuming it does not even expire – during which it will explore Jupiter’s rings (yes, Jupiter has rings) and several large moons, namely Io, Ganymede and Europe, of which the latter could port basic life below the frozen surface. The expansion of the mission is welcome news, as NASA has planned accident Juno will join Jupiter later this year to prevent contamination of the Jovian system.
InSight arrived on Mars at Elysium Planitia in November 2018. The stationary lander watches the weather of Mars, fainting Mars tremors, collects data related to the dynamic atmosphere and magnetic field of the planet, and has occasionally encountered a dust devil. InSight’s mission will last until at least December 2022, with the added emphasis on monitoring tectonic activities.
The lander’s problematic instrument for heat probe and physical properties (HP3) was a major headache, requiring a lot of attention from the NASA team and DLR, the German space agency responsible for the probe. The mole called was supposed to dig to depths of 3 meters.
The last word on the mole was that it was completely buried, but it is still not clear if the device can drill deeper. Sin is probably good in terms of how it is supposed to work; the problem has to do with the type of Mars regolit, called duricrust (a cementitious compound), that encounters the drill. If we move forward, NASA will continue to deploy the mole, but with a lower priority.
Op Feb. 18, InSight, along with Curiosity, will join NASA’s Perseverance Rover. The next generation Rover will have to endure “seven minutes of fright‘During its descent stage, while trying to make a soft landing at the Jezero crater, the site of a former lake and river delta.