oxidizer, bringing its total weight at
liftoff to 7,992 pounds. The spacecraft
is designed to rotate during flight like
many other previous probes. A rotating spacecraft makes pointing of the
spacecraft much easier to control
and stabilizes it.
Juno will encounter higher radiation levels around Jupiter than normally encountered in space; therefore its sensitive electronics needed
a higher level of protection than ever
before. A newly designed electronics vault was designed to protect the
electronics. The vault is made of titanium; each side of the cube is nearly
9 square feet in area and approximately 1/3rd of an inch in thickness.
The titanium cube weighs about 400
pounds and protects Juno’s most
sensitive and critical electronics.
Juno generates its power from
three solar arrays of 33 solar panels
and three MAG booms. It’s the first
solar-powered spacecraft designed
to operate so far from the Sun.
Sunlight reaching Jupiter is 25 times
less than what reaches our Earth,
therefore Juno’s power generating
panels had to be quite large. Solar
panel technology has advanced
considerably and Juno’s panels are
50 percent more efficient than panels flown on spacecraft 20 years ago.
Total power generation from the
panels is 14 kilowatts, or 14,000 watts,
of electricity when Juno