How do you revive an unreliable camera aboard a spacecraft 370 million miles from Earth? Give it the equivalent of a swift whack — or what NASA calls a “thermal kick.”
This remote-controlled procedure was performed on the Juno spacecraft’s JunoCam before it made a critical flyby of Jupiter’s volcanic moon, Io.
Jupiter’s Hellish Radiation Belts
Jupiter is surrounded by one of the most intense radiation belts in the universe. Spacecraft like Juno, which has been orbiting the gas giant since 2016, are constantly bombarded by energetic particles that can fry even the most radiation-hardened electronics.
Fortunately, NASA equipped Juno’s critical systems with a protective titanium radiation vault — save for one key instrument outside this shielding, the JunoCam.
A New Tool in NASA’s Toolbox
The camera was expected to survive eight orbits, but it managed to hold on for over 45 orbits before showing signs of degradation. By orbit 56, its images were corrupted by streaks and noise, courtesy of a radiation-fried voltage regulator.
Due to the probe’s distance from Earth, traditional repair was out of the question. Instead, NASA’s engineers came up with an unconventional solution widely used in metallurgy: annealing. NASA first commanded JunoCam’s heater to raise its temperature to 77°F and then to the max. What followed was a waiting game.
“On-the-Fly” Deep Space Repairs
The gamble eventually paid off, with the JunoCam sending factory-fresh images of Io’s towering sulfur dioxide-coated mountains and active volcanic fields, proving that even delicate, radiation-damaged components can be resurrected through remote-controlled annealing.
As Juno’s principal investigator, Scott Bolton, puts it, thermal annealing has given them a new tool in their toolbox. It could extend the lifespan of billion-dollar interplanetary missions as well as safeguard military and commercial satellites in Earth orbit.
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