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Juno Leaves for Suicide Mission To Jupiter


From NASAKennedy

Juno lifts off on an Atlas V rocket on its way to Jupiter on August 9. We reported previously that it is carrying a Junocam with a KODAK KAI-2020 Image Sensor, which is a 1600 x 1200 pixel array with up to 3 km per pixel resolution. The Juno spacecraft will take five years to reach Jupiter.

You could argue that all spacecrafts we send into outer space to visit far flung planets are one way missions. But Juno has a special mission. After it has spent a year circling the Solar System’s largest planet, taking pictures, recording data and sending them back to Earth, it will then be instructed to dive into the thick atmosphere of the Jovian giant, taking as much data as it can before it melts. I wonder if the Junocam with its Kodak image sensor will be clicking away to the last.

via apod