A mission NASA might kill is still returning fascinating science from Jupiter - Ars Technica

Jupiter’s colossal storms generate lightning flashes at least 100 times more powerful than those on Earth, according to scientists analyzing data from NASA’s Juno spacecraft.

The findings were published March 20 in the journal AGU Advances and were based on data recorded by Juno in 2021 and 2022, after NASA granted an extension to the spacecraft’s operations upon completing a five-year science campaign at Jupiter. Juno remains in good health, but NASA officials have not said if they will approve another extension for the mission. The issue is money.

Questions about the future of Juno and more than a dozen other robotic science missions began swirling nearly a year ago, when the Trump administration asked mission leaders to submit “closeout” plans for how to turn off their spacecraft. Ars first reported the news soon after the White House released a budget request that called for slashing NASA’s science budget by nearly half.

Some of NASA’s Solar System exploration missions on the list have received NASA approval to continue operations. These include the OSIRIS-APEX mission, which brought asteroid samples back to Earth in 2023 and is now using leftover fuel to chase down another asteroid in 2029; and NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, the agency’s only active spacecraft at the Moon, which will be funded for at least three more years.

Congress rejected most of the Trump administration’s proposed NASA cuts. Lawmakers passed a fiscal-year 2026 budget with $2.54 billion for NASA’s planetary science division, far above the White House’s request, but about $220 million shy of last year’s funding.

NASA can’t afford everything

“We can’t quite afford to support everything that we have done in the past,” Louise Prockter, director of NASA’s planetary science division, said on Monday in a meeting of the National Academies’ Committee on Astrobiology and Planetary Sciences. The budget cut is forcing NASA officials to make “tough decisions,” she said.

One of these decisions is what to do with Juno, humanity’s only spacecraft currently operating between the orbits of Jupiter and Pluto. Its future remains uncertain, along with four missions at Mars. NASA lost contact with one of the Mars probes last year, and its mission is likely over anyway. Another one, Odyssey, is about to run out of fuel. The other two Mars missions up for a decision are the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Curiosity rover, neither of which will be fully replaced any time soon. These two are also the most expensive to operate.

Prockter said Monday the agency will announce its decision on these five missions when it submits its annual “operating plan” to Congress. The document is undergoing review by senior agency leadership and White House budget officials.

It is unusual for NASA to turn off a still-functioning planetary science probe as long as it has fuel, remains healthy, and still makes useful scientific observations. All of the missions still awaiting a decision from NASA were “ranked highly for science” by independent reviewers, Prockter said. But they come at a cost.

“There’s no doubt we’re still getting really great science from these missions,” Prockter said. “We’re spending about 10 percent [of NASA’s planetary science budget] on them. That doesn’t sound like a lot. It sounds like maybe it’s a reasonable amount. It was about $260 million… in ’25.”

Prockter is herself a planetary scientist. She is not a political appointee. Part of her job is finding the right balance between NASA’s multibillion-dollar flagship science missions, like Europa Clipper, and more focused, less expensive projects, such as the Psyche probe on the way to explore a metal asteroid. Even the cheaper missions in NASA’s planetary science portfolio usually cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

NASA must also balance its budget between building new missions, which infuse emerging technologies and seek to answer big science questions, and keeping alive successful spacecraft that taxpayers have already paid for. Questions about the future of NASA’s aging research satellites are not limited to planetary science. Budget limitations nearly caused NASA to shut down the Chandra X-ray Observatory, but Congress specifically directed NASA to continue operating Chandra.

Prockter said NASA wants to “start a conversation” within the space science community about the agency’s priorities, particularly with regard to extended missions. “When we say yes to something, we say no to something else.”