Space Topics: Jupiter
Missions to Jupiter
Pioneer 10 - Pioneer 11 - Voyager
1 - Voyager 2 - Galileo -
Ulysses - Cassini-Huygens - New
Horizons - Juno
Successful Jupiter flyby (NASA)
Launch: March 2, 1972
Jupiter flyby: December 3, 1973
Pioneer 10 was the first spacecraft to pass through the Asteroid Belt and
explore the outer solar system. It flew within 200,000 kilometers (124,000
miles) of the Jovian cloud tops. Scientists were surprised at the tremendous
radiation levels experienced by the spacecraft as it passed the gas giant
planet. Once past Jupiter, the spacecraft headed out of the solar system.
Routine communication with Pioneer 10 ended on March 31, 1997, controllers
occasionally checked in with it until contact was lost on April 28, 2001. It
is now heading in the general direction of Aldebaran, the red giant star
in the constellation of Taurus. At its current speed, it would take about
2 million years to get to Aldebaran.
Successful Jupiter and Saturn flyby (NASA)
Launch: April 5, 1973
Jupiter flyby: December 2, 1974
Pioneer 11 was the second spacecraft to explore the outer solar system
(the first being Pioneer 10). Pioneer 11 flew within 34,000 kilometers (21,100
miles) of the Jovian cloud tops. The spacecraft studied the planet's magnetic
field and atmosphere and took pictures of the planet and some of its moons.
It then flew by Saturn on September 1, 1979 and continued on out of the solar
system. Instruments were finally shut down on September 9, 1995, when there
was no longer enough power.
Successful Flybys of Jupiter and Saturn (NASA)
Launch: September 5, 1977
Jupiter encounter: January 4 to April 13, 1979
Launched 16 days after Voyager 2, Voyager 1 was on the fast track to Jupiter
and actually arrived four months ahead of the other spacecraft. Voyager 1
flew by Jupiter on March 5, 1979, taking more than 18,000 images of planet
and its moons.
Successful “Grand Tour” flybys of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and
Neptune (NASA)
Launch: August 20, 1977
Jupiter encounter: April 25 to August 5, 1979
Even though Voyager 2 launched 16 days before Voyager 1, it took its time
getting to Jupiter and arrived four months after Voyager 1. Ten months
into the flight, well before the spacecraft reached the planet, Voyager 2's
primary radio receiver failed. The backup receiver kicked in, but it proved
to be somewhat unreliable. Controllers tried to revive the primary receiver,
without any luck. They were forced to continue with the backup. Despite
its irregularities, the backup receiver worked admirably during the Jupiter
fly by. Voyager 2 flew by Jupiter on July 9, 1979, taking about the same number
of images as Voyager 1 (18,000 images of Jupiter and its moons). Between
the two spacecraft, three new moons were discovered as well as a thin, dark
ring around Jupiter. Voyager images of Jupiter's moon Io revealed active volcanoes,
the first ever discovered on another body besides Earth.
Galileo
Successful Jupiter orbiter & probe (NASA)
Launch: October 18, 1989
Jupiter probe descent: December 7, 1995
Jupiter orbit insertion: December 8, 1995
Plunge into Jupiter: September 22, 2003
Galileo suffered a crippling malfunction early in its mission when its
high-gain antenna failed to open. Despite this setback, however, it
returned more science and survived four times longer than anyone expected. Galileo
was the first spacecraft to deploy a probe into an outer planet’s atmosphere. When
the Jupiter Probe plunged into the Jovian clouds, it sent back information
about the temperature, wind speeds, and pressure as it descended. It finally
succumbed to the incredible pressure (24 times Earth's pressure at sea level)
one hour after it began its descent. Galileo was also the first spacecraft
to dwell in a giant planet's magnetosphere long enough to identify its global
structure and investigate the dynamics of Jupiter's magnetic field. It revealed
that Jupiter's ring system is formed by dust kicked up as interplanetary meteoroids
smash into the planet's four small inner moons and that the planet's outermost
ring is actually two rings, one embedded within the other. The spacecraft’s
mission was extended three times in order to study the Galilean satellites
Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. Galileo made many discoveries about
these moons: Io's extensive volcanic activity is 100 times greater than that
found on Earth; Europa harbors a salty ocean up to 100 kilometers (62 miles)
underneath its frozen surface, containing about twice as much water as all
the Earth's oceans; Callisto and Ganymede may also feature a liquid-saltwater
layer; and Ganymede has an iron core, like Earth, and a magnetic field, making
this moon the first satellite known to possess a magnetic field. In
order to avoid any possibility of the spacecraft contaminating Europa’s
salty ocean with material brought from Earth, the spacecraft was deliberately
destroyed by sending it onto a collision course with Jupiter.
Ulysses
Successful Solar polar orbiter (NASA)
Launch: October 6, 1990
Jupiter flyby: February 8, 1992
The primary mission of Ulysses was to study the north and south pole of
the Sun. However, getting to those solar poles required the spacecraft to
perform some interplanetary gymnastics. The spacecraft first went to Jupiter,
where the strong Jovian gravity helped redirect the spacecraft, placing it
on its proper course. As Ulysses flew by the planet, instruments onboard the
spacecraft studied Jupiter's strong magnetic field and radiation levels.
Cassini-Huygens
David Ducros for the European Space Agency
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Successful Saturn orbiter & probe (NASA/ESA/ASI)
Launch: October 15, 1997
Jupiter flyby: December 30, 2000
Cassini-Huygens' path to Saturn required flybys of Venus, Earth, and Jupiter. Engineers
used the Jupiter encounter to test the spacecraft's instruments and operations.
During the flyby, Cassini captured incredible images of the gas giant and
its larger moons in a science plan that was coordinated with Galileo observations.
New Horizons
JHUAPL / SwRI
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Pluto / Kuiper Belt flyby (NASA)
Launch: January 19, 2006
Jupiter flyby: January-May, 2007
New Horizons is the result of a long battle to take advantage of a once-in-a-lifetime
opportunity for a Jupiter gravity assist trajectory to Pluto. It
observed Jupiter over five months around the flyby in early 2007, with
its closest approach on February 27. It was the first spacecraft to observe
the newly formed Little Red Spot, and also caught Io's north polar volcano
Tvashtar in the middle of a spectacular eruption.
Juno
Future Jupiter polar orbiter (NASA)
Launch: Planned for August 2011
Jupiter arrival: Planned for August 2016
Juno will survey Jupiter from a polar orbit, carrying a suite of instruments
designed to study the planet's interior. It will investigate
the existence of an ice-rock core; determine the amount of global water
and ammonia present in the atmosphere; study convection and deep wind profiles
in the atmosphere; investigate the origin of the jovian magnetic field;
and explore the polar magnetosphere. Juno website
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