Space, ESA’s Juice mission flies to Jupiter, beginning an 8-year journey

It was launched successfully ESA Juice Mission Who will go to explore the giant of the planets Jupiter And her Icy moons Ganymede, Callisto and Europa. Juice was launched from the European spaceport of Kourou, in French Guiana, with Ariane 5 from Arianespace at 14.14 Italian time. On the occasion of the successful launch – and the beginning of the Juice mission and its long journey to Jupiter – the European Space Agency (ESA)hex) awaiting proper deployment of large solar panels. Juice is a mission led by the European Space Agency and – once the solar panels made in Italy are opened – the large satellite will embark on a roughly 8-year journey to cover the 750 million kilometers that separate Earth from Jupiter.

With the Juice mission, scientists hope to gain information about potential life forms given that Jupiter’s moons to be explored have expanses of frozen oceans and water is the main ingredient for life. All three of these moons actually have separate amounts of liquid water below the surface and are ideal candidates for the search for extraterrestrial life. The spacecraft will reach the Jupiter system in 2031 after four times using the gravitational assistance of Earth and Venus. After a series of flights from Europa and Callisto, it will enter orbit around Ganymede in 2034 for another study that will be completed in 2035.

After launch, Juice now embarks on its long journey to Jupiter where it is expected to arrive in July 2031 with the help of momentum and direction gained from four gravity-assisted flybys of the Earth-Moon system, Venus, and twice, Earth. VA 260 flight is the last flight of the Ariane 5 to carry the European Space Agency’s mission into space. The probe has a mass of about 5 tons and uses solar panels to produce energy. Scientific instruments, including radars, magnetometers, spectrometers and cameras, weigh about 100 kilograms.

Juice is the most ambitious science mission of the ESA Cosmic Vision science space program for the decade 2015-2025. The project was proposed under the name Jupiter Ganymede Orbiter (JGO), but was modified and renamed after the abandonment in 2010 of a joint ESA-NASA mission, the Europa Jupiter System mission. Selected by the European Space Agency’s Science Program Committee in May 2012, it is the first exclusively European mission directed to the outer planets of the solar system.

The main science goal of the Juice mission is to determine the extent to which Jupiter’s moons, especially Ganymede, could harbor life. The main scientific goals for Ganymede, and to a lesser extent for Callisto, are instead to characterize ocean layers and uncover potential aquifers; topographical, geological and compositional maps of the surface; study of the physical properties of ice crusts; Characterization of the distribution of internal masses, dynamics and evolution of internal structures; investigate the fragile atmosphere of Ganymede; Study of Ganymede’s intrinsic magnetic field and its interactions with the Jovian magnetosphere.

For Europa, the focus is on the basic chemistry of life, including organic molecules, and understanding the formation of surface features and the composition of materials other than water ice. In addition, Juice will provide the first subsurface survey of the moon, including the first determination of the minimum thickness of the icy crust over active regions.