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.
GalileoSuccessful 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.
UlyssesSuccessful 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.
JunoFuture 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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