Odd Camera Problem on NASA Juno Spacecraft Messing With Jupiter Images....Juno's beloved JunoCam is suffering from an anomaly.

Partial view of Jupiter as seen by NASA's Juno spacecraft. Stormy swirls are visible in muted shades of blue and blush pink.

NASA's Juno spacecraft used its JunoCam to capture this view of Jupiter's southern hemisphere on Jan. 22 after the camera returned to normal operation. NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS

If you see a glorious new view of Jupiter or its fascinating moons, you can probably thank NASA's Juno spacecraft for the imagery. Juno's JunoCam has been delivering stunning looks at the swirling gas giant planet since its arrival there in 2016. But JunoCam now has a mysterious problem.

In a statement on Friday, NASA said JunoCam didn't acquire all the images it had planned to during a flyby of Jupiter on Jan. 22. "Data received from the spacecraft indicates that the camera experienced an issue similar to one that occurred on its previous close pass of the gas giant last month, when the team saw an anomalous temperature rise after the camera was powered on in preparation for the flyby," NASA said.

The first four images out of 90 captured on that earlier flyby were degraded, but subsequent images were fine. The issue worsened on the most recent flyby, persisting for 23 hours and leaving 214 images unusable. As it had before, the camera recovered and eventually captured 44 usable images.

The Juno team is now in analysis mode. "The mission team is evaluating JunoCam engineering data acquired during the two recent flybys -- the 47th and 48th of the mission -- and is investigating the root cause of the anomaly and mitigation strategies," NASA said.

JunoCam was included in the mission for public engagement purposes. NASA makes the raw images available to anyone for processing. The camera has shown us the intricacies of Jupiter's stormy cloud formations and captured glorious close-ups of some of Jupiter's many moons.

Juno's next pass of Jupiter is scheduled for March 1. NASA has a good track record of troubleshooting glitches on its distant space missions. Here's hoping JunoCam recovers fully and continues to wow space fans with its unique perspective on Jupiter.

“”It was anticipated that it would operate through only eight orbits of Jupiter ending in September 2017 [87] due to the planet’s damaging radiation and magnetic field””

Also, they speculated on just how close the spacecraft should orbit due to that MASSIVE, damaging radiation and magnetic field. After the Juno Spacecraft arrived in the Jovian System* there were several more rocket burns to establish the regular orbit. Once the on-board instruments detected just how MASSIVE the radiation belts are, they settled on an elliptical, polar orbit of Jupiter. Juno orbits Jupiter every 11 days in a highly elliptical orbit over the planet’s poles. The spacecraft had enough fuel to establish a closer orbit, but that would have meant constant exposure and damage. Fortunately, the brainiacs at JPL decided against the final burn and closer orbit. Juno approaches close to Jupiter every 11 days, and then escapes the incredible radiation. If they had not done this, it is doubtful that Juno would still be functioning.

*Jovian System - With all of Jupiter’s moons, it can be depicted as its own solar system. When the 2010 Odyssey 2 aliens ignited Jupiter, the Jovian moons became planets. “All these worlds are yours...”

PS. Sometimes the brainiacs at JPL really hit it out of the park. The Opportunity Rover was supposed to last at least 90 days. Well, it lasted a little longer, 13 years! The amazing Mars Ingenuity helicopter is still flying after a year. We were not even sure we could fly on Mars. The ‘air’ is 98% C02. Not only can we fly, they just updated the helicopter software. AND, there is an experiment on the Perseverance rover to try out making oxygen on Mars. The instrument, called Moxie, just proved that we can indeed make oxygen on Mars. This is, yes, huuuuge! We can build underground living areas and fill them with oxygen we create on Mars. We do not have to bring all the oxygen we need to survive.

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