Juno, NASA's Jupiter probe lost connection with the main computer connections on earth. The closing off communication on the said probe was reported to have taken place on Wednesday.
Juno was on its way to make an orbital pass near Jupiter when it suddenly lost connection from the main computer and science instruments. It was due to make way for its close-up observations on Jupiter and was only 13 hours away from the stage which was highly anticipated by NASA.
On Tuesday, Juno entered safe mode and from then on no more additional data gathered were reported to be sent back to the European Space Agency. Entering a safe mode means that the spacecraft is detecting some problems or it perceives conditions that are not expected, as per The CBS News.
Scott Bolton, the principal investigator stated that Juno is like a smart robot detecting an unexpected condition. It turned off the subsystem and pointed itself at the sun to go power positive. It then linked up the communications to earth waiting for the human controllers to evaluate the problem.
This is currently the second setback from Juno in one week. Engineers are currently investigating about spacecraft's main engine pressurization system's slow moving valves. The said issue that made the managers come up with a decision of postponing Juno's planned engine firing.
Jan Woerner, head of the European Space Agency believes that the project can still be considered a success for Juno has sent large amounts of necessary data before it entered safe mode. Rick Nybakken, project manager for Juno from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena's still strongly believe in the capabilities of the spacecraft. He said that NASA is working out its standard recovery procedure and that Juno remains healthy as of the moment, The Daily Mail reported.
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