Spotlight on NASA’s JunoCam

Experiential Learning Across the U.S. – Episode 5: NASA’s JunoCam

Students and entire classrooms are invited to explore Jupiter with NASA, courtesy of the JunoCam mission. Juno is expected to arrive at Jupiter on July 4 of this year, carrying the JunoCam high-tech color camera. Anyone across the world can then step in as a member of the virtual imaging team, choosing the features of Jupiter for JunoCam to photograph, processing the images, and joining the online discussions.

"This is really the public's camera," said Scott Bolton, Juno principal investigator at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. “Get involved and join our team.”

Potential future astronomers in your school can start sharing in NASA’s Jupiter mission right now. NASA has already launched the mission’s web platform, on which students can submit images of Jupiter from their own telescopes, and vote on which pictures JunoCam will take when it reaches Jupiter.

NASA explains that public participation is critical in helping them successfully plan the future of the mission. Baseline photos submitted by amateurs and professionals on Earth will help identify and track changes in Jupiter’s cloud features as JunoCam approaches. Once in position, JunoCam will make several passes over the planet (closer than any previous orbiting spacecraft), photographing whichever swirls, bands and spots of Jupiter the public chooses.

Your students will enjoy the mission website, which includes videos, interactive graphics and a countdown clock, tracking time until JunoCam’s arrival at Jupiter. There is also an 8-part video series from Bill Nye the Science Guy, who explains “all the cool stuff you need to know.” Bill is now the CEO of the Planetary Society, with a mission to “empower the world's citizens to advance space science and exploration.” For more information on the series, see this article on Space.com.

The NASA website and NASA’s Tumbler page are also great educational resources, containing fascinating facts about Jupiter and extraordinary photographs. For example, you can see views of Earth acquired during JunoCam’s close Earth flyby, as well as a triple eclipse on Jupiter, captured by the Hubble telescope.

Juno launched on August 5, 2011. Its rocket, the Atlas 551, was only capable of generating enough speed to reach the asteroid belt, at which point the Sun’s gravity pulled Juno back toward the inner solar system. Anticipating this situation, NASA had planned an Earth flyby, to increase Juno’s speed sufficiently to reach Jupiter. This flyby, on October 9, 2013, was a crucial part of Juno’s journey, as it received a huge boost from Earth’s gravity, equivalent to about 70% of the total change in velocity provided by the Atlas 551. Thus, the boost from the flyby was almost as powerful as a second rocket launch. More on the flyby is available here. 

Similarly, in 1962, scientists calculated how to use Jupiter's intense gravity to provide enough energy for spacecraft to reach the farthest regions of the solar system. We've been traveling farther and faster ever since.

Since Jupiter is so big, with more than twice the mass of all the other planets in our system combined, a deeper understanding of its origin and evolution will help improve our understanding of our solar system's beginnings, and planetary systems in general. Specifically, in its 37-orbit mission, Juno will attempt to examine Jupiter's present-day atmosphere, structure and magnetic environment.

"We want to give people an opportunity to participate with NASA, and public involvement is key to JunoCam's success," said Bolton. "This is citizen science at its best."

We think it’s experiential learning at its best! Hands-on, real-world learning is at the heart of Envision’s mission. Please share your input, thoughts and questions in our comment section.