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Thursday, October 4, 2012

Nasa sends Jupiter special probe powered by solar energy

The next NASA mission to Jupiter could not be more environmentally friendly : use a spacecraft powered by solar energy and is shaped like a windmill.

The robotic explorer Juno spacecraft will be the most distant solar-powered ever send.

Juno is equipped with three solar panels of the size of a tractor trailers for the journey of 3,200 million kilometers (2,000 million miles) outside the solar system.

Take off on Friday morning aboard an Atlas V rocket unmanned, just two weeks after the last flight of Nasa's space shuttle.

The end of the shuttle has to travel more encouragement than 1,100 million dollars to the biggest and probably oldest planet in the solar system.

It is the first of three major astronomy missions NASA has planned for the next four months.

Jupiter a planet that NASA spacecraft have studied in the past is so vast that it would contain everything else in the solar system except the sun.

Scientists hope to learn more about the origin of the planets exploration that makes Juno the gaseous planet, a very different entity from the rocky earth and Mars.

"Look at it this way: a new era," said Jim Green, director of NASA's planetary science.

"Humans are planning to go beyond Earth's orbit.

When we do that will not be like 'Star Trek'.

It's not 'go where no man has gone'''.

Venturing deeper into space will require first robotic explorers, he said.

Scott Bolton, an astrophysicist at the Southwest Research Institute and principal investigator for Juno, said it is important that people know that "NASA is not going out of business."

"If we discover who we are and where we came from and how the Earth works, we need to continue these missions, not only Juno," he said.

The long term plan is the Nasa astronauts to an asteroid in 2.025 and Mars, planet Earth's neighborg, a decade later, although there is still uncertainty about how many rockets are needed for the project.

The success of Juno would be a good sign for future solar-powered missions.

Juno will take five years to reach its destination, which is five times farther from the sun than Earth.

Each of the three panels measures 8.8 meters Juno (29 feet) long by 2.7 meters (9 feet) wide, as a necessary dimension Jupiter receives 25 times less light than the Earth.

On Jupiter, 800 million kilometers (500 million miles) from the sun, the panels will provide 400 watts of Juno electricity.

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