The beloved JunoCam science instrument has recently developed some problems, causing the loss of images collected during a recent flyby of Jupiter.
If you’ve enjoyed looking at beautiful images of Jupiter in recent years, then the odds are good that you’ve seen images taken by the JunoCam instrument on board the Juno spacecraft, currently in orbit around Jupiter. Unfortunately, this beloved science instrument has recently developed some problems, causing the loss of images collected during a recent flyby of the planet.
The problems began last year when the spacecraft made its 47th flyby of Jupiter on December 14. Having completed the flyby, the spacecraft’s onboard computer went to send the data it had collected back to Earth, but the downlink was interrupted. There was a problem with the spacecraft accessing the data it had just collected, probably caused by the strong radiation it experienced due to Jupiter’s magnetosphere.
