Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer
Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) is a space probe made by the European Space Agency that will explore Jupiter' s major moons, mostly just Ganymede, Europa, and Callisto. It is powered by solar panels, like NASA' s Juno (spacecraft).
The spacecraft launched on 14 April 2023. It will reach Jupiter in July 2031 after four gravity assists and eight years of travel.
It will fly near the moons before going into orbit around Ganymede.
Instruments onboard JUICE
JANUS- An optical camera system
MAJIS- Moon and Jupiter imaging Spectrometer
GALA- Ganymede laser Altimeter
J-Mag- A magnetometer for JUICE
RPWI- Radio & Plasma Wave Investigation
UVS- UV imaging Spectrograph
SWI- Sub-millimeter Wave Instrument
RIME- Radar for Icy Moons Exploration
PEP- Particle Environment Package
3GM- Gravity & Geophysics of Jupiter and Galilean Moons
History
Juice builds on the previously proposed Europa Jupiter System Mission (EJSM-Laplace), a planned collaborative mission between ESA and NASA that would have carried out an in-depth study of the Jovian system and its icy moons. It is now foreseen that the Juice and NASA Europa Clipper spacecraft will be exploring the Jovian system simultaneously.
Milestones JUICE will Achieve
It will be the first spacecraft to orbit a moon in the outer solar system (Ganymede) Juice's flyby of the Earth-Moon system, known as a Lunar-Earth gravity assist (LEGA), is a world first: by performing this maneuver -- a gravity assist flyby of the Moon followed just 1. 5 days later by one of Earth -- Juice will be able to save a significant amount of propellant.
Space-craft Structure
Three-axis stabilized with 10 solar panels and a 2. 5-metre-long High Gain Antenna, with a dry mass of approximately 2400 kg and a wet mass (including fuel) of approximately 6000 kg. Each solar panel measures about 2. 5 m x 3. 5 m; with five on each side of the spacecraft deployed as two distinctive cross-shaped arrays, these total an area of about 85 square meters.
Journey
Juice will spend approximately eight years cruising to Jupiter, during which it will complete fly-bys of Venus, Earth and the Earth-Moon system. It will reach Jupiter in July 2031; six months before entering orbit around Jupiter, Juice will begin its nominal science phase. The spacecraft will go on to spend many months orbiting Jupiter, completing fly-bys of Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, and finally conducting an orbital tour of Ganymede.
Details
References
2020s in spaceflight
European Space Agency spacecraft
April 2023 events