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How NASA fixed a camera 370 million miles away [1]

['Gail Sherman']

Date: 2025-08-04

When a camera on a spacecraft 370 million miles away malfunctions, NASA can't just send a technician to repair it, so they have to get creative. They recently revealed the details of a repair of the Juno orbiter.

NASA's Juno spacecraft has been orbiting Jupiter and sending back incredible images since 2016. Juno even sent back sounds from Ganymede, one of Jupiter's dozens of moons. Its mission has continued long past the two years that were originally planned, in part because of repairs they were able to make from Earth.

Jupiter has the strongest radiation fields of any planet in the solar system, and although the craft's sensitive electronics are protected in a titanium vault, the camera is not. After completing its primary mission of 34 orbits, Juno continued to send information back to Earth, but images began to show radiation damage.

The team identified a damaged voltage regulator as the culprit and decided to try a process called annealing. The process, which is normally used to make glass or metal easier to work with, involves heating and then slowly cooling. JunoCam imaging engineer Jacob Schaffner explained, "We commanded JunoCam's one heater to raise the camera's temperature to 77 degrees Fahrenheit — much warmer than typical for JunoCam — and waited with bated breath to see the results."

Although Juno started sending back undamaged images after a couple of orbits, the image noise returned. Annealing was attempted again, this time raising the temperature as high as possible. Within a week of the process, Juno was once again sending back perfect images. Juno recently completed its 74th orbit of Jupiter, and some image noise has started to return. NASA has not indicated whether annealing would be attempted a third time.

Previously:

• NASA's Juno is about to reach Jupiter after a 5-year journey. I visited JPL before the big show.

• Juno probe sends first Jupiter pic back to Earth

• Astonishing close-up image of Jupiter taken by Juno last month

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[1] Url: https://boingboing.net/2025/08/04/how-nasa-fixed-a-camera-370-million-miles-away.html

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