From Europe to Jupiter via Kourou

“Trois, deux, un – et decollage!” That is how the final three seconds can be counted down within the management centre in Kourou, French Guiana, this April earlier than one of many final Ariane 5 launch automobiles lifts off from Europe’s Spaceport. The goal of the European House Company’s (ESA) largest planetary mission so far is Jupiter and its giant icy moons Ganymede, Callisto and Europa. The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) will research them up shut from 2031 onwards.

Beneath their icy crust, the moons might doubtless harbour oceans during which life might probably exist. The Institute of Planetary Analysis on the German Aerospace Middle performed a significant function within the building of two of the ten scientific devices. The German House Company at DLR manages the German ESA contributions to JUICE on behalf of the German authorities and can present roughly 100 million euros of funding throughout seven of the spacecraft’s devices over the lifetime of the mission.

By air to South America

JUICE should first be transported from Europe to South America. At current, the spacecraft, which has not but been fuelled and weighs roughly 2400 kilograms empty, is positioned on the industrial prime contractor, Airbus Defence and House, in Toulouse, southern France. There it was introduced to the media on 20 January 2023 earlier than being packed for transport to Kourou on an Antonov cargo plane.

The transport throughout the Atlantic will happen in early February. In Kourou, the spacecraft will then be positioned on the Ariane 5 ECA launcher and encased in a protecting fairing. When fuelled, the JUICE spacecraft will weigh 6.1 tonnes. The launch window for the eight-year journey to Jupiter opens in April.

JUICE is the primary L-class mission in ESA’s Cosmic Imaginative and prescient programme, the place the L stands for Giant. The intention of this programme is to enhance our understanding of the Photo voltaic System, together with how the planets fashioned and below what circumstances life can develop – Earth being our solely present instance. JUICE is a big undertaking with its in depth scientific payload. Its goal is Jupiter, the biggest planet within the Photo voltaic System.

It’s 5 instances as far-off from the Solar as Earth, has a diameter of 140,000 kilometres – ten instances as giant and 318 instances as huge as our residence planet – and is orbited by a complete of 79 moons. Of those, the 4 largest – Ganymede, Callisto, Io and Europa – are of huge scientific curiosity. They’re known as the Galilean moons after their discoverer, Galileo Galilei (1564-1641).

Three ice worlds and a volcanic hellscape

Io, the innermost of the 4, is so violently deformed by the planet’s tidal forces that magma is completely fashioned within the rock mantle at temperatures of properly over 1000 levels Celsius. This molten rock is transported to the floor by huge volcanoes. Sulphur-yellow Io is probably the most volcanically energetic physique within the Photo voltaic System.

From the innermost outwards, the three satellites Europa, Ganymede and Callisto comply with. Ganymede, with a diameter of 5262 kilometres, is the biggest moon within the Photo voltaic System; Europa and Io, with diameters of lower than 4000 kilometres, are about as giant as Earth’s Moon; Callisto, with a diameter of 4821 kilometres, is the third largest moon in our planetary system.

It takes Europa twice so long as Io to orbit Jupiter; Ganymede 4 instances as lengthy. Which means these three moons repeatedly line up like a string of pearls. This creates resonance results that, by means of interactions with the highly effective gravitation and tidal forces emanating from Jupiter, generate warmth within the inside of Europa and Ganymede.

This causes sufficient warmth to be current below their ice crusts, that are as chilly as minus 160 levels Celsius, which prevents water from freezing even at a distance of over 700 million kilometres from the Solar. This sustains deep layers of water, known as subsurface oceans.

Oceans (and life?) below kilometre-thick ice crusts

Within the case of Europa, it could possibly be that the ocean below the ice crust, which is only some kilometres thick, is greater than 100 kilometres deep. This could imply that there’s extra water below the moon’s floor than in all of the oceans on Earth mixed. There may be an ocean beneath the floor of Callisto; as with Ganymede, magnetic area measurements have offered clear indications right here. Each Ganymede and Callisto might have a number of layers of water, however positioned at higher depths.

Water is a fundamental prerequisite for the emergence and improvement of life as we all know it. It’s due to this fact conceivable that, hidden from the view of observations constituted of area, life has developed within the subsurface oceans of Jupiter’s icy moons. JUICE won’t be able to find out this, however it will likely be capable of characterise the icy moons in additional element than NASA’s Voyager (flyby 1979) and Galileo (orbiter, 1995-2003) missions, in addition to affirm the presence of the oceans, how deep they’re, how a lot water they include and which mineral substances could possibly be dissolved within the water.

The JANUS digital camera maps Ganymede and Europa

One of many JUICE devices that can be used to reply these and different questions is the JANUS digital camera system. The primary process of JANUS is to photographically file and map Ganymede and Europa Additionally it is supposed to file and interpret the seen results of tidal forces on the surfaces, that are answerable for the subcrustal oceans. This contains tectonic phenomena corresponding to fissures and ridges or spectral modifications attributable to the presence of various minerals produced because of cryovolcanism.

For this function, the digital camera system has 13 spectral channels within the seen mild and close to infrared spectral ranges along with a excessive spatial decision. Io, and most of the smaller moons, may also be noticed from a distance. JANUS was developed in Italy, Germany, Spain and the UK, and elements of the {hardware} had been constructed on the DLR Institute of Planetary Analysis.

Monitoring the oceans with lasers

The Ganymede Laser Altimeter (GALA) will measure the tidal deformation of Ganymede’s ice crust to supply proof for the existence of the worldwide inside ocean. As well as, a number of million time-of-flight measurements can be used to provide a complete map of the moon’s regional and native topography, which can be assembled into a worldwide elevation mannequin of Ganymede.

This can enable us to know the processes that formed the distinctive floor of this icy moon. The tidal deformation of the satellite tv for pc’s form may also be decided utilizing measurements taken at totally different instances throughout Ganymede’s seven-day orbit round Jupiter. From the power of the deformation on the totally different orbital factors, the existence of the internal ocean will be confirmed, and the mechanical properties of the overlying ice layer decided.

The altimeter may also be used to accumulate measurements of Europa and Callisto. Whereas researchers hope to seek out proof of water just under Europa’s floor, within the case of Callisto it’s prone to be present in deeper layers. GALA was developed below DLR’s supervision, in collaboration with industrial accomplice HENSOLDT Optronics GmbH (Oberkochen) and analysis establishments from Germany, Japan, Switzerland and Spain. It is going to be the primary time that such an instrument has been used within the outer Photo voltaic System.

Climate forecast for Jupiter and its moons

One other instrument from Germany on board JUICE is the Sub-millimetre Wave Instrument (SWI), which is the first accountability of the Max Planck Institute for Photo voltaic System Analysis in Gottingen. It is going to be used to look at the center atmospheric layers of the fuel big Jupiter in addition to the extraordinarily skinny atmospheres – or extra accurately, ‘exospheres’ – and surfaces of the Galilean moons. The main target can be on figuring out the thermal construction, dynamics and composition of the assorted layers of Jupiter’s ambiance and the way they work together, in addition to Jupiter’s inside construction.

ESA mission with sturdy German participation

JUICE is the biggest and most complete ESA mission to discover a planetary system throughout the Photo voltaic System. NASA and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Company (JAXA) have additionally contributed to the mission. ESA supplies funding for the satellite tv for pc platform, the Ariane 5 ECA launcher and the operation of the spacecraft. The funding for the scientific payloads for JUICE is basically offered by nationwide area companies and the collaborating institutes.

Along with the JANUS, SWI and GALA devices, the German House Company at DLR is funding additional German scientific contributions from the nationwide area programme to the Particle Atmosphere Package deal (PEP) particle spectrometer, the Jupiter Magnetometer (J-MAG), the Radar for Icy Moons Exploration (RIME) radar instrument and the 3GM instrument for radio sounding of Jupiter’s ambiance.

JUICE will attain Jupiter in July 2031 and full a complete of 35 flybys of the moons by November 2035. In September 2034, the spacecraft can be steered into an elliptical, later round, orbit round Ganymede. JUICE would be the first mission to orbit the moon of one other planet. By the point the mission ends in September 2035, JUICE could have orbited Ganymede roughly 1250 instances.

Ought to gasoline nonetheless be obtainable, additional orbits will happen at an altitude of simply 200 kilometres, enabling measurements of a top quality that may set the usual for many years to come back. On the finish of the mission, the spacecraft can be intentionally steered to crash into the floor of Ganymede and be fully destroyed within the collision with the rock-hard ice. Because the suspected ocean inside Ganymede is estimated to be 100 kilometres deep and night time temperatures beneath minus 160 levels Celsius, there isn’t a hazard of contamination of Ganymede’s ocean by terrestrial microbes that may have travelled alongside on JUICE as ‘stowaways’.

Associated Hyperlinks

Institute of Planetary Research
JUICE at ESA

The million outer planets of a star called Sol

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 workforce led by Southwest Analysis Institute used Juno knowledge to look at the electron and ion particles and magnetic fields because the magnetic area traces 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 area,” mentioned Juno Principal Investiga … read more