A few ongoing NASA missions – the Juno spacecraft orbiting Jupiter and the InSight lander on Mars – have been extended after an external evaluation.
An independent review panel said both Juno and InSight have “ produced exceptional science, ” and that both missions should be able to continue, according to to a NASA statement.
“The Senior Review has confirmed that these two planetary science missions are likely to continue to bring new discoveries and raise new questions about our solar system,” Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s planetary science division, said in the statement.
The decision must have been a no-brainer, as the Juno and InSight missions have been quite successful, and both continue to collect valuable scientific data. Moreover, extending these missions is a lot cheaper than having to develop new ones. And as NASA noted, “With extensions, missions can continue to acquire valuable long-term data sets.”
Juno arrived on Jupiter in July 2016, where it has operated for the past four and a half years. The spacecraft was placed in a highly elliptical orbit that takes it far away from Jupiter, but on its perijove (closest approach) it will come within 2,600 miles (4,184 kilometers) of the gas giant’s cloud tops. Juno will make four perijoves in 2021, the first on February 21.
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Juno has taken some of the most Beautiful pictures once from Jupiter, and has made important contributions to our understanding of the planet’s atmosphere, its internal structure (including shallow lightning and slack hail) and magnetosphere.
With the extension, Juno will be active until 2025 – assuming it doesn’t expire first – during which time it will explore Jupiter’s rings (yes, Jupiter has rings) and several major moons, namely Io, Ganymede, and Europa, the latter of which might port basic life beneath its frozen surface. The mission expansion is welcome news, as NASA intended Crash Juno in Jupiter later this year to avoid contamination of the Jupiter galaxy.
InSight arrived at Elysium Planitia on Mars in November 2018. The stationary lander monitors the weather on Mars, detects faint ones Marsquakes, collects data related to the planet’s dynamic atmosphere and magnetic field, and occasionally comes into contact with a petty thief. InSight’s mission will run until at least December 2022, with extra emphasis on monitoring tectonic activity.
The lander’s problematic Heat Probe and Physical Properties instrument (HP3) was a major headache, requiring close attention from the NASA team and DLR, the German space agency responsible for the probe. Dubbed the mole, it had to dig to a depth of 10 feet (3 meters).
The last word on the mole was that it was completely buried, but it’s still not clear if the device can really drill deeper. The probe is probably fine in terms of how it should work; the problem has to do with the type of Martian regolith called duricrust (a cementitious compound) that the boron is dealing with. In the future, NASA will continue to deploy the mole, but with a lower priority.
On Feb. 18InSight will be joined by NASA’s Perseverance rover along with Curiosity. The next generation the robber will have to endure “seven minutes of terrorDuring its descent phase, as it tries to make a soft landing in the Jezero crater, the site of a former lake and river delta.