How To Be Part Of NASA's Juno Mission To Jupiter

-
Jupiter's South Pole
Photo captured by the NASA's JunoCam, Enhanced by Donna Kaluzniak
On December 21, 2018, NASA's Juno spacecraft will mark its halfway point for collecting data on the planet Jupiter. Juno is soaring over Jupiter's clouds in an elliptical orbit around the north and south poles.

Juno was launched August 5, 2011 and reached Jupiter on July 4, 2016. The goal is to discover more about the planet's structure, origins, atmosphere, and magnetic fields. Juno's already provided a first photo of Jupiter's ring, and scientific data on its radiation belts.

But what makes this mission so special to me is the JunoCam Community. 

The JunoCam community encourages the public to actively participate in this mission!

Yes, you can take part in this historic, scientific, and extremely cool project. The JunoCam website gives you all the information you need to participate in planning, discussion, decision making, image processing, and analysis.

As part of planning, amateur astronomers are invited to upload their data and telescopic photos of Jupiter to provide context for new JunoCam images.

Discussion will be ongoing throughout the project. Anyone can ask questions or discuss the information obtained to date.

Are you an artist or photographer? Raw images from the JunoCam are posted on the website. You can download them and do your own image processing--anything from color enhancement and cropping to abstract art. Several people highlighted a "dolphin" in the Jupiter clouds. If you wish, you can upload them to the website gallery. Gallery photos may be used in scientific papers, journals, and websites with proper attribution.
Jupiter's North Pole
Photo Captured by the JunoCam, Enhanced by Donna Kaluzniak

For those who want to explore the mission in more detail, there is the Think Tank--with engineering files and scientific discussion threads about particular images.

And when the mission is completed, a "Results" section will be added.

I've always had a keen interest in space, Maybe because I was around when the space program first started.

But even if you're not a space junkie, you can enjoy some of the beautiful artwork created by the JunoCam participants.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Extracting Water from the Moon

-
Image
  Photo by Allen Kaluzniak I've always found space exploration fascinating. I still remember the excitement when hearing about our first attempts to orbit the earth, our challenge to reach the moon. I still feel my family's amazement as Neil Armstrong took his first steps there in 1969.  The moon is garnering new interest lately. NASA's Artemis Mission will establish a long-term presence on the moon to continue scientific discovery and technology innovation. As such, they plan to implement  sustainable infrastructure using in-situ resources .  Understanding the critical importance of water, NASA's astronauts will collect and remove large amounts of water and icy regolith, a loose rocky soil layer, from an area near the moon's south pole. To find the best way to accomplish this, NASA opened the Break the Ice Lunar Challenge  in November 2020.  On August 18, 2021 NASA awarded $500,000 in prizes to the winners of Phase 1 . In this phase, teams designed a system to col
Read more

A Setback for Cleaning the Ocean of Plastic

-
Image
Dolphin at Marineland, FL Photo by Donna Kaluzniak My last blog post was about The Ocean Cleanup , a massive project for removing plastic debris from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP). After successfully completing Pacific trials in September 2018, the long trip to the GPGP began. On October 16, 2018 System 001, nicknamed "Wilson," was deployed. After tweaking and testing Wilson through November and December, it appeared the system was attracting and concentrating plastic, but could not retain it. At the end of December, the crew found that an 18-meter end-section of the system became detached. The December 31, 2018 Project Update noted the crew planned to return to port earlier than planned, and as soon as weather permitted. This allows them to make necessary upgrades to the system. Even with the malfunction, Wilson and the crew are bringing back 2,000 kilograms of plastic recovered by the system and from ghost net fishing. Some setbacks are to be exp
Read more

The Most Ambitious Project To Rid The World's Ocean Of Plastic--An Update

-
Image
Photo Courtesy of Pixabay  I've talked about The Ocean Cleanup before on this blog. The Ocean Cleanup is the most ambitious project of its kind. The goal is to clean up 50 percent of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP), the largest accumulation of ocean plastic in the world. Located between California and Hawaii, it's one of five gyres (circular systems of ocean currents) that accumulate plastic garbage. Once the plastic is retrieved, it's hoped that most of it can be recycled. The GPGP is twice the size of Texas and contains an estimated 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic with a total weight of about 80,000 tons. The Ocean Cleanup technology includes passive floating barriers to concentrate and capture the debris. Natural ocean forces are used to capture the debris. Electronics used for monitoring and controlling the system are all solar powered. The system is modular, allowing improvements to be made based on experience and funding. What's Been Comp
Read more