How to repair a camera 595 million km away from Earth? Nasa just did it
Nasa engineers identified a likely culprit in the camera
The camera's optical unit sits outside a titanium radiation vault
In a remarkable feat of remote engineering, NASA successfully revived a damaged camera aboard its Juno spacecraft as it orbited Jupiter, approximately 595 million kilometers from Earth.
The recovery, accomplished through an innovative 'annealing' technique, was presented in July at the IEEE Nuclear & Space Radiation Effects Conference, highlighting new strategies for protecting spacecraft instruments exposed to intense radiation environments.
JunoCam, a visible-light colour camera designed for capturing striking images of Jupiter and its moons, has defied expectations by operating well beyond its intended lifespan. The camera's optical unit sits outside a titanium radiation vault, making it vulnerable to Jupiter's extremely harsh radiation belts, the most intense planetary radiation fields in the solar system.
Initially expected to last only eight orbits, JunoCam functioned normally through the spacecraft's first 34 orbits.
However, radiation-induced damage began showing by the 47th orbit, worsening until nearly all images were corrupted by orbit 56, exhibiting graininess and horizontal noise lines.
NASA engineers identified a likely culprit: a damaged voltage regulator responsible for powering the camera. With few options for hardware repair across such vast distances, the team employed an experimental annealing process, raising the camera's temperature to 77 degrees Fahrenheit to reduce microscopic material defects caused by radiation.
'This was a long shot,' said Jacob Schaffner, JunoCam imaging engineer. Yet following the anneal, the camera resumed capturing clear imagesâ€'just in time to snap detailed views of Jupiter's volcanic moon Io during a close flyby on December 30, 2023.
These images revealed intricate features such as sulfur dioxide frosts and active lava flows.
Although radiation effects resurfaced in later orbits, more aggressive annealing attempts have been applied to other instruments aboard Juno, demonstrating promising potential to extend their operational lifetimes.
Scott Bolton, Juno's principal investigator, remarked that lessons from this recovery effort will inform future spacecraft designs and benefit satellites orbiting Earth as well as other NASA missions confronting radiation challenges.
Juno continues its mission around Jupiter, pioneering methods to thrive in one of the solar system's most extreme environmentsâ€'while teaching engineers how to save spacecraft hardware millions of miles away.
In a remarkable feat of remote engineering, NASA successfully revived a damaged camera aboard its Juno spacecraft as it orbited Jupiter, approximately 595 million kilometers from Earth.
The recovery, accomplished through an innovative 'annealing' technique, was presented in July at the IEEE Nuclear & Space Radiation Effects Conference, highlighting new strategies for protecting spacecraft instruments exposed to intense radiation environments.
JunoCam, a visible-light colour camera designed for capturing striking images of Jupiter and its moons, has defied expectations by operating well beyond its intended lifespan. The camera's optical unit sits outside a titanium radiation vault, making it vulnerable to Jupiter's extremely harsh radiation belts, the most intense planetary radiation fields in the solar system.
Initially expected to last only eight orbits, JunoCam functioned normally through the spacecraft's first 34 orbits.
However, radiation-induced damage began showing by the 47th orbit, worsening until nearly all images were corrupted by orbit 56, exhibiting graininess and horizontal noise lines.
NASA engineers identified a likely culprit: a damaged voltage regulator responsible for powering the camera. With few options for hardware repair across such vast distances, the team employed an experimental annealing process, raising the camera's temperature to 77 degrees Fahrenheit to reduce microscopic material defects caused by radiation.
'This was a long shot,' said Jacob Schaffner, JunoCam imaging engineer. Yet following the anneal, the camera resumed capturing clear imagesâ€'just in time to snap detailed views of Jupiter's volcanic moon Io during a close flyby on December 30, 2023.
These images revealed intricate features such as sulfur dioxide frosts and active lava flows.
Although radiation effects resurfaced in later orbits, more aggressive annealing attempts have been applied to other instruments aboard Juno, demonstrating promising potential to extend their operational lifetimes.
Scott Bolton, Juno's principal investigator, remarked that lessons from this recovery effort will inform future spacecraft designs and benefit satellites orbiting Earth as well as other NASA missions confronting radiation challenges.
Juno continues its mission around Jupiter, pioneering methods to thrive in one of the solar system's most extreme environmentsâ€'while teaching engineers how to save spacecraft hardware millions of miles away. Join our WhatsApp Channel
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