Sat, Jun 04, 2005
Lockheed Martin To Build Spacecraft
NASA has announced the second
mission in its New Frontiers Program: a mission - called Juno to
fly to Jupiter - that now will proceed to a preliminary design
phase. At the end of the preliminary design study, the mission must
pass a confirmation review that will address schedule, technical
and cost risks before being confirmed for the development
phase.
Dr. Scott Bolton of Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio,
Tx, is the Principal Investigator. NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, will provide mission project management.
Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver will build the
spacecraft.
"We're enormously pleased to be working with the Southwest
Research Institute and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to move this
mission forward from the drawing board to the outer solar system,"
said Jim Crocker, vice president of Civil Space at Lockheed Martin
Space Systems Company.
Juno will be the first solar-powered mission to Jupiter. Its
seven science instruments are designed to unlock secrets of solar
system formation.
A nominal mission will place the Juno spacecraft in a polar
orbit around the giant planet for one year. As it orbits from pole
to pole on a unique path designed to avoid most of Jupiter's harsh
radiation, Jupiter will rotate beneath, allowing the science
instruments to produce full-planet maps of gravity, magnetic fields
and atmospheric water content as well as studying Jupiter's auroral
particles and fields.
The selected New Frontiers science mission must be ready for
launch no later than June 30, 2010, within a mission cost cap of
$700 million.
The New Frontiers Program is designed to provide opportunities to
conduct several of the medium-class mission investigations
identified as top priority objectives in the Decadal Solar System
Exploration Survey, conducted by the Space Studies Board of the
National Research Council.
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