Juno to Perform Final Flyby of Io, Heading into Perijove 58 and Reducing Orbital Period
On February 3, Jupiter explorer Juno is planning its 58th flyby of the great gas giant in its extended mission phase. Before the Jupiter flyby, Juno will come within 1,500 km of moon Io—the 4th largest moon and most geologically-active object in the Solar System with 400+ volcanoes. This is the last planned flyby of any one of Jupiter’s 95 moons that are officially recognized by the International Astronomical Union. Since its orbital insertion around the Jovian world on 4 July 2016, Juno has previously flown by Europa once, Ganymede twice, and Io thrice. Some of the data collected from Io observations may help reveal how its volcanic eruptions interact with Jupiter and aurorae, as well as map lava flows and investigate Io gravity field / internal structure. Perijove 58 will also reduce Juno’s orbital period around Jupiter from about 38 days to 33 days. Juno’s extended mission allows the spacecraft to continue operations into September 2025 with perijove 76 which will plunge the orbiter into the cloud tops. ESA Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) mission, launched April 2023, is planned to reach orbital insertion at Jupiter in July 2031, before moving to Ganymede insertion in 2034. NASA Europa Clipper mission is slated to launch this October and arrive, before JUICE, to Jupiter orbit in April 2030. (Image Credits: NASA, JPL-Caltech, SwRI)
MONDAY
☆ Jan 29 — International Space Station,~415-km LEO: Expedition 70 seven-member crew expecting arrival of Cygnus NG-20 and <3,750 kg of cargo; Axiom 3 four-member crew may return to Earth this week after 14-day mission.
☆ Jan 29 — Tiangong Space Station, ~390-km LEO: Shenzhou-17 three-member crew share video of some of the 5,600 kg of cargo from Tianzhou 7 freighter, including Lunar New Year gifts (Year of the Dragon).
Highlights…
o NewSpace: Reusable Zhuque-3 rocket built by Landspace of China on track for NET 2025 inaugural launch following successful 60-sec, 350-m hop test; Sierra Space, working towards NET 2026 launch of LIFE inflatable habitat, demonstrates pressure tolerance up to 531 kPa.
☆ SolarSystem: Researchers at Texas A&M and Brown universities show promising results growing chickpeas in lunar stimulant; NASA working to analyze data from the 72 flights of Ingenuity Mars Helicopter; LRO LOLA instrument to be used to pinpoint location of JAXA SLIM and Intuitive Machines Nova-C following successful ping of ISRO Chandrayaan-3.
☆ Galaxy: Hubble and VLT being used to characterize uncommonly energetic FRB tracked to 7-dwarf-galaxy cluster 9,000,000,000 ly distant from Earth; Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) set to become first space-based gravitational wave detector NET 2025 following ESA mission approval.
o Global: ISRO and NSIL of India in discussions to outsource production of Launch Vehicle Mark 3 to commercial sector; CNSA Chang’E-7 mission from China to be equipped with 5 Orbiter, 4 lander, 5 rover and 1 hopper science payloads; Belgium now 34th Artemis Accords signatory.
●USA: Carina Nebula ‘Cosmic Cliffs’ 7,600 ly distant imaged by JWST now featured on USPS stamps; Threshold for classification of space programs to be reduced as international space defense coordination expanding to include Italy, Japan, Norway.
● Hawai’i: State Senator Glenn Wakai (D) introduces bill to establish Aerospace and Aeronautics Development Program; Representative Kanani Souza (R) working to reopen Ellison Onizuka Space Center.
● = Terrestrial and… o = International terrestrial events
☾ = Moon activity
★ = Space and… ☆ = International space / astro events in Hawaii Standard Time unless noted. Add 10 hours to obtain UT (‘Universal Time’).
4000+ participants representing 200+ space companies from all 50 states and 80+ nations are to descend upon Orlando FL for Commercial Space Week, anchored by SpaceCom and the 50th Space Congress January 30 – February 1 at the Orange County Convention Center. The Global Spaceport Alliance will kick things off with their annual GSA Spaceport Summit under theme Building the Spaceport Ecosystem and featuring keynote speaker Jim Bridenstine, the 13th administrator of NASA, on Jan 29. Space Mobility Conference, sponsored by United States Space Force and Space Systems Command, will follow Jan 30-31. DoD contractors participating include Astroscale, Axiom, Blue Origin, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Sierra, Redwire and Voyager. Recommended dress code for this event is Operational Camouflage Patterns (OCP). Meanwhile, Space Congress organized by Canaveral Council of Technical Societies (CCTS) will commence on Jan 30, as will the SpaceCom Expo. 127 companies and organizations will show off their latest technologies and operational capabilities including Astrobotic, NASA, Orbit Fab and Paragon Space Development in the exhibit hall. Notable conference speakers include ULA CEO Tory Bruno, NASA KSC Strategy & Partnerships Manager Suzy Cunningham, SpaceCom Executive Director Ryan Brown and NASA Deputy Associate Administrator Casey Swails. Artemis 1 Lessons Learned, Commercial Launch Weather Solutions, Propulsion Enabling On-Orbit Servicing, Cutting Edge Technologies and Orbital Transfer Vehicles are among planned topics of moderated panel discussions. (Image Credits: GSA, NASA, USSF, SpaceCom, et al)
● Jan 29 — Global Spaceport Alliance, Orlando FL: GSA Spaceport Summit; a Commercial Space Week co-located event.
o Jan 29-30 — Ilan Ramon International Space Conference Committee, Israel Space Agency, Tel Aviv, Israel: 19th Ilan Ramon International Space Conference; as part of Israel annual Space Week.
☆ Sep 6, 2023 – NET Mar — X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM), ~550-km LEO: XRISM undergoing 6 month check out testing phase before start of science operations to study galactic plasma.
●Sep – Feb 15 — Institute for Scientist & Engineer Educators at University of California Observatories, University of Hawaiʻi,Online:Akamai Internship Program; accepting applications from STEM undergrads for 2024 session.
● Jan 28 – Feb 1 —American Meteorological Society, Baltimore MD and Online: AMS 104th Annual Meeting.
TUESDAY
● Jan 30 — U.S. Space Force, Space Systems Command, Orlando FL: Space Mobility Conference; a Commercial Space Week co-located event.
☆ Jan 30 — Aten Asteroid 2007 EG: Near-Earth Flyby (0.040 AU)
WEDNESDAY
● Jan 31 — Explorer 1 66th Observation, Nationwide USA: American Artemis Return to the Moon For Good is underway, Mars attention and planning advancing, Outer Solar System search for life ongoing, and Interstellar craft on outgoing trajectories while first USA satellite launch on this day in 1958 ‘Explorer 1’ is celebrated and remembered.
☆ NET Feb — ISRO, Launch LVM-3 (Launch Vehicle Mark-3) / Gaganyaan,Satish Dhawan Space Center, Sriharikota, India: India planning for 1st orbital test flight of Gaganyaan uncrewed capsule this month.
☾ Feb 1 — Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM), Shioli Crater, Lunar Surface: Lunar sunset to fall on SLIM Moon craft; having landed upside down and not developed for lunar night survival, SLIM awakening for next lunar day may not be possible.
● Feb 1 — Columbia STS-107 21st Observation, Nationwide USA: Annual international conferences and events take place to further space exploration efforts in remembrance of Columbia 7 loss: Commander Richard D. Husband, Mission Specialist Laurel Clark, Payload Specialist Ilan Ramon (the ‘1st Israeli astronaut’) and Astronauts: William C. McCool, Michael P. Anderson, David M. Brown and Kalpana Chawla (the ‘1st Indian American astronaut’ and ‘1st Indian woman in space’).
☾ Feb 1 — Moon: 1.53° NE of Spica, 00:00.
☆ Feb 1 — Apollo Asteroid 2024 BY: Near-Earth Flyby (0.016 AU)
FRIDAY
☆ Feb 2 —China Rocket, China Aerospace Science and Technology, Launch Jielong-3 / Xingshidai 18-20, Bo Run Jiu Zhou Barge in Yellow Sea: Third flight of solid-fuel sea launch rocket, carrying high-resolution remote sensing satellites.
☆ Feb 2 — Mercury: At aphelion; 0.4667 AU from the Sun, 07:00.
☆ Feb 2 — Apollo Asteroid 2008 OS7: Near-Earth Flyby (0.019 AU)
SATURDAY
★ Feb 3 — Juno, Perijove 58 / 57th Science Flyby,Jupiter Orbit: NASA craft to perform Jupiter flyby during Perijove 58, its 58th close flyby of Jupiter and 57th science flyby with instruments turned on; will also perform 1,500-km flyby of Io, reducing orbital period from about 38 days to 33 days.
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