Juno Radiation Vault

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Juno Radiation Vault (the box being lowered onto the partially constructed spacecraft) in the process of being installed on Juno, 2010 Installing Juno's Radiation Vault.jpg
Juno Radiation Vault (the box being lowered onto the partially constructed spacecraft) in the process of being installed on Juno, 2010
Juno Radiation Vault is shown attached, but with the top open and some of the electronics boxes inside the vault can be seen Rotating Juno for Integrating Instruments.jpg
Juno Radiation Vault is shown attached, but with the top open and some of the electronics boxes inside the vault can be seen
The cube shaped JRV can be seen in between the un-wrapped main dish and the larger hexagonal main spacecraft body. Juno shake testing in November 2010 PIA13934-Juno Gets Ready to Shake It.tif
The cube shaped JRV can be seen in between the un-wrapped main dish and the larger hexagonal main spacecraft body. Juno shake testing in November 2010
Jupiter's variable radiation belts are shown by these radio emissions from high-energy particles as detected by Cassini-Huygens when it coasted by Jupiter in 2000 on its way to Saturn Jupiter radio.jpg
Jupiter's variable radiation belts are shown by these radio emissions from high-energy particles as detected by Cassini-Huygens when it coasted by Jupiter in 2000 on its way to Saturn

Juno Radiation Vault is a compartment inside the Juno spacecraft that houses much of the probe's electronics and computers, and is intended to offer increased protection of radiation to the contents as the spacecraft endures the radiation environment at planet Jupiter. [1] The Juno Radiation Vault is roughly a cube, with walls made of 1 cm thick (1/3 of an inch) titanium metal, and each side having an area of about a square meter (10 square feet). [2] The vault weighs about 200 kg (500 lbs). [3] Inside the vault are the main command and data handling and power control boxes, along with 20 other electronic boxes. [2] The vault should reduce the radiation exposure by about 800 times, as the spacecraft is exposed to an anticipated 20 million rads of radiation [1] It does not stop all radiation, but significantly reduces it in order to limit damage to the spacecraft's electronics. [2]

Contents

Summary

The vault has been compared being like "armor" or like a "tank", and the electronics within, like the spacecraft's "brain". [4] The power systems have been described as a "heart". [5]

Without its protective shield, or radiation vault, Juno’s brain would get fried on the very first pass near Jupiter

— Juno's PI [6]

The vault is one of many features of the mission to help counter the high radiation levels near Jupiter, including an orbit that reduces time spent in the highest radiation regions, radiation-hardened electronics, and additional shielding on components. [3] The wires that lead out from the vault also have increased protection, they have a sheath of braided copper and stainless steel. [3] Some other components used tantalum metal for shielding in Juno, and while lead is known for its shielding effect it was found to be too soft in this application. [7] One reason that titanium was chosen over lead in this application was because titanium was better at handling launch stresses. [7]

Another shield part of the spacecraft is the Stellar Reference Unit (SRU), which has six times the shielding to prevent static forming on images due to radiation. [8] Juno is a space probe sent to Jupiter in 2011 and it entered orbit the night of July 4, 2016. [9] Juno is part of the New Frontiers program of NASA and was also built with some contributions by the Italian Space Agency (ASI). [9] After arriving at Jupiter in July 2016, the mission went into a 53-day orbit around the planet, and collected data using its suite of instrumentation in the late 2010s. [10]

Inside the vault

There are at least 20 different electronics boxes inside the vault, which is intended to reduce the amount of radiation they receive. [11]

Examples of components inside the vault:

JEDI and JunoCam do not have electronic boxes inside the vault. [17]

Technological relations

A Ganymede orbiter proposal also included a design for a Juno-like radiation vault. [18] However, because the radiation is less at Jupiter's moon Ganymede and the orbiter's path, the vault would not have to be as thick, all else being similar. [18] One reason the radiation is strong at Jupiter, but confined to certain belts, is because it is generated by ions and electrons trapped in areas as a result of Jupiter's magnetic field. [19] Jupiter's magnetosphere is about 20,000 times as strong as Earth's and is one of the items of study by Juno. [20] (see also Juno's Magnetometer (MAG) instrument)

Another spacecraft with radiation shields was Skylab, which needed a radiation shield over a borosilicate glass window to stop it darkening, and several film vaults. [21] There were five vaults for photographic film aboard the Skylab space station, and the largest weighed 1088 kg (2398 lb). [22] [21] Juno is the spacecraft with a titanium vault for its electronics, however. [12] Radiation hardening in general is an important part of spacecraft design when it is required, and the main processor of Juno, the RAD750, has been used on other spacecraft where there are elevated radiation levels, and it is a radiation-hardened microprocessor. [12] For example, the RAD750 was also used on the Curiosity rover, launched November 26, 2011 [23]

It was suggested by the publication Popular Science that the Europa Lander may use a radiation vault like the Juno Jupiter orbiter. [24]

Radiation infographic

Infographic on radiation at Jupiter Juno infographic v5 en.pdf
Infographic on radiation at Jupiter

See also

Related Research Articles

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<i>Pioneer 10</i> NASA space probe launched in March 1972

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">JEDI</span>

JEDI (Jupiter Energetic-particle Detector Instrument) is an instrument on the Juno spacecraft orbiting planet Jupiter. JEDI coordinates with the several other space physics instruments on the Juno spacecraft to characterize and understand the space environment of Jupiter's polar regions, and specifically to understand the generation of Jupiter's powerful aurora. It is part of a suite of instruments to study the magnetosphere of Jupiter. JEDI consists of three identical detectors that use microchannel plates and foil layers to detect the energy, angle, and types of ion within a certain range. It can detect electrons between 40 and 500 keV (Kilo electron-volts), and hydrogen and oxygen from a few tens of keV to less than 1000 keV (1 MeV). JEDI uses radiation hardened Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASIC)s. JEDI was turned on in January 2016 while still en route to Jupiter to also study interplanetary space. JEDI uses solid state detectors (SSD's) to measure the total energy (E) of both the ions and the electrons. The MCP anodes and the SSD arrays are configured to determine the directions of arrivals of the incoming charged particles. The instruments also use fast triple coincidence and optimum shielding to suppress penetrating background radiation and incoming UV foreground.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jovian Auroral Distributions Experiment</span>

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Magnetometer (<i>Juno</i>) Scientific instrument on the Juno space probe

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UVS (<i>Juno</i>)

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Microwave Radiometer (<i>Juno</i>)

Microwave Radiometer (MWR) is an instrument on the Juno orbiter sent to planet Jupiter. MWR is a multi-wavelength microwave radiometer for making observations of Jupiter's deep atmosphere. MWR can observe radiation from 1.37 to 50 cm in wavelength, from 600 MHz to 22 GHz in frequencies. This supports its goal of observing the previously unseen atmospheric features and chemical abundances hundreds of miles/km into Jupiter's atmosphere. MWR is designed to detect six different frequencies in that range using separate antennas.

Waves (<i>Juno</i>) Experiment on the Juno spacecraft to study radio and plasma waves

Waves is an experiment on the Juno spacecraft to study radio and plasma waves. It is part of collection of various types of instruments and experiments on the spacecraft; Waves is oriented towards understanding fields and particles in Jupiter's magnetosphere. Waves is on board the uncrewed Juno spacecraft, which was launched in 2011 and arrived at Jupiter in the summer of 2016. The major focus of study for Waves is Jupiter's magnetosphere, which if could be seen from Earth would be about twice the size of a full moon. It has a tear drop shape, and that tail extends away from the Sun by at least 5 AU. The Waves instrument is designed to help understand the interaction between Jupiter's atmosphere, its magnetic field, its magnetosphere, and to understand Jupiter's auroras. It is designed to detect radio frequencies from 50 Hz up to 40,000,000 Hz (40 MHz), and magnetic fields from 50 Hz to 20,000 Hz (20 kHz). It has two main sensors a dipole antenna and a magnetic search coil. The dipole antenna has two whip antenna's that extend 2.8 meters and they are attached to the main body of the spacecraft. This sensor has been compared to a rabbit ears set-top TV antenna. The search coil is overall a mu metal rod 15 cm (6 in) length with a fine copper wire wound 10,000 times around it. There are also two frequency receivers that each cover certain bands. Data handling is done by two radiation hardened systems on a chip. The data handling units are located inside the Juno Radiation Vault. Waves was allocated 410 Mbits of data per science orbit.

Gravity science (<i>Juno</i>)

The Gravity Science experiment and instrument set aboard the Juno Jupiter orbiter is designed to monitor Jupiter's gravity. It maps Jupiter's gravitational field, which will allow the interior of Jupiter to be better understood. It uses special hardware on Juno, and also on Earth, including the high-gain K-band and X-band communication systems of the Deep Space Network as well as Juno's Ka-band Translator System (KaTS). These components work together to detect minute changes in radio frequency to measure the spacecraft's velocity over time. The KaTS box was funded by the Italian Space Agency and overseen by professor Luciano Iess from University La Sapienza in Rome. KaTS detects signals coming from the DSN on Earth, and then sends replies in a very precise way that allows the velocity of Juno to be determined to within 0.001 millimeters per second. The spacecraft receives a tone signal on the Ka band and then replies using the X-band radio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Europa Lander</span> Proposed NASA lander for Europa

The Europa Lander is a proposed astrobiology mission concept by NASA to send a lander to Europa, an icy moon of Jupiter. If funded and developed as a large strategic science mission, it would be launched in 2027 to complement the studies by the Europa Clipper orbiter mission and perform analyses on site.

References

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  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "NASA – Juno Armored Up to Go to Jupiter". www.nasa.gov. Retrieved 2017-01-06.
  3. 1 2 3 "NASA – Juno Armored Up to Go to Jupiter". www.nasa.gov. Retrieved 2017-01-08.
  4. ↑ "Juno's Armor". 2016-06-18. Archived from the original on 2017-01-07. Retrieved 2017-01-06.
  5. ↑ "How NASA's New Spacecraft Will Survive a Death-Defying Trip to Jupiter". Popular Mechanics. 2016-06-28. Retrieved 2017-01-08.
  6. ↑ "Colorado Space News – Juno's Armor". Archived from the original on 2017-01-07. Retrieved 2017-01-06.
  7. 1 2 "Juno's Armor | Colorado Space News". www.coloradospacenews.com. 2016-06-18. Archived from the original on 2017-01-07. Retrieved 2017-01-06.
  8. ↑ Science, Sarah Lewin 2018-12-13T12:08:08Z; Astronomy (13 December 2018). "Auroras, Lightning and Rings of Jupiter Amaze in Surprising NASA Juno Photos". Space.com. Retrieved 2019-12-09.
  9. 1 2 "The 10 Biggest Spaceflight Stories of 2016". Space.com. Retrieved 2017-01-08.
  10. ↑ "NASA's Juno Prepares to Jump Jupiter's Shadow". NASA/JPL. Retrieved 2019-12-09.
  11. ↑ "Setting up Juno's Radiation Vault". 2016-06-24.
  12. 1 2 3 Scharf, Caleb A. "The Jupiter Vault". Scientific American Blog Network. Retrieved 2017-01-06.
  13. 1 2 "Instrument Overview – Juno". spaceflight101.com. Retrieved 2017-01-06.
  14. 1 2 3 Key and Driving Requirements for the Juno Payload Suite of Instruments. AIAA SPACE 2007 Conference & Exposition 18–20 September 2007, Long Beach, California. AIAA 2007-6111. http://personal.linkline.com/dodger/AIAA-2007-6111.pdf
  15. ↑ Pingree, P.; Janssen, M.; Oswald, J.; Brown, S.; Chen, J.; Hurst, K.; Kitiyakara, A.; Maiwald, F.; Smith, S. (2008-03-01). "Microwave Radiometers from 0.6 to 22 GHZ for Juno, A Polar Orbiter around Jupiter". 2008 IEEE Aerospace Conference. pp. 1–15. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.473.3408 . doi:10.1109/AERO.2008.4526403. ISBN   978-1-4244-1487-1. S2CID   41709045.
  16. ↑ McComas, D. J.; Alexander, N.; Allegrini, F.; Bagenal, F.; Beebe, C.; Clark, G.; Crary, F.; Desai, M. I.; Santos, A. De Los (2013-05-25). "The Jovian Auroral Distributions Experiment (JADE) on the Juno Mission to Jupiter". Space Science Reviews. 213 (1–4): 547–643. Bibcode:2017SSRv..213..547M. doi: 10.1007/s11214-013-9990-9 . ISSN   0038-6308.
  17. 1 2 3 4 5 "Instrument Overview – Juno". spaceflight101.com. Retrieved 2017-01-08.
  18. 1 2 "Mission Concept Study, Planetary Science Decadal Survey, Ganymede Orbiter" (PDF). May 2010. Retrieved November 5, 2022.
  19. ↑ "How NASA's New Spacecraft Will Survive a Death-Defying Trip to Jupiter". Popular Mechanics. 2016-06-28. Retrieved 2017-01-06.
  20. ↑ "How The Juno Spacecraft Will Survive Jupiter's Devastating Radiation". Popular Science. Retrieved 2017-01-06.
  21. 1 2 Braly, J. E.; Heaton, T. R. (January 1972). "Radiation problems associated with Skylab". Nasa, Washington Proc. of the Natl. Symp. On Nat. And Manmade Radiation in Space.
  22. ↑ Braley, John; Heaton, Thomas (January 1, 1972). "Radiation Problems Associated with Skylab" (PDF). Proceedings of the National Symposium on Natural and Manmade Radiation in Space. NASA. Retrieved November 7, 2022.
  23. ↑ "NASA Launches Most Capable and Robust Rover to Mars". Jet Propulsion Laboratory . Archived from the original on 2021-03-03. Retrieved 2017-01-06.
  24. ↑ "Here's what NASA's Europa lander could look like". Popular Science. Retrieved 2017-02-15.
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