Juno

When I was very young, my dad introduced me to space. He was a blue collar worker climbing telephone poles and driving trucks for a living, and although a high school diploma was his highest level of formal education, he had an excellent mind that was capable of comprehending math and science well. And he loved space. He loved the possibilities, the sense of smallness it gave us, and the endeavor to learn the mysteries that make up our universe. On dark quiet nights we would sometimes gaze upon the dim band of the Milky Way standing in our yard, where he would softly speak about all the undiscovered promise the blackness held.

I lack the particular intelligence for math or science, but my acknowledgment of their importance has held strong and I have always been attracted to people who are good in these areas. Space has remained a deep fascination. I never grow tired of looking into the darkness, and wondering.

In August of 2011 Juno launched from the sunny state of Florida, its location close to the equator, utilizing our planet’s spin to implement some beautiful math, sending the spacecraft on a crazy specific and ungraspable trajectory—a 1.74-billion-mile path—timed to the hour of a five-year journey to the largest planet in our solar system, Jupiter.

Since then, Juno has been hurling through the silent black of space, looping to and fro, passing us one last time in 2013 using Earth as a giant, celestial slingshot. Using solar arrays (which is immensely difficult due to the distance from the sun—the farthest to date in fact) to power computers and all electrical equipment, it’s approach to Jupiter will require a rocket fuel controlled slow down, in a one- shot 30-minute window to maneuver over Jupiter’s north pole. Once over the north pole, Juno will maintain an exaggerated polar orbit to help protect its delicate equipment.

Juno the spacecraft was named after the Roman goddess. She was the wife of Jupiter, god of lightning and thunder, the king of gods. Jupiter drew a veil of clouds around himself to hide his mischief, but Juno the goddess was able to peer through the clouds and see Jupiter's true nature (1). Juno’s reason for existence is to look into the thick gasses shrouding this planet, hoping to reveal coveted information that has been kept hidden from us mere mortals. Does it have a rocky core?! Can we learn how it was made?! Does it have water?! The fact that we Earthlings can even attempt to find out these things boggles my mind and gets me giddy in ways that I can’t quite explain.

Juno is expected to orbit Jupiter for approximately two years, making 37 rounds, gathering as much information as possible, on a planet 480 million miles away. Then, sometime in February of 2018 it will de-orbit without fanfare or glory, to burn up in Jupiter’s atmosphere, an insignificant and unseen flicker against the massive gas planet. Its mission complete.

The topic of this blog may come as a surprise for a lot of people. It’s easier for me to portray, and you to accept, "the me" who uses expensive eye cream, wearing a lovely summer dress while sipping white wine. Being a science and space (wanna-be) geek is something I’m kind of shy about. Mainly because if anyone were to ask me any real questions about it, I don’t have the capabilities to answer them intelligently. I have only the vaguest inkling of the requirements, or the import of these missions, or science in general. I accept my limitations and how my mind works. And I believe the excitement and curiosity of science and space and math are not only for The Brilliant People. They’re for everyone.

I think it’s OK I don’t fully understand it. This doesn’t mean I can’t greatly enjoy and appreciate—in my limited way—the feats of others, what our discoveries signify for all of us, or my ability to dream what lies beyond in the deep black.

Just like my dad taught me, late at night, stargazing in a small patch of yard in Minnesota.

Juno is actually the second mission to gather information about Jupiter. Galileo was first (although it didn’t get nearly as close), launching in 1995 and finishing its mission in 2003. To keep up with Juno and its discoveries, you can go to the NASA Juno Mission website.

NASA continues to be the leader in space exploration, having had, or currently happening in real time, missions to the Asteroid Belt, Mars, Pluto (the original Pluto mission is now going on the Kuiper Belt) and Jupiter to name a few.

(1) Per Wikipedia. Pictures courtesy of NASA website.