The Airbus-built JUICE (JUpiter ICy moons Explorer mission) spacecraft will shortly depart Toulouse, France, for Kourou, French Guiana, for lift-off on an Ariane 5 in April 2023. Cargo is predicted in early February.
The spacecraft has been at Airbus in Toulouse since August 2021 for closing meeting and take a look at. This included integration of the ultimate instrument items and the biggest photo voltaic arrays ever to fly on a planetary exploration mission, wanted to energy the mission at 740 million kilometres from the Solar.
“With JUICE’s departure for the launch website quick approaching, we glance again at its lengthy Earthly journey via numerous Airbus websites in Europe in the direction of closing integration and involving near 500 Airbus staff who ready the spacecraft for its eight-year cruise,” mentioned Cyril Cavel, JUICE Venture Supervisor at Airbus Defence and Area.
“It has been an unimaginable journey, together with greater than 80 firms throughout Europe, to deliver ESA’s imaginative and prescient to life and finally research Jupiter and its icy moons in tremendous element.”
In the present day a commemorative plaque was unveiled throughout a press occasion in Toulouse as a tribute to Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei. The plaque has been mounted on the spacecraft to honour Galileo who was the primary to view Jupiter and its largest moons via a telescope in 1610.
On its greater than 2 billion-kilometre lengthy journey, the 6.2 ton JUICE spacecraft will acquire information on the icy moons to attempt to perceive whether or not there’s any risk that these moons may host microbial life. Carrying 10 state-of-the-art scientific devices, together with cameras, spectrometers, an ice-penetrating radar, an altimeter, a radio-science experiment, and sensors, the JUICE spacecraft will full a novel tour of the Jupiter system that can embrace in-depth research of three probably ocean-bearing moons: Ganymede, Europa and Callisto.
Throughout its 4 year-long mission, JUICE will spend 9 months orbiting the icy moon Ganymede analysing its nature and evolution, characterising its subsurface ocean, and investigating its potential habitability.
After being chosen by ESA as prime contractor in 2015 Airbus has led a pan European industrial consortium to design and construct this distinctive spacecraft.
Associated Hyperlinks
JUICE at Airbus
The million outer planets of a star called Sol
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SwRI scientists find evidence for magnetic reconnection between Ganymede and Jupiter
San Antonio TX (SPX) Jan 11, 2023
In June 2021, NASA’s Juno spacecraft flew near Ganymede, Jupiter’s largest moon, observing proof of magnetic reconnection. A crew led by Southwest Analysis Institute used Juno information to look at the electron and ion particles and magnetic fields because the magnetic discipline strains of Jupiter and Ganymede merged, snapped and reoriented, heating and accelerating the charged particles within the area.
“Ganymede is the one moon in our photo voltaic system with its personal magnetic discipline,” mentioned Juno Principal Investiga … read more
