Rexroth Hydraulic Technology for the Jupiter Mission

The time has come: Juno, NASA’s most ambitious mission to Jupiter, entered orbit on July 4, 2016, after a five-year journey that included an accelerating swing past Jupiter in which it became the fastest human-made object ever (165,000 mph).

Juno passed just 2800 miles above Jupiter's cloud tops to begin the first of 37 orbits it will make over the next 20 months while it explores some of Jupiter’s most lingering secrets, including what is at Jupiter’s core, what drives its extreme magnetic fields, and how did this gas-giant world evolve at the creation of our solar system.

Uninterrupted communications with the spacecraft will be assured by the ground stations of NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN). The three 70-meter parabolic antennas are strategically located around Earth to receive data and images, and send control commands to Juno. The fine positioning of these antennas, made possible by Bosch Rexroth’s high-performance hydraulic motors, enables the high data transmission rates required to support Juno as it orbits Jupiter more than 1 billion kilometers (~1 light-hour) away.

Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech