Can Astronauts Visit Jupiter? Challenges and Dangers of Exploring the Gas Giant Planet

KOMPAS.com – The planet Jupiter is the fifth planet from the sun, and is the largest planet in the solar system.

Ribbons of clouds ripple around Jupiter’s thick atmosphere, shaping the planet into a planet so large that more than 1,300 Earths could fit inside.

Even though this outer planet is hundreds of millions of kilometers from Earth at its closest distance, Jupiter can still be seen as a bright colored dot in the night sky

Is it possible for astronauts to visit Jupiter?

Jupiter, like other gas giant planets, doesn’t have a rocky surface, but that doesn’t mean it’s just a massive cloud floating in the vacuum of space.

Jupiter’s gas consists mostly of helium and hydrogen, and at deeper depths, the gas becomes denser with more extreme pressure.

Also read: What is the Great Red Spot on the Planet Jupiter?

In 1995, NASA’s Galileo mission visited Jupiter’s atmosphere. At a depth of about 120.7 km, the pressure is 100 times stronger than anything on Earth.

In Jupiter’s deepest layers, which are almost 21,000 km deep, the pressure is 2 million times stronger than the pressure at sea level on Earth, and the temperature is hotter than the surface of the Sun.

Thus, obviously, no human can venture too far into the depths of Jupiter.

But is it safe to just orbit the planet? Unfortunately, there is another big problem related to the exploration of Jupiter, namely radiation.

The largest planet in the solar system also has the strongest magnetosphere. This magnetic field charges surrounding particles, accelerating them to extreme speeds that can damage a spacecraft’s electronics in an instant.

Also read: How Long is a Day on Jupiter?

Anticipating this, NASA had a spacecraft, Juno, that had a triple array and continuously rotated, but this did not appear to be a feasible design for a human-inhabited spacecraft.

In contrast, for a manned spacecraft to orbit or fly past Jupiter safely, it must maintain a considerable distance from the planet.

Although not all gas giant planets in the solar system are like this, they all also have various problems that make it difficult for astronauts to see them up close.

Neptune, for example, has the strongest winds in the solar system, reaching speeds of up to 1,770 km per hour.

Neptune and Uranus also have elements and compounds heavier than helium and hydrogen, such as methane and ammonia. This denser material can make it more difficult for a spacecraft to plunge into the atmosphere because the spacecraft will be damaged more quickly.

Also read: How long does it take to travel from Earth to Jupiter?

Meanwhile, Saturn’s magnetosphere is smaller than Jupiter’s, but still 578 times stronger than Earth’s, so radiation is still a big problem to deal with.

For now, until scientists figure out how to build spacecraft using materials that can protect astronauts from the elements, close-up exploration of the gas giant planet will still have to be done via robotic spacecraft.

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2023-11-17 07:00:00
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