Iowa's Connection To Jupiter, NASA's Juno Spacecraft

By Ben Kieffer,

Published January 19, 2021 at 3:36 PM CST

This undated image shows shows an artist's rendering of NASA's Juno spacecraft making a close pass over Jupiter. NASA announced last week that the Juno mission will be extended until September 2025. Several of the instruments on Juno were designed and made at the University of Iowa. — This undated image shows an artist's rendering of NASA's Juno spacecraft making a close pass over Jupiter. NASA announced last week that Juno's mission will be extended until September 2025. Several of the instruments on Juno were designed and made at the University of Iowa.

NASA’s Juno spacecraft was launched back in 2011. On board, an instrument designed and built at the University of Iowa.

The spacecraft arrived at the planet Jupiter in the summer of 2016, and was originally to have completed its mission to our solar system’s largest planet and its moon this coming July. But last week, NASA announced it will extend the Juno mission through September 2025, or until the spacecraft’s end of life. Now, the University of Iowa will have several more years to study Jupiter.

Bill Kurth of the University of Iowa is the lead investigator for the Waves instrument aboard the Juno spacecraft and joins host Ben Kieffer to discuss the mission and its findings thus far.

Before that, Kieffer is joined by IPR's Statehouse reporter Katarina Sostaric for the latest developments at the state legislature, and UNI's Evan Renfro discusses security for the inauguration ceremony in Washington, D.C.

Guests:

Katarina Sostaric, IPR Statehouse reporter
Evan Renfro, professor of political science at the University of Northern Iowa
Bill Kurth, research scientist at the University of Iowa