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MPPT aka Maximum Power Point Tracking is an active mechanism to collect maximum power a PV cell may deliver. This is typically achieved by varying the resistive load connected to a cell.

Juno will perhaps be the most distant robot in interplanetary yet to rely upon Sol for it's power. Appropinquity to, nay, immersion in Jupiter's magnetosphere, and remoteness from Sol - are two factors (there may be others) that could serve to limit her mission due to loss of power. This may partially be mitigated by an on-board MPPT implementation, which brings us to the question.

Does Juno use MPPT?

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    $\begingroup$ appropinquity??? $\endgroup$
    – Rory Alsop ♦
    Commented Sep 24, 2013 at 10:15
  • $\begingroup$ Multimillion-dollar scientific mission with top engineers on every aspect of the craft. Finding a citation would be difficult, but this is almost assured. $\endgroup$
    – user2943160
    Commented Jul 7, 2016 at 4:12

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I don't know the answer to this one for sure. I've searched the entire internet, with little luck.

I can tell you that every satellite system I am aware of uses some form of MPPT type algorithm, in which the power coming from the solar arrays is maximized by modifying the resistance of the cell to maximize output. I'm confident that NASA would use a similar system for JUNO. There no doubt will be some tweaks to how it performs, but I'd be shocked if they don't use a process such as MPPT to maximize the power.

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