The spaceship of NASA Juno has broken the previous record of travelling distance set by Rosetta spacecraft of the European Space Agency that was 792 million kilometers and has become humanity’s most distant solar-powered emissary.
Launched in 2011, the spacecraft is the opening solar-powered spacecraft designed in such way that it can be operated easily with great distance from the sun. Juno will be pushing the record further from 793 million kilometer mark at reaching the planet Jupiter on 4th July of the year and will serve as the base of a concept for a new, more efficient solar power system. Carrying 9 meter long three solar arrays festooned 18,698 individual solar cells all making the spacecraft to weigh about 4 tonne.
The solar power arrays of the Jupiter explorer as so big that enough for keeping the spacecraft fully equipped at the planet. Solar power is feasible on Juno spacecraft because of the improved solar-cell performance and energy efficient instruments present on it and with 28 percent conversion rate turning sunlight into power it can make energy with limited amount of sunlight.
Juno is about half a billion miles from the Sun, putting a new level with the use of solar power for deep space exploration. Before this, no solar powered craft has even made it this far and clearing the asteroid belts. All the spacecraft were using nuclear power sources for performing their job and completely.
Next year the spacecraft will be orbiting the Jovian world 33 times, floating within the 5,000 kilometers above the planet’s cloud tops every 14 days. As stated by the mission control of Juno, the Sun is helping them learn more about the origin of Jupiter and disclosing the secrets that the planet holds regarding the early history of the solar system.
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