A radiation spike delays the sending of data from Jupiter

Dec. 23 () –

NASA’s Juno spacecraft suffered an interruption in sending data to mission controllers from its on-board computer, corresponding to the last flyby of Jupiter and its moon Io.

The problem – the inability to directly access the spacecraft’s memory that stores the scientific data collected during the flyby – was probably due to a radiation spike when Juno flew through a zone of Jupiter’s magnetosphere with high radiation intensity.

Controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and their partners successfully rebooted the computer and, on December 17, put the spacecraft into safe mode, a precautionary state in which only essential systems function.

As of December 22, the efforts to recover the flyby data have yielded positive results, and the team is already downloading the scientific data. There is no indication that the scientific data obtained at the time of closest approach to Jupiter, or during the spacecraft’s flyby of Jupiter’s moon Io, have been adversely affected, As reported by the Southwest Research Institute, leading the mission’s investigations.

The rest of the scientific data collected during the flyby is expected to be sent back to Earth over the next week, at which time its status will be verified. The ship is expected to exit safe mode within a week. Juno’s next flyby of Jupiter will take place on January 22, 2023.