NASA’s solution to a potential mission ending problem shows how having an adaptable design can react to unexpected situations.
In this article, NASA explains how they initiated a “10.5-hour propulsive maneuver” in order to avoid the shadow of Jupitor during its fly by on November 3.
Juno depends on solar power to operate. It needs energy to run it’s heaters, take photos and communicate with NASA. And because its only source of power is solar, with its current trajectory heading into Jupiter’s shadow for 12 hours, Juno would run empty its batteries and likely never work again.
Seeing this problem, NASA scientists planned out and executed a 630 minute burn to change Juno’s heading. This burn caused 126 mph change in Juno’s velocity, using 160 pounds of fuel. Because of the redirected path of Juno, the spacecraft will now avoid the eclipse and continue providing more data to NASA.
This creative solution will have a lasting impact on our knowledge of the universe and also may help plan for similar situations. Because of this event, future spacecrafts may be designed to carry more fuel, or use solar powered thrust to be able to adapt and maneuver out of “fatal geometry” in the future.
This mission saving maneuver is not just credited to the space probe though. The Juno project manager explained how his team dealt with shadow problem. Even though they were not expecting a problem like this to arise, because they are creative and flexible in their thinking, a non linear solution like this was able to be found:
“‘Pre-launch mission planning did not anticipate a lengthy eclipse that would plunge our solar-powered spacecraft into darkness,’ said Ed Hirst, Juno project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. ‘That we could plan and execute the necessary maneuver while operating in Jupiter's orbit is a testament to the ingenuity and skill of our team, along with the extraordinary capability and versatility of our spacecraft.’”
Similarly to NASA’s versatile spacecraft and team, our JPL team has tried to have a similar flexibility in our project. Throughout our design process, we have been able to explore many different design ideas and make our project out of modular parts and a changing base. This has allowed us to address and isolate problems while leaving the rest of our project intact. Also, because of our flexibility in ideas, we have been able to adapt more reliable concepts without worrying about losing what we have contributed. Overall, practicing a versatility similar to NASA in our design and mentality has undoubtedly been a huge help to the success of our group and project.
Source:
"NASA's Juno Prepares to Jump Jupiter's Shadow"
Oct. 1, 2019