According to data from the official NASA website, the American space probe Juno, which is in orbit of Jupiter, has begun to prepare for the next approach to the giant planet. “As expected, Juno has come out of sleep mode and is responding to our commands.” noted program manager Rick Nibakken.
The device was in the idle mode since October 18. Confirmation of his exit from this state was received last Tuesday at 20:05 Moscow time. Also, the probe successfully carried out a short-term activation of the engines in order to prepare for the upcoming approach to Jupiter.
The reasons that caused the probe's computer system to spontaneously enter sleep mode have not yet been established. However, experts are actively working to resolve this issue. It is planned to use all of Juno's research instruments designed to study Jupiter during the upcoming rendezvous with him, which is expected on December 11.
One orbit around the gas giant Juno takes 53.4 days. Its first successful rapprochement with Jupiter was recorded on August 27, and the analysis of the data obtained as a result of this rapprochement continues to this day. During the entire second approach to the largest planet in the solar system, the device was in a dormant mode, and therefore no observations were carried out.
The Juno probe has already transmitted the first close-up images to Earth. Nevertheless, NASA experts plan to re-enable the probe's engines in order to put it into a lower orbit. But due to malfunctions of some valves in the traction system of the apparatus, this maneuver has so far been postponed. When this operation succeeds, the probe will fly around Jupiter not in 53.4 days (as at the current moment), but in just a couple of weeks.
Sources: NASA
