NASA’s Juno spacecraft, launched in 2011 to study Jupiter’s origin and evolution, recently faced a major challenge when its color camera, JunoCam, began to suffer damage from intense radiation fields. The mission team had to find a remote solution before losing their chance to capture high-quality images of the Jovian moon Io.
The fix was surprisingly simple: heating the instrument before slowly cooling it down. This process, called annealing, involves heating a material to reduce its defects before gradually lowering its temperature. Although the team wasn’t sure if this method would work, they decided to try it as a last resort.
After several attempts, the annealing process finally paid off, and JunoCam was able to capture clear images of Io’s north polar region, including previously undocumented volcanoes. However, the image corruption returned during its 74th orbit, highlighting the ongoing challenges of dealing with radiation damage in space.
Despite this setback, the successful repair has provided valuable lessons for scientists about spacecraft radiation tolerance. The mission team believes that these insights will be applicable to both defense and commercial satellites as well as other NASA missions. As Scott Bolton, Juno’s principal investigator, stated, “Juno is teaching us how to create and maintain spacecraft tolerant to radiation.”
Source: https://gizmodo.com/the-hail-mary-that-saved-nasas-juno-camera-from-jupiters-radiation-hell-2000632318