This unusual patient was an early version of the star tracker aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft. “We’re an armored tank.”The rewards of such a perilous mission are clear: to probe Jupiter’s deeply held secrets and solve major mysteries about the origins of our solar system, of Earth and, by extension, of life itself. The end may be a tad bittersweet for such a groundbreaking mission, said Rick Nybakken, Juno’s project manager at JPL. “We don’t know how Jupiter got enriched, but we know it’s very important,” Bolton said. Juno is a giant spinning three-armed pinwheel whose 30-foot-long solar panels make it about the size of a basketball court.

Source: Los Angeles Times July 01, 2016 10:00 UTC